U.S. Sen. Jim Webb obtained the release Saturday of American John Yettaw, who had been sentenced to seven years of hard labor in Myanmar for visiting detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Webb will accompany Yettaw to Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday on a military aircraft, his office said.
Webb also met for about 40 minutes Saturday with Suu Kyi, a witness said. It was not known what they discussed.

Thousands of supporters of ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra held their first anti-government rally Saturday since their protests earlier this month turned violent and were forcibly stopped by the army.
Meanwhile, one of Thaksin’s chief critics was released from a hospital Saturday under tight security, eight days after a brazen assassination attempt left bullet shards in his skull.

Abhisit “Mark” Vejjajiva, a Thai political figure, has been the leader of the Democrat Party since February 2005.

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Abhisit Vejjajiva — a patrician 44-year-old with an Oxford education — became Thailand’s prime minister on Monday amid hopes that he can calm the political storms that have battered the country for the past three years.
But untested at the pinnacle of power and said to lack decisiveness, he could face one of the roughest rides in modern Thai history.

Airport security arrive at the besieged Suvarnabhumi international airport in Bangkok in the preparation for reopening the airport, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008.

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Victorious anti-government protesters lifted their siege of Bangkok’s two airports Wednesday while leaders of the ousted government named a caretaker prime minister to lead the politically chaotic kingdom.
The country’s immediate crisis, which virtually severed Thailand’s air links to the outside world for a week, appeared to be over and the People’s Alliance for Democracy said it was ending six months of daily anti-government protests. But the alliance warned it would be on the streets again if a new government tried to return to its past …

Thailand’s constitutional court has dissolved the governing People Power Party (PPP) saying there had been vote fraud during the last election.
The party’s leaders, including Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, were also banned from politics for five years.
But, under the constitution most of its MPs can keep their seats under another party name, and should be able to form another government, correspondents say.

BANGKOK (AFP) — A grenade attack killed an anti-government protester at a besieged Bangkok airport Tuesday, as further unrest forced a key hearing on the possible dissolution of the ruling party to move.
The incidents raised tensions in an increasingly bloody political stand-off that began a week ago, stranding about 350,000 frustrated travellers and causing massive damage to Thailand’s economy.

PARIS: France’s government is chartering a wide-body aircraft to help return home French nationals stranded in Thailand by the closure of Bangkok’s two civilian airports.
The plane is to leave France Monday and return Wednesday. The government says its efforts complement those of private-sector carriers.
The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday that French nationals who have made themselves known to France’s embassy in Bangkok will benefit from the flight, with priority for the “most urgent” cases.

Thai protesters are leaving the prime minister’s office after a three-month sit-in, moving instead to reinforce a paralysing anti-government blockade of the country’s two airports.
Leaders of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) trying to force Somchai Wongsawat, the prime minister, to resign said on Monday they were worried by recent grenade attacks.
The attacks have killed two protesters and wounded dozens more at Government House, the prime minister’s office, in the capital Bangkok.