LETTERS............................................ 1

NATION. 

A FRIENDSHIP AFFIRMED ..................... 2 Emerging from his recuperative seclusion, the King of Altland this week played host to BWA leader and Westrian Chancellor Max Suchy at the inauguration of the University of Bedavale's Royal College of Diplomacy. Result: strengthened ties.

RAAF: GROUNDED FOR GOOD? ........... 3 Less than a year after an unprecedented outlay of funds for the establishament of an Air Force, leaders of the Great Council's interim representation seriously ask whether the air branch is any longer needed.

THE VEX 

SAN PATRICIO UNDER SIEGE ............... 4 The Da's new Secretary, Lic. Jorge Vittorio O'Connor FitzSimmons, faces his first international crisis as the recently proclaimed Kingdom of Ordland attempts to exercise its "Lordship and Protectorate" over all of the old Empire of Mauretanie, starting with the island of Joos and the city of Nova Luxa. With the Union's defense forces stuck at state-of-the-art circa 218, can the Secretary's diplomatic skills alone save the day for San Pat?

ORDLANDIC OR JUST OUTLANDISH? 6 A volatile nation stages a change of constitution and a volte-face in foreign policy: with unabashed imperial pretensions, Ordland flexes the military muscle gotten by the sale of Nova Luxa in the attempt to annul that very act and also acquire Joos, an abandonned colony of Morania recently administed by San Patricio.

 BUSINESS

ANOTHER MEGADEAL AHEAD? ............ 7 Why did Westrian chancellor Suchy spend so much time schmoozing with TDCorp's representatives at the opening of the RSD in Bedavale? Informed sources at the event had it that an unprecedented real estate deal involving Woo and the Greater Burovian Realm may be in the works. What would be its impact Vex-wide?

SPORTS

THE VROOM BOOM ................................ 9 Vexillians, start your engines. Once a minor diversion enjoyed in only a few countries, autoracing of various kinds has recently zoomed to the forefront of Vexillian sports. Even auto-unmotivated Altland sent one driver to the most recent event in Whitlam. Can the Vex sustain its enthusiasm for this expensive new sport?

CULTURE

ULANOVA: THE GRAND KUKOV ..........10 Ulanova's government may be struggling to reestablish order and stability, but in Dr. Lavrenti Kukov it has found the Vex's most ambitious and prolific historian. The only question the first volume of his magnum opus leaves unanswered is whether or not anyone will ever read the whole work. Our reviewer claims he has.

MILLSTONES..................................... 10