Now, as the November deadline draws ever nearer, Khamenei's website has published an expression of thanks to the leader from deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, for his "effective and heartwarming" support, and a Twitter account associated with the leader has expressed support for "innovative diplomacy in foreign policy and international affairs".
Diplomatic officials said it would take some 30 hours to fly a person back to Australia, so a nearer country would have to receive the patient – but the government required an "iron-clad" guarantee rather than a general offer to help.
Inevitably, strident voices on the far left and the far right are calling respectively for more state control or clampdowns on immigrants, but the truth is, the nearer we get to the elections, no one in the French political classes seems to know what to do with France.
"It will bring state funding for political parties a step nearer.
Kathy Fear at Citi said: "Overall numbers continue to demonstrate the strength of Prudential's strategy and we would not expect any material changes to this post Mike Wells appointment as CEO in the nearer term.
Proposals will be made for new ways to hold to account the rich countries that will have to pay a significant part of the price of achieving the new goals.The debate about how effective the MDGs have been will intensify as the announcement of the new goals gets nearer.
The World Bank estimates that the oil and gas sector, which employs less than 1% of the workforce, accounts not for 9% of GDP, as the official figures state, but for nearer 25%.
But Mr Galston's warning that health reform may not avert a setback in November, and Mr Frum's that a call for repeal could backfire, are likelier to find their mark as the mid-terms draw nearer and the economy becomes the overwhelming issue again.
Argentina is no nearer to sorting out its own impasse.
But a recent House of Lords report noted a big snag: the nearer the industry gets to meeting the government's targets, the less the value of the certificates; once the target is passed, their worth falls abruptly to zero.So the certificates, which will cost consumers a cool £500m this year and will be even more expensive next year, cap the supply of renewable energy instead of encouraging it.
Wrestling drama Foxcatcher, starring Steve Carell and Channing Tatum, has had its 20 December release put off; Grace of Monaco has been moved to March 2014 while re-edits are completed, while James Gray's The Immigrant is no nearer a confirmed US release after a poorly-received premiere at the 2013 Cannes film festival.
