Typo Causes Nuclear Scare

Posted on March 11, 2005

Everyone makes a little typo now and then, but sometimes they can have a major impact on the reader. The BBC reports that the Sudanese government was alarmed when they read on a US Congress website that Sudan had been used as a nuclear test site in the 1960s. It turns out this was just a typo and the website had meant to say Sedan, a nuclear test site in Arizona. Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Isma of Sudan is relieved it was just a typing mistake, but he still doesn't seem quite over the incident. "Our investigations, which are already under way, will continue until we get to the bottom of this matter," he told the BBC. The bottom line is that there is nothing like a good editor to help you avoid those little mistakes that might frighten entire countries.