New Bava - The Newspaper for the Twenty-First Century - Circulation 242,000 est.

30 October 1998

It was announced this week that the Socialist party of Cyberia is considering creating a new intermicronational alliance of Socialist parties.

To be admitted to the alliance, a member-organization would have to sign up to a basic charter affirming the fundamental principles of human rights, civil liberties, and democracy.

Several nation's Socialist parties have shown interest.

V.C.Cyberia and U.P.E.Cyberia: Detente Now Unlikely

Detente between Cyberia and East Cyberia began to seem less likely this week, after a bizarre series of interventions by "West" Cyberian politicians on the East Cyberian forum.

Jeremy Groghan (Conservative) and Jack Santucci (Conservative) both urged peace, but neither offered terms acceptable to the East. President Kerns also scolded Groghan for allegedly trying to take over a presidential/diplomatic role.

Mike Jones (former Malan Socialist Deputy and revolutionary) reacted strongly against the Virtual Commonwealth's intervention. He said that the East would never be on good terms with Cyberia until it recognized the legitimacy of the Malan revolution.

The peace offerings seemed to have brought fissiparous arguments rather than anything else, the ostensible supporters of detente seemingly being responsible for a deterioration in East-West relations.

A good deal of hypocrisy remains on both sides. Both Kerns and Jones have stated that dual citizenship can't happen until the other side accepts their version of events in Mala. But dual citizenship is not currently prohibited by either country, in legal terms.

150 Bavans March for Justice

Around 150 Bavans marched through Bava City today demanding that the rightwing former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet should be brought to justice for the mass murder and torture committed under his regime, which came to power with the backing of Nixon and the CIA and was strongly supported by the US government until Pinochet's eventual retirement in 1990.

Jeremy Groghan (Conservative) and Lucas Engelhardt (Conservative Fascist) broke ranks with mainstream conservatism by condemning Pinochet's fascist dictatorship. Pinochet's regime was defended last week by Baroness Thatcher (who enjoys lunching with him), the former British prime minister who is a heroine of many conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic.

Bavan Governor Richard Pond thanked Groghan and Engelhardt for their reassurances, and expressed surprise that Engelhardt should use should an extreme party name if he isn't really a fascist. This, Pond claimed, was unwise, and distasteful, considering the many who had suffered under fascist regimes.

Other Stories

Pokolitov Confirms Crime Bill was Squished. Chief Justice Vadim Pokolitov has confirmed that the vital anti-terrorism legislation pioneered by Governor Pond and by former LDP leader Michael Goldman was overturned and annulled by a Supreme Court ruling during hearings against Mike Rosario earlier this year.

When the former Communist Workers Party politician was on trial for alleged stock fraud, he attempted to invoke the right to appeal that Pond and Goldman had enshrined in a civil liberties section at the end of the anti-terrorism bill. Pokolitov, who had taken original jurisdiction in the Rosario case, decided that since Supreme Court decisions cannot be appealed against, the entire crime bill had to be struck down as unconstitutional.

Pond, Lean, Santucci, Grieve, Quertain back Amendment. Senator Stephen Lean (SP-Bava) is due to announce a measure, prepared by Governor Pond and Deputy Alan Grieve (CD), which will allow provinces to elect to vacant senatorships rather than using the system of appointments specified in the federal constitution.

Jack Santucci (Conservative), Governor Scott Rosen (Conservative), Governor Brige (Liberal) and President Ken Kerns (Liberal) have also backed the plan.

New Bava is published by the Bavan News Company (BNC), a workers' cooperative.