Further Dino Republic changes agreed

A supplementary bill sponsored by MBH (and presented by Ronald) has also been agreed by the Dino Senate, thought to be part of the deal to let Ronald's bill go through unopposed by MBH's faction. The most important part of MBH's bill is the ability to demote a Senator if they have been away from the Senate for a full year. After a year the Senator's status can be put under scrutiny and if it is thought the Senator would not return to duty soon then they can be removed from the Senate. Ronald would not be affected by this as he is a Senator for life no matter if he never attends a session again. If GBH is away for a year accompanying Ronald on his voyage then his post could come under question though he would only be removed if it was felt he wouldn't return within a reasonable space of time.

Another change is loosening the restriction on only Consuls being able to present bills to the Senate. From next year Senators can do this too if they have their bill co-sponsored by 2 other Senators.

The final change is a freeze on the size of the Senate which will consist of a Consul and 11 Senators from next year. Over the years it has slowly increased in size but MBH says the Senate should remain at its current size for the foreseeable future.

• The DDS' new in-house land weapons company SMA has published some details of the forthcoming standard DDS tank, the T-62Y. Based on the existing T-62-20 the Y will have an improved communications system with built-in data encryption, its gun will also be modified in order for it to be able to fire a new generation ATGW (name currently unknown but the DDS are testing it). Testing of the T-62Y will begin before the end of the year. As a stop-gap the DDS have agreed a 9 million zark contract with the Dinos to upgrade their fleet of T-55Zs (which will remain in service until 2120 at least). The upgrade includes improvements from the ZDM programme.