World Scene: The United States

Microsoft changes race in photo

Software giant Microsoft Corp is apologizing for altering a photo on its website to change the race of one of the people shown in the picture.

A photo on the Seattle-based company's US website shows two men, one Asian and one black, and a white woman seated at a conference room table. But on the website of Microsoft's Polish business unit, the black man's head has been replaced with that of a white man. The color of his hand remains unchanged.

The photo editing sparked criticism online. Some bloggers said Poland's ethnic homogeneity may have played a role in changing the photo.

"We apologize and are in the process of pulling down the image," Microsoft spokesperson Lou Gellos said in a statement on Tuesday.

Shuttle launch called off

NASA called off the launch of space shuttle Discovery at the Kennedy Space Center for a second time on Tuesday after a critical fuel valve failed to work properly.

Launch officials halted the countdown midway through the fueling process. The seven astronauts had not yet boarded the shuttle for the scheduled flight early yesterday to the international space station.

The astronauts said another attempt would not be made until Friday at the earliest.

Discovery and its seven astronauts were set to deliver lab equipment, supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station. The mission is among the last five or six flights devoted to resupplying the space station, a $100 billion project of 16 nations that is nearing completion after more than a decade of construction 350 km above Earth.

(China Daily 08/27/2009 page10)