The State Department flatly rejected GOP accusations it attempted to prevent would-be "whistleblowers" from speaking out.

CNN: Doomed Libya ambassador: 'We're under attack'

At first, the bureaucrats flatly rejected Mr Koizumi's push to privatise these road-building enterprises.

ECONOMIST: Once again, Japan's bureaucrats are under attack

Judge Vinson flatly rejected the administration's attempt to escape the restrictions of the Commerce Clause by appealing to the Necessary and Proper Clause.

WSJ: Barnett and Foley: The Nuts and Bolts of the ObamaCare Ruling

Hewlett Packard's allegations that Autonomy inflated its value prior to a takeover has been flatly rejected by the former management of the UK software firm.

BBC: Profile: Autonomy

Mr Bridgeman also flatly rejected calls by the consumer-affairs minister, Kim Howells, for an inquiry into the prices of soft drinks served in public houses.

ECONOMIST: Competition policy

This view is flatly rejected by comedian and journalist Mark Thomas.

BBC: Winning the youth vote

New Zealand began a guest-worker scheme last year, but John Howard, Australia's prime minister at the time, flatly rejected opening the doors to unskilled Pacific labour.

ECONOMIST: Fiji and the Pacific Islands Summit

Giuliani flatly rejected the prince's position.

CNN: Giuliani rejects $10 million from Saudi prince

Indeed, Mr. Osborne seems so confident that the slump is largely cyclical, the result of a euro crisis-induced slump in net trade, rather than structural that last month he flatly rejected a Bank of England recommendation to recapitalize the banks to purge the system of bad debts.

WSJ: U.K. Is New Recruit on Europe's Sick List