Last Thursday, Reuters told us about the Russians taking a sub down to the bottom of the ocean at the North Pole and planting a flag.

A mechanical arm dropped a specially made, rust-proof titanium flag painted with the Russian tricolor onto the Arctic seabed at a depth of 4,261 meters (13,980 ft).

But Reuters is Reuters:

News agency Reuters has been forced to admit that footage it released last week purportedly showing Russian submersibles on the seabed of the North Pole actually came from the movie Titanic.

The images were reproduced around the world - including by the Guardian and Guardian Unlimited - alongside the story of Russia planting its flag below the North Pole on Thursday last week.

But it has now emerged that the footage actually showed two Finnish-made Mir submersibles that were employed on location filming at the scene of the wreck of the RMS Titanic ship in the north Atlantic some 10 years ago.

It gets funnier:

This footage was used in sequences in James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster about the 1912 disaster.

Indeed: “Near, far, wherever you are/ I believe that the heart does go on.”

But the best laugh is here: Reuters’ Correction.

(HT, streiff.)