This & That, Ceci et Cela

Bribe, baksheesh, dash, call it what you like; its available everywhere in different national flavours including Russian: "MOSCOW A businessman here recently formed a company to supply equipment used in new office and apartment buildings. Despite the country's construction boom, he nearly foundered.  That is, until this summer, when two "intermediaries" arranged to fix the bidding for contracts from a regional government. He has since received four new contracts, he ...

“The corner food store should be safe, but outdoor markets are hit and miss. Sidewalk vendors and shashlik stands are better avoided. That's the advice that food inspectors are offering after confiscating nearly 3 tons of contaminated food, including 356 kilograms of radioactive berries and mushrooms, in Moscow during the first half of this year. Of the berries, "210 ...

"After the article appeared, David Krane, Google's director of public relations, called CNET editors to complain, said Jai Singh, the editor in chief of CNETNews.com. "They were unhappy about the fact we used Schmidt's private information in our story," Singh said. "Our view is what we published was all public information, and we actually used their own product to find it." He said Krane called back to say that ...