Car bomb injures 18 in Thai south: police

A car bomb exploded Sunday in a city in Thailand's insurgency-plagued far south, injuring 18 people, including four soldiers, police said.
The blast outside a bank started a large fire that swept through nearby shops in Yala, the main city in one of three provinces near the Malaysian border that have been under emergency rule since 2005.
"There was a bomb hidden in a fire extinguisher in a pick-up truck parked in front of a grocery shop near Siam City Bank," a local police officer said.
Of the casualties, four were seriously wounded, including three of the soldiers, authorities said.