Intergalactic News Network - 2/4008 Roundup!

Headline: UF captain collapses during conference
Reported To: INN
Reported On: Earth
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LAZARUS, EARTH - Lorenzo Clement, newly appointed captain of the Union Fleet flagship Versailles, collapsed today while attending a conference on Union-Concordance relations.
He was rushed to an unspecified military medical facility for treatment. Details of his condition are currently unavailable.
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Headline: Perez won't seek new term as OAU SecGen
Reported To: INN
Reported On: Earth
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LAZARUS, EARTH - Secretary General Raymond Perez announced today that he would not seek a third term as leader of the Orion Arm Union, despite his uncontested nomination.
"I have been honored to serve the OAU as Secretary General," Perez told reporters at a conference on Union-Concordance relations. "We have been through a trying war and its aftermath, but I think now is a time to step aside and allow someone new to take the reins."
The Secretary General's current term expires on July 1, 4008.
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Headline: Concordance may push Nexus access hike
Reported To: INN
Reported On: Earth
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LAZARUS, EARTH - The Nexus Concordance, which currently controls access to the Multiverse Nexus, may increase annual fees that the Orion Arm Union must pay to use the gateway.
The Nall ambassador, Olak of Hatch Vril, said through a translator: "The days of the Orion Arm Union's post-war sympathy discount are coming to a rapid close. We expect your government to pay twenty percent more than previous annual levels. Further, we demand that all ships - civilian and military - be subject to unquestioned inspections by Concordance military intercept vessels."
Secretary General Raymond Perez said the Union Council would take the demands under advisement.
"However," Perez told reporters, "we think the Orion Arm Union already pays plenty and there's not a nanite's chance in a degausser that we're letting the Nall have open access to our military vessels."
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Headline: Stillman University receives 1-billion credit honorarium
Reported To: SBS
Reported On: Sivad
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ENAJ ARCOLOGY, SIVAD - Philanthropic polydenum mogul Maurice Cabot Godwin today announced that he would make the largest donation ever to prestigious Abermarle Stillman University.
An alum of the research college who graduated in 3957, Godwin graduated with dual degrees in chemistry and geology before founding MCG Energy Initiatives.
"It is my hope that Stillman can invest the money in such a way as to revolutionize energy efficiency and create a better tomorrow for us all," Godwin said.
Ludwig Davenport, president of the university, praised the contribution as nothing short of astonishing. "We weren't hurting for money, of course, but a gift of this magnitude will open many doors."
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Headline: Time capsule discovered below convention center
Reported To: INN
Reported On: Mars
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HESPERIA, MARS - Construction workers tunneling under the Emerson Mauthus Convention Center for a new underground transit system discovered a coffin-sized metallic time capsule this afternoon.
"We were grinding away at the stone with the sonic drillers when the sensors pinged on it," said Manny Edgewood, shift supervisor for Underworks Corporation. "Gave us a scare because we thought at first that maybe we'd hit on an old cemetery or something, which would have put a huge hole in our construction timetable."
According to a plate on the capsule, it was buried almost exactly 1,000 years ago when the convention center's original incarnation was built.
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Headline: UF captain may die for real this time
Reported To: INN
Reported On: Earth
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LAZARUS, EARTH - Captain Lorenzo Clement, commanding officer of the Union Fleet flagship Versailles, has shown no signs of improving and likely would die if taken off life support, doctors say.
Normally, this wouldn't be a major issue. Union Fleet personnel who die are simply resurrected in the Lazarus Corporation facility on Earth - a process that Clement has undergone at least twice before, according to fleet records. However, Clement apparently filed a no-resurrection request with the military about three months before taking command on the Versailles. If his request is honored, his body will die and his consciousness and memories will be purged from Lazarus Corporation's memory banks.
It is unknown at this time why Clement filed the request.
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Headline: Captain's mother approves support shutdown
Reported To: INN
Reported On: Earth
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LAZARUS, EARTH - Famed pianist Adelia Martinez, mother of Union Fleet Captain Lorenzo Clement, has given doctors permission to take her son off life support.
Clement collapsed during a recent interstellar conference. Doctors remain secretive about the malady suffered by Clement, commander of the UF flagship Versailles. However, it was revealed soon after his collapse that Clement had requested not to be revived for a third time using the Lazarus technology.
"I will see that his wish is honored, if it comes to that," Martinez told INN. "However, I am not giving up on my son yet. He is strong. He can pull through this."
Doctors plan to take Clement off the life support machines tomorrow morning.
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Headline: Clement support shutdown delayed
Reported To: INN
Reported On: Earth
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LAZARUS, EARTH - The Union Fleet this morning ordered a stop to plans to take Captain Lorenzo Clement off life support.
Fleet officials tell INN that the order comes in the wake of the discovery of irregularities in the captain's personnel file - particularly the no-resurrection order, which wasn't in the file before Clement's assignment to the UFCV Versailles and, according to Commander Rodney Hewl aboard the Versailles, wasn't added after the captain took command.
Details about Clement's condition remain undisclosed at this hour.
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