NEW YORK - Newsweek magazine issued a correction Monday of a misspelled report that U.S. troops had desecrated the Koran, the Muslim holy book.

The typo led to anti-U.S. riots in Islamic countries and the death of scores of people.
The weekly news magazine had reported in its issue dated May 9 that interrogators in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ‘Flushed a Koran down the toilet’, whereas it should have read, ‘Flushed a Korean down the toilet.’

“Based on what we know now from our proofreaders, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at Guantanamo Bay,” Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker said in a statement, adding, “They weren’t abusing books at all, only people… I don’t think anyone will be unduly upset over a few Koreans.”

The Pentagon called Newsweek irresponsible for its demonstrably bad quality assurance. It has offered to lend idle staff from its crack WMD Intelligence Gathering Unit to shape up Newsweek’s editorial process.