BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgents killed a Sunni Arab candidate for parliament and tried to blow up a leading Shiite politician in separate attacks today, the last day of campaigning for Iraq's election.

Ali al-Lami, executive director of the Iraqi Electoral Commission, appealed for peace on Thursday, when about 15 million people will be called on to vote in more than 6,200 polling stations.

Insurgents have denounced the election as a "satanic project" but have not threatened to attack polling stations.

Early voting was held Monday for Iraqi security forces, hospital patients and prisoners, and proceeded without problems, al-Lami said. Balloting for Iraqis who live abroad opened today, and began in Australia, where there are up to 20,000 registered Iraqi voters live. They are part of a group of 1.5 million voters living outside Iraq who will cast ballots at polling centers in 15 countries, including the United States, Canada and the Netherlands.

SYDNEY, Australia — The racial unrest that broke out in Sydney's beachside suburbs over the weekend has spread to two other large Australian cities, where people of Middle Eastern descent were assaulted by whites, police said today.In New South Wales, where Sydney is located, lawmakers scheduled an emergency session of the state Parliament to consider legislation cracking down on the rioters who rampaged through the city's suburbs for two straight nights, the region's premier said.Seven people were injured and 11 arrested after youths rioted in the suburbs Monday night, smashing the windows of stores, homes and parked cars. The youths appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, leading police to believe the destruction was in response to racially fueled attacks on a Sydney beach a day earlier.Calling the rioters "ratbags," New South Wales premier Morris Iemma said police would be given special "lockdown" powers to stop convoys from forming and driving into communities to carry out acts of retribution. He also said he would urge lawmakers to pass legislation toughening prison sentences for rioting offenses.Opposition lawmakers have already called for tough new laws and are expected to support the legislation. The state Parliament session is scheduled for Thursday.

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan are learning from tactics used in Iraq to help avert the suicide bombings that are increasingly common among Taliban-led insurgents, a U.S. military official said Monday.A day after the second suicide attack in eight days targeting U.S.-led forces in the southern city of Kandahar, spokesman Lt. Col. Laurent Fox said that "we will continue to look at other measures we can use to stop these bombings that they use to kill innocent civilians."Fox cast a series of suicide attacks by militants in Afghanistan in recent months as a sign of weakness, but he said coalition forces are developing new measures to counter them — and turning to their colleagues in Iraq for tips."We are sharing information with our forces in Iraq, where there are many attacks, and will continue to use that information to fight the problem here," he said at a news conference.By The Associated Press