The following story was forwarded to me. The "offending" characters
in question are, I take it, the left-facing and right-facing swastika
symbols, often used in Tibetan, found among the Chinese ideographs at
U+534D (yung-drung-chi-khor) and U+5350 (yung-drung-nang-khor).

I hope that this story is not true.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=582&e=1&u=/nm/20031212/wr_nm/tech_microsoft_swastika_dc

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SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) said on
Friday that its latest version of Office software inadvertently
contained a font featuring two swastikas, and said it would offer
tools to remove and replace the offending characters from the program.

The swastika, which was made infamous by Nazi Germany, was included
in Microsoft's "Bookshelf Symbol 7" font. That font was derived from
a Japanese font set, said Microsoft Office product manager Simon
Marks.

"It was discovered by one of our customers a couple weeks ago," Marks
said, adding that there was "no indication of malicious intent."

The Redmond, Washington-based software maker said that it had
contacted various Jewish organizations about the font and said a
utility would be immediately available on its Web site that would
remove the characters from the system.

Microsoft said it will release other tools at a later date to remove
only the offending characters.

A form of the swastika has been used in the Buddhist religion to
symbolize the feet or footprints of the Buddha. The symbol, which was
also used widely in the ancient world including Mesopotamia,
Scandinavia, India and the Americas, became common in China and Japan
with the spread of Buddhism.

German dictator Adolf Hitler adopted the swastika as the symbol of
the Nazi Party because of its nationalist identification, according
to the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international
Jewish human rights group.
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Michael Everson * * Everson Typography * * http://www.evertype.com