Zeitgeist Magazine, 7 August 301 AP

Zeitgeist Magazine's Utania This Week
August 7th, 301 AP

UTW delayed due to developments in Lochboer.

Hijacking ends

The long-running Aij Utani hijacking drama is at a climactic end, with Utanian special forces soldiers storming the jet Monday morning about 2:30am. No details are available, but this comes just after reports that the Hijackers were threatening to explode the plane unless their demands were met very soon.

President K'yonte of Rovens announced on Tuesday that he would resign as President, ending almost two weeks of riots, mass strikes and protests by millions of Rovenians against him, after the assassination of leading communist figure, Rhosei Penyassa. A field of nine candidates is seeking to replace him, including Amea Kope, who signed the peace treaty with the communist rebels in March. The National Assembly is due to vote on them in the next few weeks, and this time delegates are taking public opinion into account.

The Vexillium Bank announced that its first attempt at international analysis would be to rate every nation according to the UNV-developed "Human Development Index" (HDI) which indicates the level of development of a nation according to three criteria: health, education and economic development.

Utania had as a guest the second-most powerful man in all the Zartanian Empire: General Vun Orcton, who was in Utan Krysaror for high-level defence talks. Some MPs promised to boycott meetings, and protesters were present but kept far from the General.

The Reserve Bank admitted this week that everything that it has announced previously about the Utanian economy was wrong -- at least as far as the model goes. The estimated Û422 billion wages bill is actually "more like" Û276 billion, which will decrease the federal government's revenues too, as analysts are working to correct the faulty model. Economists, though embarassed, say they are trying to achieve in months what normally takes years, or decades, to do.

Christiana's increasingly beleaguered monarch, Edward II, is weathering accusations that he has been married previously during his university-attending youth in the mid-70s. Of what concern this should be to the people is not known, but it appears to be being pushed by a renowned republican who was ejected from the Senate earlier this year.

A rumoured move is afoot by Utani Saedaj MPs to ban the extradition of Utanian citizens, despite opposition by the President and Prime Minister, and the majority government-coalition member, the Peoples Party. The move will make ethnic Utani "almost immune" to the laws of their resident land.

Zeitgeist Magazine has been invited to attend the exclusive Coronation anniversary celebration dinner in September as one of only a dozen media companies worldwide. The magazine will be the only Utanian press organisation attending. Meanwhile, Utani royalists in the Parliament are demanding that the Savaj Emperor attend the dinner on behalf of Utania, as Utania's "equivalent" to Edward II. Incorrect, say diplomats, Utania is officially a Republic.

On Saturday, Utanian newspapers mistakenly reported that an Utanian was amongst seven dead in Caledon, after a lone gunman armed with only a handgun shot fifteen co- workers after being fired from the fabrics factory the previous day. While MPs expressed outrage at the shooting and for tougher anti-gun laws, guns were banned from Dependency citizens under the Guwimithian Imperial Code, a law later enshrined in state law. An overall federal law is on the legislative agenda, which would ban the weapons outright, to include the many Guwimithians who were exempt from the state laws.