Anger over ‘blasphemous’ balls

bleated BBC Views Online a couple of days ago:

A demonstration has been held in south-east Afghanistan accusing US troops of insulting Islam after they distributed footballs bearing the name of Allah.

The balls showed the Saudi Arabian flag which features the Koranic declaration of faith.

The US military said the idea had been to give something for Afghan children to enjoy and they did not realise it would cause offence.

The footballs were dropped from a helicopter in Khost province.

Except that reading further afield than BBC Views Online (e.g. here or here), we find that it may have been as little as one ball out of an unspecified number, and that the well meaning Americans had apparently bought the balls, made in China, from a market in Kabul, where presumably people hadn’t been quite so ready to take offense at seeing a trader selling the balls that the Americans bought… all of which seems to have escaped the BBC’s inquisitive gaze.