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2006 "Stolenwealth" Games to confront Commonwealth Games in Melbourne The possibility of large-scale protests in the face of world media coverage of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, has event organisers and the Government worried. The "Black GST" - which represents Indigenous Genocide, Sovereignty and Treaty - are planning demonstrations at prominent Games events to highlight a range of demands relating to Indigenous rights. Authorities impose vehicle ban on Baghdad As of Friday, the 3rd of March, police will be ordered to confiscate any private vehicle on the roads of Baghdad during a day-time vehicle ban. The restrictions come on top of the regular night time curfew, which ends at 6 AM, when the new curfew will kick in.

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No hotel previously on site of proposed Buffalo, N.Y. hotel location The was no hotel at the proposed Elmwood Village hotel site, but there was one during the Pan-American Exposition in 1901, on the opposite side of the street. However; that hotel, although temporary was not financially successful.

Wikipedia Current Events
Research In Motion agrees to pay NTP Inc. $612.5 million to settle NTP's patent-infringement suit against RIM. NTP had argued RIM's BlackBerry wireless-communication devices use technology patented by NTP. The ruling African National Congress takes 70.3% of the votes in the 2006 South African municipal election. No party in the City of Cape Town claims an outright majority. Russian-Hamas talks, 2006: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in his talks with the Hamas leader Khaled Meshal , calls on Hamas to transform itself into a political organisation, recognise Israel's right to exist, and to keep previous peace accords. Kenya and Sudan, completing trade talks that have gone on since 2001, announce plans to sign a landmark trade agreement. Kenya, which is currently in a drought, is in desperate need of food to feed 3.5 million Kenyans by the end of March, despite the presence of the U.N. food agency. Sudan has had a huge surplus this season. Three Israelis ignite firecrackers in an attempt to detonate gas canisters smuggled into the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth during prayer services, sparking riots and confrontation between thousands of protestors and Israeli police. After a federal judge's ruling, the United States releases transcripts of hearings at Guantanamo Bay. Former U.S. House Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (Rep., CA) is sentenced to eight years and four months in prison, the longest sentence ever for a congressman, for collecting $2.4 million in bribes. British Labour Party MPs close to Gordon Brown call for Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell to resign over her husband, David Mills' alleged acceptance of money from Silvio Berlusconi. The 2006 Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference opens in Beijing. British Rock star Gary Glitter is convicted of the molestation of one 11- and one 12-year-old girl in the town of Vung Tau in southern Vietnam. He is sentenced to 3 years in prison, but may be back in the United Kingdom by December. An Italian parliamentary commission accuses the former Soviet Union of orchestrating the 1981 attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II

Coca growth up in Bolivia, Peru, claims U.S. State Department
A U.S. State Department report claims that coca growth is on the rise in Bolivia and Peru, and is a cause for concern according to them. They claim the victory of Evo Morales in the presidential race in Bolivia is one of the reasons for the rise in coca growing associations known as cocaleros. Morales campaigned on his support for the coca industry.

In a statement, the assistant secretary of state for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement said, "We are concerned about the inability thus far of Bolivia's new president to articulate whether or not he will allow coca eradication and U.S. counter-narcotics assistance to continue." At the time of his electoral victory, Morales claimed that he would support coca growth, but not for use in producing cocaine.

This puts Bolivia and Peru at risk of losing financial aide if they fail to meet international narcotics agreements, according to the U.S. State Department report. The report is one of the frameworks by which the decision is made as to which countries belong on the list of major drug-trafficking and drug-producing countries that the U.S. creates.

Diebold "whistleblower" faces criminal charges in California
Los Angeles County prosecutors have brought three felony charges against Stephen Heller for stealing documents from his employer, the law firm Jones Day.

The legal documents revealed that Diebold Election Systems had used uncertified voting systems in Alameda County elections beginning in 2002. Jones Day represented the controversial electronic voting machine manufacturer at the time.

Mr. Heller has been charged with felony access to computer data, commercial burglary and receiving stolen property. He has pled not guilty.

Blair Berk, Heller's attorney said, "It's a devastating allegation for a whistle-blower. Certainly, someone who saw those documents could have reasonably believed that thousands of voters were going to be potentially disenfranchised in upcoming elections."

No hotel previously on site of proposed Buffalo, N.Y. hotel location
Buffalo, New York – The Common Council requested on Tuesday that a picture be found on what many thought was the site of a previous hotel.

The Proposed Elmwood Village Hotel would be placed on the intersection of Elmwood and Forest. It was suspected by residents and business owners in the area that hotel once stood in the same spot.

The Elmwood Village hotel is a proposed development by Savarino Construction Services Corp. In order for the project to proceed, at least five buildings (1119-1121 Elmwood) would need to be demolished. All five houses are currently occupied by businesses and residents.

After some research, a freelance journalist writing for Wikinews was able to determine that there was never a hotel on the proposed Elmwood Village Hotel site. However; there was a temporary hotel located on the northeast corner of Elmwood and Forest.

Buffalo was the host of the Pan-American Exposition from May 1 until November 2, 1901. It was a fair designed to feature the latest in technology, including electricity. There was a midway, athletic events, and had African, Eskimo, and Mexican villages. However; what is likely the most famous event that took place at the exposition was the assassination of then President William McKinley on September 6, 1901. He was shot by Leon Czolgosz just outside the Temple of Music and died eight days later while in the home of John Milburn on Delaware Avenue in Buffalo. Just a short time later, Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated on September 14, 1901 at the Wilcox House on Delaware Avenue in Buffalo. Nearly eight million people attended the exposition.

During that time several hotels and rooming houses were built around the exposition including The Elmwood at 717 Elmwood, the Hotel Elmhurst at Forest and Lincoln Parkway, Hotel Gibbs 1005-1021 Elmwood, the R. Palmerton Merritt at 441 Forest and The Norman at 422 Forest. None of these hotels or rooming houses exist today.

Probably the most famous hotel that was built during the exposition was the Statler's Pan-American Hotel built by Ellsworth Milton Statler A freelance journalist writing for Wikinews has obtained the only known reproduction photo of the hotel [pictured at the top]. The hotel stood on the northeast corner of Elmwood and Forest Avenues in Buffalo, had 2,100 sleeping rooms and accommodations for 5,000. At the time, the Statler was the largest hotel [based on the number of rooms] ever constructed. It was also the largest temporary hotel. It was three stories high, plastered on the inside, made mostly of wood and was covered with ornamental staff on the outside, which made it semi-fireproof. Every room was an outside room and was well lighted and ventilated. It was located within one block of the exposition's main entrance.

The Statler was built for only one thing, the exposition. Work began in 1900 and finished just before the begining of the exposition. When the exposition ended in November, the hotel was taken down.

Maps from 1894 show that there was no hotel, let alone any buildings or houses on the intersection. However; research did show that the homes 1119-1121 Elmwood, the buildings that would be demolished to build the Elmwood Village Hotel, were built sometime before 1915 but were not on the intersection prior to 1902.

Based on research conducted at the Buffalo Historical Society, it was concluded that between the years of 1890 and 1902, no other major hotel existed in the area. In fact, research had shown that almost every hotel built in the area, existed only during the time of the exposition.

Research also indicated a hotel or a rooming house at 1089 Elmwood around 1901-1903. The only known name of the hotel was the John C. Hill Hotel. The hotel was in the house now called the Atwater House. The house was the first house to be built on the east side of the block.

The Atwater House is currently vacant and owner Pano Georgiadis wants to demolish it to expand his resturant. The house was built by 1894 and the original owner and builder of the house is currently unknown. It earliest known occupant was Edward Atwater who in 1862 founded the oil refinery company of Atwater & Hawes in Buffalo. The site of this company was recently uncovered in the Canal District during an archeological dig.

At the moment, current research does not show any connection between the two men.

Statler's Pan-American Hotel was financially unsuccessful

The exposition was a commercial failure and what profit Statler did make on the hotel, went to build another temporary hotel for the 1904 St. Louis Exhibition. That hotel was successful and the profit made from it was used to build the first permanent Statler Hotel at 107 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo. The hotel is no longer in operation, but small offices are currently operating in parts of the building.

Black Box Voting finds anomalies in electronic voting logs of 2004 U.S. election
Last June, Black Box Voting successfully sued Palm Beach county, Florida for their audit record of the 2004 presidential election. The organization, which opposes most current electronic voting initiatives, examined the machines logs and recently released a report of their findings.

Black Box Voting claims that "The internal logs of at least 40 Sequoia touch-screen voting machines reveal that votes were time and date-stamped as cast two weeks before the election, sometimes in the middle of the night [after the Logic & Accuracy tests but before the election]."

Such access, they claim, requires "a high degree of inside access", but represents a "hasty or clumsy" intrusion. The Hursti experiments have demonstrated that such access need not leave any trace if done carefully.

The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, Arthur Anderson, has responded that his staff investigated the problem and found the votes to be normal, but that "the dates somehow changed." Jeff Darter, an IT official for Palm Beach County, has declined a request, by a member of the Palm Beach County electronic voting technical committee, for the identities of the individuals who had access to the machines.

Black Box Voting also claims that the logs provide support for claims by some voters that the wrong candidate was selected when they tried to vote. In addition, there appear to be numerous operator errors resulting in date, or other, inconsistencies.

Today in History
1770 - Boston Massacre: The pelting of snowballs at British soldiers during a military occupation soon escalated into a riot in Boston.

1872 - George Westinghouse patented the air brake for trains to stop more reliably.

1918 - Bolshevist Russia moved its capital from Petrograd to Moscow.

1946 - Winston Churchill used the term "Iron Curtain" in a speech at Westminster College in Missouri, USA.

1970 - The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty entered into force.

March 05 is

Quote of the Day

"Freedom only for the members of the government, only for the members of the Party — though they are quite numerous — is no freedom at all. Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters." ~ Rosa Luxemburg

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