DEADLY BOMB BLAST IN RAMADI

At least seven people have been killed in a suicide car bomb blast in the city of Ramadi in western Iraq. A number of people were injured in the explosion at a police checkpoint in the north of the city. The blast near Ramadi, in Anbar province, happened at about 0830 local time (0530 GMT) today. The victims included both police officers and civilians. Ramadi - a former insurgent stronghold in Anbar - has been relatively calm since local Sunni tribal leaders sided with the US-led coalition forces in 2006.