CELEBRITY SHEEP ENGLAND: A sheep is to turn on the Christmas lights of a Derbyshire town.

Ousted members of Thailand’s former government have turned themselves in to the country’s new military junta, as soldiers forcefully dispersed hundreds of anti-coup activists who defied a ban on large-scale gatherings.

British PM gets on ‘purr-fectly’ with Downing St cat

Dublin has been picked as one of the top five destinations for New Year’s Eve.

The mother of a British backpacker who was killed 12 years ago in Thailand has made an appeal for fresh leads that could help capture her daughter’s killer.

MUSIC NEWS: Pete Doherty’s latest attempts to deal with his addiction issues have ended in failure after he departed a rehab centre in Thailand.

British rocker Pete Doherty has been asked to leave an upmarket drug rehab centre in Thailand, with the centre saying his lack of commitment jeopardised the treatment of other patients.

Troubled rocker Pete Doherty has been thrown out of a rehabilitation clinic in Thailand for disrupting the other patients' treatment and is already en route back to the UK.

EVEN in troubled times, tourism in Thailand appears to be flourishing with the numbers of Irish travellers increasing year on year.

Thailand’s prime minister lifted a state of emergency in three provinces but is keeping the decree in place in Bangkok and six other provinces.

A 90-year-old Australian man has been arrested in Thailand and charged with raping and sexually abusing four young sisters, one of them as young as five, police said today.

CENTRAL Bangkok became a flaming battleground yesterday as an army assault forced anti-government protest leaders to surrender, enraging followers who shot grenades and set fire to landmark buildings, cloaking the skyline in black smoke.

Central Bangkok became a flaming battleground today as an army assault forced anti-government protest leaders to surrender, enraging followers who shot grenades and set fire to landmark buildings, cloaking the skyline in black smoke.

The renegade army general who worked for Thailand’s Red Shirt protesters died today, five days after he was shot by a sniper.

Thailand vowed its main airport will be open by the end of the week after thousands of sit-in protestors succeeded in forcing the country’s prime minister from office today.

THAILAND’S prime minister attended a Buddhist ritual yesterday, seemingly indifferent to a deepening political crisis that has paralysed his government, shut down two main airports and stranded 300,000 foreigners.

More than 300,000 travellers were today stranded in Thailand, trapped in the siege of Bangkok’s two airports by anti-government demonstrators.

ATTACKERS set off explosions at anti-government protest sites yesterday, wounding 51 people and raising fears of widening confrontations in Thailand’s worst political crisis that has strangled its economy and shut down its main airports.

Government supporters from the Thai countryside converged on the capital today to counter rival protesters who seized control of Bangkok’s two airports and forced the prime minister to run the country from afar.

Tensions in Thailand were mounting tonight as stranded holidaymakers were forced to wait it out in Bangkok.

Thousands of stranded tourists will be flown out of Thai military bases in the next 48 hours, the country’s tourism minister promised today.

Thai authorities shut down Bangkok’s second airport today after it was overrun by anti-government protesters, cutting off the capital from air traffic as the prime minister rejected their demands to resign.

THAI prime minister Somchai Wongsawat last night rejected his army chief’s call to quit in the face of anti- government protests that threaten to spiral out of control across the country.

Thailand’s king has pardoned a Swiss man who was given a 10-year sentence for spray-painting over images of the revered monarch.

A SWISS man was jailed for 10 years yesterday for insulting Thailand’s revered king by vandalising his portraits during a drunken spree.

The death toll in the New Year's Eve bombing in the Thai capital Bangkok rose to three today.

Two more bombs exploded in Bangkok just after midnight, wounding seven people, including six foreigners, a Thai television station reported today.

Bangkok's Mayor Apirak Kosayothin ordered the cancellation of the two major public New Year's Eve countdown celebrations and other smaller ones following six or more bomb blasts in the city today.

A 5.7-magnitude earthquake in Burma’s Shan State was felt in several provinces of northern Thailand, the Thai meteorology department said today.

Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova donated €7,000 to victims of the deadly tsunami disaster in Thailand when she arrived in the country today.

More than 9,300 people across Asia were killed today after one of the most powerful earthquakes on record triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into coastlines in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand and Malaysia.

The most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive waves that swamped coastlines across Asia today, killing more than 5,600 people in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand and Malaysia.

The death toll in the massive south-east Asian earthquake and tidal wave tragedy has passed more than 3,000 people today.

More than 2,000 of people have been killed today as one of the most-powerful earthquakes in years triggered massive tidal waves slammed into coastlines across Asia.

THE name of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has become synonymous with the colour red.

Nine British tourists have reported they have been raped in Thailand since the beginning of last year, the British Embassy in Bangkok said today.

US investigators believe an explosion that destroyed a Thai Airways jet last month may have been caused by an exploding fuel tank.