The money is all existing budgeted financing, and decisions are due by the end of the year.
This is my first blog of a year in which huge decisions are due to be taken - whether Britain remains a member of the EU and replaces Trident with a new nuclear ballistic missile weapons system.
But the WTO case may make the politics of lifting the ban harder.More surprising still, the Americans have launched their complaint only a month before big decisions are due on the reform of the EU's common agricultural Policy (CAP).
The 30 days from April 1, when such offers are generally proffered, to May 1, when such decisions are due, is a time unlike any other in the college admissions season, at least for a select group of several thousand students.
Harvard, which like many colleges raised its financial aid budget this year, said that between this week and May 1, when applicants' decisions are due, it was bracing for many to make impassioned appeals of their financial aid offers, whether by phone or e-mail or in person.
Matters may become clearer at the ANC's national conference in December, when firm policy decisions are due to be taken.In its latest survey of the attractiveness of countries to mining investors, the Fraser Institute, a Canadian think-tank, ranks South Africa 54th out of 93 mining jurisdictions, down from 14th out of 45 ten years ago.
