The public was apparently more outraged by Sickles' forgiveness and reconciliation with his wife, whom he had publicly branded a harlot and adulteress, than by the murder and his unorthodox acquittal.

Publicly branded a 'rogue state' by the US president, George W Bush, Syria has recently been forced to withdraw its army and intelligence personnel from Lebanon.

The banks are also reluctant to foreclose on loans, seizing property, evicting clients and being publicly branded as heartless capitalists.

I have no desire to be publicly branded a mutant now.

Most people know a grocery or drugstore or corner newsstand operator who is dependably surly, day in and day out, and deserves to be publicly branded an equal-opportunity offender.

And how many people get to spend sums in the eight figures for the pleasure of being publicly branded a liar or a "putzhead"?

Would they like it to be branded publicly as criminals?

What these public notification laws do is they essentially place a big scarlet letter on someone's chest, that for the rest of this person's life he will be publicly branded.

But now, nearly a year into the Clinton Administration, the American C.I.A. has publicly branded President Aristide as mentally unstable.

When he is publicly branded this way, Max intends to return and sue the press for libel.