Possible Bug? Can't communicate in MP game

[Old Possum]

Hi, I think I have encounted a bug.
I am currently playing a multi player hot seat game with some friends.
And we are finding it impossible to communicate with each other or the computer players.
What happens is thay you can send any message you like, to any player you meet, and they do not reply, or appear to react in any way. When we cross check between human players , we are finding that we never receive any Messages, even if we have ships parked adjacent squares. I even tried surrendering to one human player and nothing happened.
Also the computer players keep offering us trade alliances even after we have accepted them, and and the existing trade alliance with that particular computer player has been in operation for many turns.
The game we are playing is the full retail Version ( v1.02?) I received Last week.