Hello and welcome to this week's edition of The Neopian News Brief, your all-in-one summary of everything that's happened in Neopia during the past week, from the perplexing passageways of the Space Station to the arid acreage of the Lost Desert. There are quite a few exciting new developments to discuss today, so let's not delay any further...
 Our lead item is Wednesday's celebration commemorating the one year anniversary of Meridell's discovery. To honour the event, a whole host of new items and activities related to the debut of this pastoral paradise were released. Among the highlights were a quartet of marrow-related prizes, which will be given out to those who correctly guess the weight of the marrow that sits on display each day (including some bizarre marrow sandals... how'd they do that?!?).
 There were also four new Meridell plushies hitting the shelves of the Toy Shop. Those featured included a Draik Guard, Whinny, Symol, and none other than King Skarl himself. Ye Olde Food Shoppe observed the festivities by premiering a quartet of stuffed peppers, while the Book Shop released four titles relating to Meridell. However, the biggest news of all may have come the following day, as a new petpet, the Gallion, made its way into Meridell. Hurray!
 Speaking of big news from Meridell, another major story has been the arrival of some new Random Events, many that are at least somewhat related to this celebrated land o' plenty. Among the new occurances you can expect to stumble upon: a sudden torrent of Mortog showers, the rather abrupt imposition of a 5% tax (courtesy of his majesty King Skarl), a dungtastic encounter that leaves you momentarily disoriented (however, once you've regained your faculties, you'll recognise exactly where you are), and a seismic shock that's sure to send you scrambling.
 Plus, just as we went to press, two more Random Events were added; one where Fyora requests your presence in Faerieland, and another (extremely rare) Random Event that has your Petpet finding a Petpetpet in its midsts. However, there was a Random Event debuting this week that we haven't told you about, but we're keeping that one secret. After all, it wouldn't be any fun if we went and told you everything, now would it?
 There was also quite a bit of news in the home improvement department this week, as a number of items were released that would be ideally suited for the decoration of your NeoGarden or NeoHome. Things got started on Tuesday with a new collection of flowers that arrived at the Garden Centre. Give your botanically-inclined backyard a lift with an arrangement of Kougral lillies or Kau slips.
 Or perhaps, you could go for a huge upgrade by adding one of the four new ponds that received their premiere on Thursday. Sure, high demand might make them a steep investment, but who can resist the thought of putting in a pastel perfection, blue paradise or tropical delight pond? Also, for those of you with budgetary constraints, consider the stylishly simple pond. Not only will its beauty take your breath away, but its slightly lower cost will help to relieve some of the stress on your wallet.
 On the merchandising front, this was actually one of the busier weeks in recent memory. It all began on Monday, with an announcement that two new doorhangers (spotted Kau and blue Kougra) would be arriving soon at Limited Too. However, they won't be showing up alone... they'll be joined by a fleet of Faerie Poogle plushies! That was followed on Wednesday by a sneak peek of two upcoming Neopets products. First up was a glance on the Neocam of Adventures in Neopia, an excellent new board game (we should know, we've played it... and it OWNZ!!!) that will be turning up in stores before long.
 The other preview on Wednesday was of two cards (Illusen and Commander Garoo) that will be part of first set released for the Neopets Trading Card Game, which should hit stores in about six weeks. Thursday brought word that Faerie Poogle shirts would be available from the 99Dogs store on Saturday, while Friday's New Features included a mention that this month would include "lots of sneak previews of our Magazine, Playstation game and Trading Card game." Excellent!
 Just as we were wrapping up this week's News Brief, a fantastic new game was released, and we knew it just had to be mentioned. By the time you read this, you'll know that I could only be talking about Raiders of Maraqua. In Raiders, you control Karpoh the Koi, an ambitious young adventurer who really wants to make a good impression with his pirate bosses. Eagerly volunteering to enter the ruins of Maraqua, Karpoh figures that the mission will be no trouble. After all, everybody knows there's nothing down there, except for all the treasure that Karpoh can possibly carry away, right?
 Wrong... dead wrong. Our ambitious adventurer is far from alone. As it turns out, the ruins of Maraqua are filled with a small army of hostile locals, who greedily guard their treasure from any stranger trying to take what's rightfully theirs. Now, since this game is brand new, we can't really offer much in the way of tips or strategy. However, we can offer this one bit of advice: watch your back! The locals are relentless, and they've got no patience for a covetous Koi with dreams of striking it rich at their expense...
 It's now time to take a closer look at today's headlines from the floor of the exchange. After withstanding a streak where the Neodaq suffered five straight losing weeks, the economy has bounced back to post six consecutive gains, climbing another twenty-two points to break past the 1,000 point mark for the first time in nearly four months. Putting up the largest profit this week was The Smuggler's Cove, which jumped an impressive twenty NPs a share. This marks the third time in four weeks that SMUG has put up a double digit gain, nearly quadrupling the company's value in the span of a month. Also impressing investors was Fish Pops!, whose fifteen point rise took them to 134 NPs a share, placing them back at #1 after one week of trailing Meri Acre Sausages. SSGS slipped to number two as their shares tumbled twelve points, closing out the week at 115 NPs.
 However, that wasn't our biggest decline of the week. That dubious honour belongs to Shoyrux, who nearly gave back all of last week's twenty-five point gain by plunging twenty points. So then, with the overall economy flourishing as the top two companies remain relatively stable, a sort of Neopian middle class has emerged, with eight companies currently valued between thirty and sixty NPs. Of those eight companies, all but one of them (Hubert's Hot Dogs) was valued at sixteen NPs or lower at some point during the previous month. If you snatched up their shares when they were down, you should be making out handsomely now....
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