Xsampa

[DueWizard70]

The Utembo Times
September 4933
BACKDATED POST(Very backdated)

Even more new military projects!

Today, King Pasnag announced that Utembo will be further militarizing. First, he announced that development will begin in several areas of the military. A frigate, a new spec of landing craft and a new anti-aircraft surface to air missile have all begun development, and are expected to enter production in the next decade or so.
There has also been an announcement that the period of mandatory conscription. Previously, every abled body person would serve 4 years with the military after turning 21. The period has now been extended to 6 years. Furthermore, all adults under the age of 55 will now receive mandatory military training. Military exercises have also been increased in frequency, in an attempt to improve Utembo's military capabilities.

[DueWizard70]

The Utembo Times
February 4934
BACKDATED POST(Very backdated)

Queen Shenlha in critical condition!

It was announced today by the Royal Palace that Queen Shenlha was rushed to the hospital earlier this morning. It seems that the Queen has suffered a stroke. The Royal Palace said that the doctors were doing their best to give the Queen the best chance at a good recovery. The Palace asked for media outlets to refrain from harassing the Royal Family for the time being. The 45-year-old Queen has not been known to suffer from any medical issues, so this comes as a surprise. We wish her the best of luck in dealing with this.

Small democratic movements erupting across the nation

In the past few months, it seems that a lot of small democratic movements have started popping up all over the country. Although extremely small, they seem to be gaining support from the population. After several centuries since the last real democracy in Utembo, they call for a return to the rule of the people. It is true, however, that they do not seek the King's position to be abolished. One of the supporters of the movement, who chose to remain anonymous, told us that the movement wants a parliamentary monarchy, in which the King still has some power. The Utembo Times will continue to follow developments over the coming months and years.

[DueWizard70]

The Utembo Times
August 4937
BACKDATED POST(Very backdated)

Repaving Utembo encounters roadblock. Funding redirected to military projects

The project "Repaving Utembo", announced by King Pasang 6 years ago, will be receiving less funding from now on. This is due to a large amount of its funding being taken away instead giving it to the Ministry of Defense in order to provide additional funding for the variety of military projects that are ongoing. Repaving Utembo had had good progress, with two-thirds of the major new route "Karosama-Bajoum Speedway" having been built already, and progress on many other routes well underway. The project will not completely stop, but it will slow down significantly.

King Pasang explained that the funding is necessary for the military projects to increase the speed at which they will be done. He was very optimistic that some of the projects could be finished in as soon as three years. Insider sources, however, disagree with him. It seems that development has been halted in all projects but the new bomber. Without any foreign guidance or anything to base themselves off, the engineers in charge of the development seem to not know how to design the new equipment. In fact, were it not for the fact that the new bomber will be heavily based on the JH-7 it would have also stopped development. King Pasang seems to think that the cash injection will allow for new avenues to be approached in development.

The new military equipment has been seen as the a sign of Utemban independence from foreign powers, but it now appears to be turning into a sign that these foreign powers are, in fact, necessary.

[DueWizard70]

The Utembo Times
November 4938
BACKDATED POST(Very backdated)

Protests put down in Bajoum

For several years now, a pro-democracy movement has gained some traction all over the country. Supporters claim that the absolute monarchy is not good for the people. At first, they advocated for a constitutional monarchy, in which the King still had some power. It seems now, however, that they no longer support this. Supporters are now demanding a completely democratic system and the abolishment of the monarchy.

The amount of support the movement had gained had been unclear until last night when tens of thousands of protestors went out to the streets of the former capital, Bajoum, demanding change. Even though the capital was changed to Karosawa five years ago, Bajoum still hosts some major government buildings. Most of these were targeted by the rioters, who even managed to break into the Ministry of Agriculture.

Riot police were spread extremely thin, trying to contain the protests, which meant that the army was called in to help. Within a few hours, the riots were disbanded and dozens of protestors arrested. Furthermore, seven deaths were reported among protestors.

We will continue to report on the entire democratic movement as it develops

[DueWizard70]

The Utembo Times
January 4940
BACKDATED POST(Very backdated)

Frigate and landing craft canceled. Slow progress on bomber

Today, we received an announcement from the Ministry of Defense. They announced that the projects for designing and building a frigate and landing craft for the Utemban Navy have been officially scrapped. After investing millions of Utemban Florin into the project, the Ministry of Defense decided it would be better to stop it entirely.
An insider source has told us that the reason for cancelling the projects is that they had not gotten any actual development done in over 2 years. It seems that, without any foreign aid, the Utemban engineers could not figure out how to get everything working, and as such the Ministry decided to kill the project to stop it from eating up funds.
As for the other two development projects, the bomber and the surface to air missile, there are mixed results. The bomber seems to be developing well, albeit slowly, and has a tentative date of completion of 4948. The surface to air missile, however, seems to have stagnated too and could be headed to an early grave.

4938 Protestors still in judicial limbo

Following the massive pro-democracy protests from 4938, thousands were arrested. Today, we got information that many of them remain in jail, and have had a trial. This has drawn the attention of several human rights organisations in Utembo, who demand that the protestors either be released or be allowed to have a trial.
There have been no official statements from part of the government.

[DueWizard70]

The Utembo Times
March 4942
BACKDATED POST(Very backdated)

All remaining military projects now cancelled too

In a not so shocking turn of events, it was announced today that all remaining military projects, meaning the surface to air missile and bomber plane, will be cancelled. There are a variety of reasons for this, but the main one seems that there has been no progress in both projects in a long time. Many remained optimistic regarding the aircraft, saying that progress might be slow, but that it would eventually be implemented into the Utemban Airforce. It is now clear that this will not be the case.

Funding redirected to "Repaving Utembo"

Following the failure of the military projects, a large portion of the funding that was going in that direction will now be going into the "Repaving Utembo" programme. Five years ago, it was stripped of a large portion of its funding, which was redirected to the various military projects. Now that they have all failed, the funding will be going back to the programme. It is even going to get an increase from what it previously had, with King Pasang saying that he hopes that the majority of the project is completed in fice years time.

[DueWizard70]

The Utembo Times
September 4949
BACKDATED POST(Very backdated)

Repaving Utembo completed after almost 20 years

Today, King Pasang came out to announce that the "Repaving Utembo" programme has been finalised at last, after nearly two decades of work. The project, which originally aimed to modernise over 2000 kilometres of highways and build over 3000 kilometres of new ones, ended up expanding massively following the failed military projects. It ended up modernising almost twice the amount proposed, and new highways that weren't originally planned were constructed. The project has been widely regarded as a success, and it is expected to improve transport and trade in Utembo.
This was all received with widespread support from the general population, seeing as it had been a couple of years with many projects failing.

[DueWizard70]

The Utembo Times
March 4953
BACKDATED POST(Very backdated)

Unemployement on the rise
Following the completion of the"Repaving Utembo" programme, as well as Endralon's withdrawal from Utembo, the nation now finds itself with a large unemployment issue. Endralon's international withdrawal had already been causing issues, as a significant amount of workers were employed at places with some sort of connection with Endralon. Many of the workers that lost their jobs to Endralon pulling out found new jobs with "Repaving Utembo". The problem is that now that "Repaving Utembo" has been completed, these people lost their jobs. With maintenance jobs needing a very different skill set and being a fraction of the jobs available when the project was ongoing, they may now find themselves with no livelihood.
As unemployment reaches 13% nationwide, some protests have begun to spring up. With the current situation, it is not entirely out of the realm of possibility that protests, similar to the 4934 protests, only 20 years ago, could come back to a similar or even a greater level.

[alaskancrabpuffs21]

Bajoum, Utembo
April 2nd 5197

Sangmo Namdak the a former Duke of the House of Namduk has declared himself King of Utembo this comes after the current royal house the descendants of King Ratna, have gone into exile in the mountains. The King has said the former King and his family can live in peace however he criticized them saying that

They sold Utembo to outside influences, the ancient evils of Endralon and mega corporations they have ruined our country and they have lay waste to our economy. We are taking steps to take this country back. We will not be intimidated or swayed by any more Western nations. I will be dissolving the legislature and bringing this peaceful nation back to it's roots of Monarchy, Religion and citizenship.

The King will be taking a tour of the country soon to see how the problems his people face and will come up with bold solutions to fix these problems.

[alaskancrabpuffs21]

Bajoum, Utembo
June 4th 5199

Utembo and North Dovani have agreed to let Utembo investigators go to North Dovani and investigate claims made of human rights violations and war crimes. The King of Utembo made clear that he wants the matter to be resolved by Dovani states and not the outside influence of Westerners. He said

The Security Council must recognize that we in Dovani can take care of our own, we can find out whether these claims are true or not. We do not have to be hand held all the time. The people of North Dovani need a true independent team of investigators as we will provide to make sure that the truth is revealed and nothing but it. However the Security Council and others must be ready to accept that their quick conclusions may not be as accurate as they had thought. We will spare no expense at getting an accurate investigation and we will take our time to see to it that it is done right. We in Utembo do not want foreign interference on this continent and only want what is best for the people of Dovani. We will continue to stand for peace and security in Dovani and we hope we contribute to peace in Terra this way.

The names of the investigators have not been publicly released by the King but some of them were appointed by his Royal Majesty and include several men and women who are keen into understanding the situation in North Dovani as well as finding out about war crimes and such. Utembo has stated that these investigators have nothing to do with the Utembo Government and have no political bias in either way and that they can be trusted however they have warned about respecting Dovani and it's state's wishes. Only time will tell what they will find in the investigations.