However, until June 2012 there had been no official announcement of a decision by the Chinese government.

Announcement of a decision, which Administration officials said was expected within days, is likely to stir criticism on Capitol Hill.

Mr. Kemp's formal declaration had been scheduled for weeks, and Mr. Simon's announcement of a decision to run - he will declare May 18, he said - was expected for days.

The old man turned his brown eyes, sweet as a woman's, shoreward, and both captain and mate followed his gaze around from the lonely rock of Pitcairn to the crew clustering forward and waiting anxiously for the announcement of a decision.

Since the justices themselves skipped the usual oral announcement of a decision, which takes place in public session in the courtroom and includes the opinion's author summarizing its main points, there was no interpretive guide at all for the correspondents who had to dash off to their waiting cameras.

Even before President Clinton's expected announcement of a decision to airdrop relief supplies to civilians in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Western European leaders welcomed it today as a sign that the United States was not going to leave them alone with the seemingly impossible task of stopping the war in the Balkans.