News 2010

News 2010

IBAP -- 12.APR.2010 -- Commission on Very Small States: HQ to move, Games planned for 2011

BANABA - The world's tiniest countries will meet on the athletic field for the first time in seven years, the CVSS announced Wednesday at the conclusion of its first full meeting of 2010. Read more... [BK]

NEW AMSTERDAM POST -- 01.MAY.2010 -- Lord of Gardiners Island leads May Day celebration

Breezy summer weather greeted English Viceroy Sir Septimus Derleth as he joined the lord and tenants of Gardiners Island in their annual observance of May Day. Read more... [BK]

HAQAYAT NEWS -- 29.APR.2010 -- Unearthing A Rats' Nest

BUXARA -- Investigations by the State Police of Turkestan (TMM) into the allegations of governmental corruption appear to have unearthed a rats' nest, and as yet, no-one has any idea where it will all end. Read more... [GH]

PAN-ROMANIAN RALLY ERUPTS INTO VIOLENCE -- 17.APR.2010

(Bucureşti, Muntenia) The Cişmigiu Gardens, one of Muntenia's most beautiful and popular public parks, became the site of bloodshed following a clash involving Pan-Romanians and Pavelists with local police. Read more... [DZ]

HAQAYAT NEWS -- 16.APR.2010 -- Governor Resigns; More Questions

BİŞKEK -- Under increasing pressure not only from the citizenry of Kırğızstan Province, but also from the Progressive Party hierarchy, Governor Sopu Bayal-ulı Bek announced his resignation today. Read more... [GH]

HAQAYAT NEWS -- 10.APR.2010 -- Demonstrations in Bişkek Turn Violent

BİŞKEK -- A series of demonstrations against government corruption in Kırğızstan over the last week turned violent today as crowds threw stones at police, who responded with tear gas and rubber weapons. About 30 people received treatment for injuries, most minor but some severe, and it is claimed that some of these injuries were sustained at the hands of the police. Demonstrators protesting against Governor Sopu Bayal-ulı Bek came out in force amid a new round of allegations of corruption in the Provincial government. Provincial government documents leaked by a sacked mid-level official allege that provincial watchdogs appointed by the governor have been accepting bribes to falsify evidence of departmental corruption. The latest leak suggests that Governor Sopu Bek knew about this. Read more... [GH]

HAQAYAT NEWS -- 21.JAN.2010 -- Queen of MNR Pays State Visit to Turkestan

BUXARA -- Her Majesty Queen Gohar IV of the Moghul National Realm arrived today at Ibrahım Enver International Aerodrome to begin a 9-day state visit to Turkestan.

Her personal airship "Moghul One" touched down this afternoon to be met by a full honour guard of Wind Rider ceremonial troops from all six Provinces of Turkestan. The Tajik contingent was in the forefront, as is appropriate given the close linguistic links between the Tajik and Moghul languages, flanked by the Kırğız and Üzbek contingents.

Sultan Ilxan and Nuraslan Keņesbaşı were both present to welcome the ruler of the Moghul National Realm, and following the official ceremonies of welcome, Her Majesty was escorted away through the streets of Buxara to a full state dinner at the Ilxan's Palace.

Later in her visit, the Queen and the Ilxan are expected to sit down for some face-to-face diplomatic discussions, including, if sources close to the Ilxan are to be believed, the possibility of the MNR's shipbuilding industry building the replacement for the "Turkestan", the aging flagship of the Turkestani Guards' Mazandaran naval flotilla. [GH]

NATIONAL NEWS CORPORATION -- 19. JAN.2010 -- Grisly End for Medal of Honour Winner

PHILADELPHIA -- What should have been a glorious day for an honored CBI officer ended with staggering tragedy. Inspector Jeanne Turner, senior officer present and leader of the raid that resulted in the arrest of alleged Pegre crimelord Georges LeBrun who died in custody following gunshot wounds, received the Parliamentary Medal of Honor this afternoon in a ceremony at the Laurier Monument. She and her family returned home about sunset.

Two hours later, local police responded to calls from neighbors reporting the sounds of gunshots and screaming. When they arrived, Inspector Turner as well as her husband Andrew, their four-year-old daughter Millie and Andrew's mother Jessica were all found dead. Details have not yet been released but witnesses said each victim had been shot several times, and that all had been decapitated. Reports that Inspector Turner had been raped are as yet only rumors.

Georges LeBrun was the brother of Louis Philip LeBrun, one of two alleged rivals for control of a major New Amsterdam Pegre famille, the so-called Signoret Crime War which has claimed over a hundred lives since the death of Pierre Daille of brain cancer. The most prominent of those victims was Howard Provo, then Minister of Justice who was killed taking part in an Anti-Pegre raid. Experts say that Louis "King" LeBrun disdains the old Pegre policy of discretion and refusal to retaliate against families of those who offend him or his interests.[DZ]

NATIONAL NEWS CORPORATION -- 5.JAN.2010 -- Pegre Crime Lord Dies in Custody

PHILADELPHIA -- Spokesmen for Central Bureau of Investigation confirmed tonight that Georges LeBrun, alleged leader in the Pegre criminal organization, died at approximately 7pm from gunshot wounds sustained during his arrest. LeBrun is the brother of one of two sons-in-law of the late Pierre Daille, whose death it is believed sparked the ongoing Signoret Crime War.[DZ]

PACIFIC PRESS ASSOCIATION -- 4.JAN.2010 -- Tokelavians gather to open island nation's first parliament

FAKA'OFO, Tokelau -- The Tokelau islands' long journey to self-government reached its end Monday morning as the country's two heads of state and a substantial portion of its population gathered in the new capitol to open its first legislature as an independent nation.

A Fono, or parliament, for all Tokelau has met only occasionally in living memory: the Fijian Kingdom, which governed Tokelau for a century and a half, first as a colony, then as part of the self-governing dependency of Fijian Polynesia, generally resisted efforts to organize the four atolls as a unit. Monday's ceremony, therefore, had few precedents to draw on, and in order to plan it Tokelau's provisional authorities combined the informal rituals of the islands' local fonos with more somber customs taken from Fiji, Britain, and Tokelau's own past.

The ceremony began with the newly elected Fono delegates processing into the chamber, led by the elders (literally, greyhairs) of all four atolls. Under Tokelau's constitution, the elders constitute an upper house for the Fono, although they are not expected to meet as a group very often and will serve mainly to provide advice and caution.

After the procession, the doors of the chamber were closed. Tokelau's two heads of state then arrived: Chief Luk Havaiki, whose hereditary position was confirmed in a coronation ceremony in August; and Proprietor Andrew Morris of England, who converted the islands into something akin to his own private property in March. Both were only admitted to the Fono chamber after an official escorting them outside knocked loudly with a ceremonial staff, symbolizing the Fono's freedom from direct control by either of them. Havaiki wore a headdress of coconut leaves modeled on that of Tokelau's pre-colonial chiefs, while both men wore the sulu wraparounds and the floral and shell pectorals of Fijian ratu. They were followed by escorts holding ceremonial coconut leaf fans.

After the Chief and Proprietor were seated, Father Penitito Dewidd Manuele, pastor and abbott of Faka'ofo's British Rite monastery church, led the assembly in a Matins prayer service. Four elders, one from each atoll, then stood to deliver the Tokelau Address, a traditional greeting of considerable ancientry delivered whenever elders of the four islands meet together. Each atoll delivers its portion of the Address in turn, moving geographically from Atafu, at the north end, through Nukunonu to Olohega, at the south end, and placing the chiefly atoll of Faka'ofo in the place of honor at the end. Elder Fatia Egeliko of Nukunonu then delivered a welcome speech, a custom taken from village fono meetings.

Egeliko then invited representatives of each island to present tributary gifts to the Chief, consisting of woven tapa mats and lei, or strings of pearl shells. Chief Havaiki then presented the mats to Morris, who adopted the role of a foreign suzerain. Havaiki kept some of the gifts for himself, representing the continuing sovreignty of Tokelau.

Both Havaiki and Morris then delivered Speeches from the Thrones, modeled on the practice in the British kingdoms. The speeches expressed the two leaders' wishes for the coming year -- and by extension, for Tokelau's presumed long future as an independent state. Havaiki's was more general and backward-looking, reflecting on Tokelau's many years under colonial rule and expressing enthusiasm for the future, but also advising caution. Morris articulated a somewhat more specific agenda, though he too avoided language that might indicate a preference for any faction within the Fono. He described his vision of ecologically sustainable economic growth in the islands, a variation on a theme every Tokelavian has likely heard many times in Morris' process of privatizing the islands to steer their economy into ecotourism.

Voting for the Fono's lower house took place on 27 December in an election closely monitored by the League of Nations' Commission on Very Small States. Each of Tokelau's four atolls comprise a separate electoral district, within which seats were awarded to the candidates who won the most votes in that district. Each voter could cast as many votes as his atoll has seats in the lower house.

Most striking in the election results is the poor showing made by the radical party of local leaders that has orchestrated Tokelau's drive for independence over the last decade, and which had dominated the Provisional Government. While the most prominent national leaders easily won seats, many of their allies did not. The Fono instead is full of leaders who favor maintaining ties with Fiji and joining the Commonwealth of Nations - something opposed by ardent anti-imperialists like Kolouei Ua Briain, Tokelau's provisional head-of-government since 2007.

The ceremony concluded with the election of a speaker to formally preside over the Fono's meetings for the coming year. After twenty minutes of deliberation, Kava Nasau, a respected moderate from Atafu, was chosen. He ascended the speaker's platform and declared the first Fono of Tokelau to be open. The assembled delegates and officials then processed outside, where they were joined by the onlookers for a celebratory meal. [BK]