It was billed as a New Year’s Eve blowout and a last-night celebration of the wildly popular, classy nightclub before it moved to a new location. "Goodbye Santika," the promotion poster read.

Police forensic investigators sifted through the charred remains of an upscale Bangkok nightclub Thursday, seeking clues to a blaze that killed 58 revellers ringing in the New Year and injured 243.

At least 59 people, including a number of foreigners, died when a fire swept through a high-class nightclub jammed with as many as 1,000 New Year’s revelers in the Thai capital, police at the scene said Thursday.

At least 58 people, including a number of foreigners, died when a fire swept through a high-class nightclub jammed with as many as 1,000 New Year’s revelers in the Thai capital, police at the scene said Thursday.

Opponents of new Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Wednesday they would resume protests in the New Year, a day after forcing the premier to move the venue of his first policy speech.

Thailand’s year of almost relentless protests ended on New Year’s Eve, bringing hopes of calmer political waters in 2009 as seemingly weakened demonstrators suspended their siege of Parliament.

Thailand’s new prime minister evaded thousands of protesters blocking Parliament on Tuesday and delivered his first key policy speech in the Foreign Ministry instead, promising to heal the turmoil that has ripped at the country and its tourism-based economy.

Anti-government protesters abandoned their siege of Thailand’s Foreign Ministry building on Tuesday, easing a standoff that threatened to re-ignite a long-running political crisis.

The Thai government has blocked more than 2,300 Web sites over the past year, most of them for allegedly offending the country’s monarchy, a senior official said Tuesday.

Thailand’s new prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva gave his inaugural policy speech Tuesday, but only after protesters blockaded parliament for a second day and forced him to switch the venue.