LONDON, UK: Google removed a racially offensive image of US First LadyMichelle Obama from its search engine Wednesday while the blog hosting it apologized in Chinese.

The image of Michelle with monkey features, which appeared at the top of Google's search results, was posted on a blog called Hot Girls, which is hosted by the Google-owned blog service, Blogger.

Hot Girls later removed the image and displayed an apology in Chinese with a loose English translation.

"I am very sorry for this article, and that this is the program automatically issued a document from the article. Do not the subject of race and politics make the discussion too radical and sincere hope that the world is very peaceful," said the blog.

Earlier, Google placed a notice on the manipulated image which appeared on searches for the US First Lady, stating that it is not the company's policy to remove offensive content.

"Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries. We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google," it said.
However, the search result still throws up a very badly done image of President Obama (http://maaadddog.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/obama_monkey11.jpg), with the president's face super imposed on the image of a money.
©IANS