What is the POD and TL?

[tom]

I just got a newspaper with my cross time scooper.
Anyone got any ideas of what happened?
Rio de la Plata is putting down an attempted revolution.
The Prime Minister of Galicia was assassinated.
Bubonic Plague is spreading through Bukhara and into Khiva.
The Beduin War between Nejd and Hadhramaut is being complicated by the discovery of petroleum.
Rio de Oro and Abyssinia are in a diplomatic crisis over some ambassador's faux pax.
An inventor scientist claims to have discovered a device made of silicon which could replace electronic vacumn devices which he calls a solidtube.

[Legolas]

Somehow I get a feeling that someone has been playing Victoria too much
Otherwise, the world is messed up a LOT...
What is the year of the newspaper? 2003? If so, I say that the technological developments in the world have been somewhat slower than in OTL.

[tom]

Yes, 2003.
What is Victoria? A game? Sounds interesting...

[tom]

See it in the Games section...shoulda looked. Sorry.