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Paris, Tuesday, March 21, 2000

France Reverses Tide-Table Error International Traveler / Update

Agence France-Presse

BREST, France - The French Navy on Monday conceded it had made a costly and potentially dangerous error in copies of tide-tables distributed to about 6 million people along the country's Atlantic coast.

The navy's Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service, based in the Brittany port of Brest, said that, in almanacs sent out free to households at the start of the year, summer-tide times were in error by one hour.

As opposed to previous ones, the 2000 almanac gives times properly corrected to take account of the hour-change that comes with summer time, starting this weekend. The error occured when the note usually included every year to advise users to add an hour was not removed.

The oceanographic agency said that at ''great cost'' it was sending out a correction to nearly 9 million households in 29 departments and placing advertisements in local newspapers at regular intervals up until October.

http://www.iht.com/IHT/TODAY/TUE/IN/tides.2.html

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 21, 2000