In Iraq, at least eight people have been killed in three near-simultaneous car bomb explosions in the city of Kirkuk. Head of the provincial medical health department said, another 68 people were wounded in the triple attack today in the west of the oil-rich city. He said they are being treated at Kirkuk General Hospital and Azadi hospital. Kirkuk, 240 kilometres from Baghdad, is populated by a mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, and is the capital of the province of the same name. It is at the centre of a tract of disputed territory claimed by the central government in Baghdad as well as Kurdish authorities in the north, who want it incorporated into their autonomous region.