Thailand is in the thick of it...

I hope Buddhist Thailand has the will to stand up to the jihadists.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra called a hasty cabinet meeting on Friday after Muslim militants threw a southern town into chaos with a series of concerted attacks.

Ministers would discuss how to react to the first orchestrated attack on a town since a Muslim insurgency began in the far south in January last year, government spokesman Chalermdej Jombunud said.

A policeman was killed and 23 people were injured in the attacks which brought havoc to Yala, a normally quiet town 1,100 km (690 miles) south of Bangkok, late on Thursday.

Militants set off a series of bombs, some of which hit brought down power transmission pylons and plunged the town into darkness for an hour.

During the blackout, militants on motorcycles fired at random and tossed Molotov cocktails into shops and houses, police said.

They set off bombs at a newly opened cinema complex, a hotel cafe, a karaoke restaurant and a convenience store almost simultaneously.

They scattered spikes on roads around the city in an attempt to hinder the movement of security forces.