Sofitel removes French flags from hotels.

Remember the story about Iraq possibly getting material for a dirty bomb from Nigeria? Which company “lost” the material in the first place? Cheney’s own Halliburton.

A carnival float shows paper mache figure of German conservative opposition leader Angela Merkel emerging from the buttocks of Uncle Sam during the traditional Rose Monday carnival parade in Duesseldorf, March 3, 2003. Merkel has strongly criticized the German government’s anti-Iraq war stance and recently visited Washington. The Rose Monday parades in Cologne, Mainz and Duesseldorf are the highlight of the German street carnival season.

[via Boing Boing]

Government agencies opened a package mailed between two Associated Press reporters last September and seized a copy of an eight-year-old unclassified FBI lab report without obtaining a warrant or notifying the news agency. [via Atrios]

It’s probably American — possibly named after an Albany chef named Joseph French.

ACT UP has photos and a statement from its protest of Roche’s new drug Fuzeon’s cost: $25,000 per year.

A few more photos may be found here.

From the French Embassy:

The French Embassy in Washington said French fries actually come from Belgium.

“We are at a very serious moment dealing with very serious issues and we are not focusing on the name you give to potatoes,” said Nathalie Loisau, an embassy spokeswoman.

Get Your War On 21 has arrived.

The newspapers won’t even print the title, but Suzan-Lori Parks’ new play Fucking A, is the hottest ticket in New York.

My mother is coming to New York at the end of the month, and we already have tickets to take her. We’re also taking her to see a real musical instead of the crap that Broadway produces these days: People Are Wrong at P.S.122.

I suspect most tourists would rather ignore a porn shop than risk getting shot.

Eight people were shot and two were stabbed when fighting broke out in a crowded Times Square nightclub early yesterday, sending people rushing for the exits over the bodies of those wounded in the fray.

Though two of those hurt in the second-floor club at the Broadway City Arcade on West 42nd Street were in critical condition, no one was killed, authorities said.

I don’t recall things like this happening too often before Rudolph “bring my mistress to official events” Giuliani decided to make Times Square safe for Disney and chain restaurants.