The acccusations have seriously tarnished the country's national mythology.

In 2009, according to many newspapers and commentators, the image of the fund and of the State of Romania has been seriously tarnished by the long series of issues and failures.

A country that used to be associated largely with skiing, tourism and music has seen its image seriously tarnished by charges of insensitivity, anti-Semitism and amnesia about its murky wartime record.

And the reputation of British science has been seriously tarnished.

The image of desktop Windows is seriously tarnished by the malware specter, and allowing a (largely bogus) anti-virus program onto the phone platform serves only to taint that, too.

Nasdaq's image was seriously tarnished two years ago by allegations of price fixing.

But the reports of new irregularities suggest that a Fujimori victory could be seriously tarnished even if cleanly won, igniting still more street demonstrations and diminishing the president's authority as he tries to fight drug trafficking and promote investment through his third five-year term.

If we fail to achieve a positive result, Parliament's image will be seriously tarnished.

But her record will be seriously tarnished if she does not block the election commission's attempt to use the rule-making process to eviscerate the law.

But political commentators said Mr. Houphouet-Boigny's triumph was seriously tarnished by opposition charges of across-the-board cheating and ballot-rigging.