Different strokes

-- Website>> Racial Issues Poland

Microsoft has apologized for editing a photo to change a black man's head to that of a white man. The picture, showing employees sitting around a desk, appeared unaltered on the software giant's US website. But on the website of its Polish business unit the black man's head was replaced with a white face, although the colour of his hands was unchanged.

Microsoft said it had pulled the image and would be investigating who made the changes. But the altered image was circulated online. Bloggers had a field day with the story with some suggesting Microsoft was attempting to please all markets by having a man with a white face and a black hand.

Others suggested the ethnic make-up of the Polish population, which is predominantly white, may have played a part in the decision to change the photo."The white head and black hand actually is supposed to show that a person can be white and black, old and young at the same time," one blogger on the Photoshop Disasters blog said.