"It was very clear in the middle of the last decade that Saipem was winning such a large enough number of substantial contracts that in the small world of Algeria watchers and international oil executives it was an issue and a subject of conversation," said Jonathan Marks, a North Africa analyst at Chatham House, a London research institute.
But Mr. Cuomo added that the issue had not been "a topic of conversation" — a reference to end-of-session negotiations with legislative leaders.
10.54am BST Getting carried away Below the line, someone going by the title Jota64 raises an issue that has been the topic of conversation at bars, watercoolers and urinals across the land.
It hurts a person's sense of self, and it affects everyone from every demographic and background which make this topic of conversation a huge issue.
I'm moved each year by the number of conversations about issues related to extreme poverty that it generates - with colleagues, friends, family and strangers.
"We have had a number of conversations on that issue with the A.T.P.," Oakes said.
In a comment in tomorrow's issue of Nature entitled "Conversation Science: A market approach to saving the whales," Christopher Costello and Steven Gaines of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Leah Gerber of Arizona State University, Tempe, sketch out a system that would give countries permits to catch a certain number of whales.
In bars, cafes and shops, "the humiliation" of the flag issue was the center of conversation.
But the issue of the secretly taped conversation will probably be one of the big topics of the day.
"I mean... come on!" In the current incarnation of his program, which is syndicated by Citadel Broadcasting, heard on WABC-AM in New York and seen on the cable channel RFD-TV, Mr. Imus has frequently raised the issue of race, particularly in conversation with two new co-hosts, who are black.
