The case of the First Lady's mysterious extra legs

This picture you see on the right taken during President Hu Jintao's meeting with Emperor Akihito during his trip to Japan (just before the earthquake struck) appeared on the front page of the May 9 edition of Jiefang Daily 《解放日报》[screenshot here just in case]. As you can see, President Hu is talking to the Emperor and Mrs Hu is talking to the Empress. Take a careful look. Do you see what's there coming out from under the First Lady's chair?

The same picture which appeared on People's Daily did not have the mystery legs. As the Zhongguo Tese 《中国特色》 blog finds out, this was the original picture. As you can see, sitting behind the Mrs Hu was another translator that was blocked due to the angle at which the picture was shot. Some photo editor decided it would be nice to photoshop that translator away so Mrs Hu could be seen clearer, but forgot to do the same for that pair of legs (oops!). Zhongguo Tese surmises that by the time Xinhua issued a recall for the pic, the editors at Jiefang had missed it out, and went on to run it on the first page (oops again!).