Morning Brief, Wednesday, March 21

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United States

President Bush’s dispute with Congress over the booted federal prosecutors threatens to blow up into a constitutional crisis.

Al Gore returns to Congress, this time to tangle with climate change skeptic James Inhofe, Senator from Oklahoma. Expect comedic results.

Middle East

Iraqi insurgents put two children in a car loaded with explosives, used them as decoys, and blew them up, according to a Pentagon briefer.

The Palestinians took in more aid in 2006 than in 2005, despite the international boycott. 

Paying bribes to get business deals in Iran? Shocking. By the way, doing business in the Islamic Republic may be bad for your financial health, the U.S. warns. (Backstory here in our interview with Congressman Tom Lantos).

Europe

French voters enjoy a panoply of choices for president, including a farmer who attacked a McDonald’s restaurant in 1999. Together, fringe candidates are polling as high as 12 percent.

“Independence is the only option for a politically stable and economically viable Kosovo,” writes the U.N.’s designated negotiator in a leaked letter.

It’s a Latin America-EU banana tariff smackdown at the World Trade Organization.

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown says goodbye with a big package of new expenditures and tax cuts.

Asia

Japan and China are pals again, but this oil and gas dispute could provoke a new rift. 

China opened its new Postal Savings Bank, which aims to serve neglected rural customers. 

Elsewhere

Mogadishu is erupting in violence, with seven killed so far. 

From Guantánamo to the statehouse? An ex-terror detainee is running for office in Australia.

This just in: There’s rampant corruption in Nigeria.

Paypal funds boosted a rocket into space.