Public radio station blames technical glitch for publishing premature death notices online

Reports of the deaths of about 100 unfortunate celebrities have been greatly exaggerated by a French public radio station, which mistakenly published the obituaries of, among others, a very-much-alive Queen, Brigitte Bardot and Pelé.

Radio France Internationale (RFI), the French equivalent of the BBC World Service, on Monday blamed “a technical problem” and apologised for the error, which saw the death notices appear on its website and partner platforms including Google, Yahoo! and MSN before being hastily taken down.