FP Morning Brief 3/4

Bombings hit Baghdad as early voting starts

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Top story: Twelve people were killed by suicide bombers in Baghdad today as early voting began in Iraq's parliamentary elections. 25 soldiers were also wounded in an attack on a polling station where security services were voting early.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who are unable to make it to the polls on Sunday -- mostly security personnel and hospital patients -- are voting today. Turnout is high so far for the country's first full parliamentary elections since the U.S. invasion in 2003. Today's attacks follow yesterday's bombing in Baquba which killed 33.
Responding to yesterday's bombing, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said that despite the violence, the U.S. troop pullout from Iraq was still on pace and it would take an "extraordinarily dire turn of events" to reverse it.
Today: The House Foreign Affairs Committee will vote today on a controversial measure to recognize the 1915 killing of Armenian civilians by Turkey as genocide.

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Asia A 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit southern Taiwan, injuring at least 64 people. China is slowing its rise in military spending this year. Japan has offered a new proposal to resolve the dispute over the U.S. military base in Okinawa. Europe Four Islamist militants were convicted for a 2007 plot to attack U.S. targets in Germany. The European Court of Human Rights has begun hearing a case by collapsed oil giant Yukos against the Russian government. Geert Wilders' anti-Islamic Freedom Party made major gains in local elections in the Netherlands. Africa At a meeting with South African President Jacob Zuma in London, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended sanctions against Zimbabwe. The UN has begun talks about withdrawing its troops from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Togolese flocked to the polls today for a presidential election. Middle East Police arrested 11 suspected al Qaeda militants in Yemen. Iran has threatened to withdraw its counter-offer to the IAEA. Americas Brazil's foreign minister says the country "will not bend" to U.S. demands for sanctions against Iran. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Costa Rica today. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denied that his government has links with Spain's ETA rebels, as alleged in a Spanish court case.   -By Joshua Keating

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