diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 9f93ff8f1..8f3a74bdf 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -75,9 +75,16 @@ Fixed bugs:
 
 * random component of temporary files is now always a positive integer.
 
-* Fix <ilasm> outputfile tetsing so that the output file does not need
+* Fix <ilasm> outputfile testing so that the output file does not need
   to exist beforehand.
 
+* Ant could incorrectly try to use the 1.4 regexp implementation even
+  if it isn't available if you run the JVM with -Xverify:none.
+
+* Ant would die with an exception if you used nested <reference>
+  elements in Ant and the refid attribute didn't point to an existing
+  project reference.
+
 Other changes:
 --------------
 * The filesetmanifest attribute of <jar> has been reenabled.
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Ant.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Ant.java
index c93ef3300..dc060307e 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Ant.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Ant.java
@@ -467,11 +467,13 @@ public class Ant extends Task {
      */
     private void copyReference(String oldKey, String newKey) {
         Object orig = getProject().getReference(oldKey);
-        if( orig==null ) {
-            log( "No object referenced by " + oldKey + ". Can't copy to " + newKey,
-                    Project.MSG_WARN);
+        if (orig == null) {
+            log("No object referenced by " + oldKey + ". Can't copy to " 
+                + newKey, 
+                Project.MSG_WARN);
             return;
         }
+
         Class c = orig.getClass();
         Object copy = orig;
         try {