Chancellor Blaine made an appearance before the Senate today to answer questions regarding the recent assassination attempt on the Emperor's life. The Chancellor remained stoic as he once again turned aside calls to clarify the line of succession, saying:

"I have been assured that the attempted attack on our beloved Emperor has not had any overly adverse effects on his health. The would be assassin has undone much of the good work that had been made towards his majesty's recovery. Yet the Emperor still lives. In time, I am confident he will be with us again."

"Thanks to the tireless efforts of agents working on behalf of Princess Arissa, the assassin has been captured and is currently undergoing questioning. We don't expect to learn anything useful from the tool herself, but security forensic techs are analysing everything about the traitor’s life as we speak. Have no doubt. We will find who ordered the attack, and we will bring them to justice."

The fortunes of societies least fortunate may finally be changing this week, as Senator Torval has accepted a challenge to go head to head with the Diva Duval to prove once and for all whose position the citizens of the Empire truly support.

Senator Torval and the Imperial Society will be buying up all the unregulated Slaves they can get their hands on at Lagerkvist Gateway in Synteini.

Aisling Duval, in association with Stop Slavery Stupid and the Empire Party, will be accepting donations of Imperial Slaves (with the express intention of setting them free) at Mackenzie Relay in Cemiess.

If Aisling wins, Senator Torval has sworn to set free any Slaves brought to her training centres during the course of the wager.

If Senator Torval wins, Aisling has agreed to take on a personal contingent of Imperial Slaves for no less than one year.

Citizens can show their support by signing up to deliver Slaves or Imperial Slaves to the candidate of their choice at the stations mentioned above.

After Shadow President Hudson’s scathing attack on President Halsey earlier this morning, Vice President Naylor has sworn to continue his support of President Halsey.

“The President has had to make some hard decisions. Is she always right? That’s not for me to say. What I can say is that if I were in her shoes, having to make decisions based on the same information, I would have almost certainly made the same decisions.”

“Loss of life is always regrettable, as is the loss of any member states from our great galactic Federation. However, none of that justifies the vitriol displayed by Shadow President Hudson earlier today.”

“We all know Hudson is desperate to get into office, but in the Federation it is the people who choose their leader, and they didn’t choose him. They chose Jasmina Halsey to serve as President, and until the people say otherwise, it is President Halsey I follow.”

Aisling Duval was in the spotlight again last night, as the diva Duval took to the streams on the popular Imperial talk show, ‘A Fireside Chat with Serena’.

Aisling started the show with some high praise for her ‘Angels’ , who have been working hard to remove all unruly elements on Cemiess.

“What they’ve done, it’s just so uplifting, you know. To know that I, like, inspire people like that. It’s just really great, y’know. Especially when certain people, certain ancient, misguided, possibly evil people think that what you’re doing is stupid. It’s not stupid. It’s slavery that’s stupid, Serena. Everyone knows that.”

When asked if she was referring to Senator Torval, Aisling simply laughed and said:

“Oh Serena, I thought we were talking about important things, not some old has-been. My Angels would wipe the floor with her Slavers any day of the week. I know deep down our citizens want to do the right thing.”

The NVIDIA labs, in association with Reynhardt IntelliSys, are pleased to announce that prototypes of the GeForce GTX Titan Black graphics card are now available for purchase from one exclusive outlet.

A masterpiece of engineering, the NVIDIA Geforce GTX Titan Black represents the cutting edge of display technology. It balances a sleek design with uncompromising performance and unparalleled processing power, making the Titan Black one of the most desirable display modules in the entire galaxy. To celebrate the pre-release of the new module, NVIDIA are offering 5 lucky pilots the opportunity to win a commercial grade GTX Titan Black. Winning the competition couldn’t be simpler*.

The first 5 pilots to sell a canister of NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Black Prototypes back to NVIDIA HQ aboard Godel Ring will be rewarded with a commercial model as soon as they become available. The only problem is NVIDIA isn’t saying where the prototypes are being sold.

Happy hunting Commanders.

• Entrants must have transported the prototypes under the Pilots Federation rules of 'open play' to be eligible to win.

In an open letter addressed for the attention of Senator Kahina Tijani Loren, Alliance representatives from Alioth have extended an invitation for her to visit their star-systems with the assurance the her trip will be free from “bungling bureaucracy, petty-minded procrastinators and deranged docking debacles.”

Apparently Lady Kahina’s visit was placed on the agenda at a recent diplomatic exchange between the Alliance and the Federation with assurances sought by Alliance representatives that “somebody competent would be checking the paperwork in detail, and if at all possible, that landing pads could be reserved in advance.”

Lady Kahina is currently being entertained on Earth, where she was greeted by enthusiastically cheering crowds on arrival at the historic Cambridge spaceport before being taken to London to be met by Ambassador Waite.

The Mail on Mars even commented that “We should have more Senators drop in for visit, she’s done more for Imperial Federation relations in a month than all those ambassadors have done in decades.”

In a press release submitted to GalNet news, Commander Swift Arrow is announcing his recent return from the NGC 3199 Nebula. Swift Arrow is claiming to be the first explorer to fully map out the entire NGC 3199 Sector, and the 2nd explorer to visit the nebula (the 1st was Commander Celmascant). According to the data turned in to Universal Cartographics, all but 5 of the 750 systems in the NGC 3199 Sector have been fully scanned for the first time by Swift Arrow.

The 35,000 light year journey started with an excursion to the Butterfly Nebula before heading to NGC 3199 and finally back to civilized space, a trip lasting approximately 5 weeks. Representatives from the Sirius Corporation, Patron's Principles, Chapter of Isinor, the Alioth Independents and the Sublime Order of Van Maanen's Star have expressed great interest Swift Arrow's findings. The data was sold piece meal to each organization, who made various bids ranging from 7.1 to 11.2 million credits for specific high value systems. However, the largest bidder by far was the Patron's Principles, who paid a whopping 37.3 million credits for a lion's share of the data. The total value of the exploration data was just shy of 71 million credits.

Swift Arrow has issued a statement saying that he intends to release a guide to the NGC 3199 sector shortly in order to aid future explorers in further research of the area, including a short list of recommended points of interest and systems to avoid.

The past fortnight has seen a devastating war rage through the once peaceful nation of Lugh.

The Crimson State Group, led by Éamonn Uí Laoghire, has long sought to establish Lugh as an independent system. However, it wasn’t until Éamonn attempted to gain support from Alliance officials that things began to get violent.

Fearful that yet another rich, powerful system would soon leave the Federal fold, President Jasmina Halsey ordered the Federal Navy to suppress the populist uprising. Thousands of Federal pilots flocked to obey the President’s command, and in the early stages of the war, the Federation dominated the skies of Lugh. Countless Sons (and daughters) of Conn lost their lives in an attempt to stop the Federal Navy from simply crushing the rebel forces.

Their sacrifice bought time for the Crimson State Group to come up with a plan. As the Federation continued to rampage its way through the system, members of the Dukes of Mikunn, Emperor’s Grace and the East India Company engaged in guerrilla tactics to keep the Federation’s attention away from the work being carried out by the main CSG strike force.

Splitting their forces in two, the Crimson State Group focused on obtaining enemy intelligence and collecting weapons for their ground troops. All the while, they made sure to deliberately avoid engaging in open conflict with the vast Federal fleet.

Despite the valiant efforts of the CSG allied fleet, the Federation managed to tear through the Crimson State’s air defences, exposing the CSG-controlled outposts to a series of attacks by Federal marines. The Federation looked unstoppable as they stormed through Seega Port unchecked.

The strike against Federal civilians by the Federal Navy, coupled with the capture of Hartsfield Market a few hours later, caused mass confusion and disenchantment among Federal pilots operating in the area. Mercenaries who had previously fought for the Federation began defecting en masse, bolstering CSG forces to the point where they almost equalled the Federal forces in size.

As a result of having gained control of Lugh’s satellite defence system during the capture of Hartsfield Market, the Crimson State Group managed to force the retreat of the Federal battlecruiser from its position around Lugh 11. Then, with the help of thousands of mercenary defectors, the Crimson State was able to re-establish control over the majority of Lugh’s airspace.

For now the Federal Navy has retreated to fallback positions in Khaka and other local systems. Reports from Lugh suggest that the Lugh for Equality Party has established a ceasefire with the Crimson State Group, as both parties attempt to agree on what course of action would be best for the people of Lugh.

The system is still rife with unrest. The war has caused the local populace to resent both the Crimson State Group and the Federal Congress. Although the CSG has managed to establish their dominance over the system, whether they can keep it in the face of internal and external opposition still remains to be seen.

Thousands of traders have started flocking back to Kappa Fornacis following the announcement that Onionhead is once again available for sale onboard Harvestport.

Demand for the original strain of Onionhead has remained high over the last few months, despite (or perhaps due to) the Federation’s attempts to completely wipe the plant from the face of the galaxy. Street prices for the totally organic narcotic had skyrocketed by several hundred per cent, although the price is expected to level out again now that a new supply has become readily available.

For now the Onionhead trade on Kappa Fornacis is being allowed to continue unabated, but once the war in Lugh is over, the Federation is sure to turn its attention back to the farmers of Panem.

In what can only be described as a devastating blow for the Federation, the Crimson State Group and the Sons of Conn have managed to wrestle control of Hartsfield Market from the Lugh for Equality Party.

The fighting in the halls of Hartsfield was particularly bloody, with tens of thousands having been killed on both sides of the conflict. Federal forces managed to hold the bridge for almost 78 hours after the rest of the station fell, but the Sons of Conn were eventually able to break through the Federation’s defences to claim their prize.

Reports coming in from Hartsfield Market suggest that the Crimson State Group is currently in the process of accessing the station’s command protocols. They are expected to be in full control of the station shortly.

Hartsfield Market is home to the master controls of Lugh’s military defence network, ownership of which will allow the Crimson State Group to exert their influence across the entire system.