"The pencil skirt has the perfect shape to highlight a print because it's a really clean surface, " said designer Joseph Altuzarra of the high-waisted, nipped-in style to which he returns season after season.

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Although, I honestly believe that this would probably be far more thorough than someone trying to wipe and clean every surface.

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The device, which resembles a Roomba vacuum cleaner, attaches itself to a pane, maps out its perimeter and proceeds to clean the surface, playing a tinny tune when the work is completed.

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Drop the AutoMee S onto an iPad and it will buff the finger prints away, wandering around the screen in straight lines, ricocheting of the edges until the entire surface is clean.

CNN: A tiny Roomba for your phone and tablet

During the past 20 years the industry has striven to clean up its act, at least on the surface.

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The consensus among Nigerians at the time was that the country, under tyrannical military rule, was so corrupt that no Nigerian could, on the surface, be trusted to be earning a clean living - we must all, therefore, be rigorously screened for narcotics and fraudulent intentions when we went abroad.

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The Opificio's restorers plan to clean David by applying compresses of distilled water to the marble surface to draw away dirt.

NPR: Restoring Michelangelo's David

Rainfall helps keep it clean: water seeps through the rubber and drains into pipes just below the surface.

ECONOMIST: Monitor

But the question hovering beneath the surface is whether America would ever be prepared to give Iraq a clean bill of weapons health so long as Mr Hussein, unrepentant, unregenerate and savage, remains in control.

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