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.

Dutch voters, after rejecting a draft constitution for Europe four years ago, delivered a solid bloc for anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders to take to Europe’s parliament, exit polls showed Thursday.
Underscoring skepticism over further European integration, Wilders’ right-wing Freedom Party appeared set to win four out of 25 contested seats in elections for the European Parliament being held over the next four days.
Wilders, who says the Koran incites violence, said he would stop Turkey’s bid to join the bloc, an issue that causes deep fissures among the 27 European Union member …

The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, resigned on Saturday in a move intended to pave the way for a power-sharing deal between the two rival Palestinian political forces – Hamas and Fatah.
But Hamas officials quickly rebuffed Mr Fayyad’s announcement, casting doubt on whether or not his gesture would help lead to reconciliation between the sides.
The main goal of such a government would be to end the current situation in which the militant Hamas movement rules the Gaza Strip and Fatah, considered more moderate and supported by the West, rules the …

The EU’s foreign policy chief has hailed a decision by the Afghan electoral commission upholding August 20 for the country’s second presidential vote.
“The European Union attaches the utmost importance to the holding of free and inclusive elections in Afghanistan,” Javier Solana said in a statement Wednesday.
“The elections are essential to guarantee the participation of the people of Afghanistan in the democratic process of state-building.

The president of Latvia plans to name on Thursday a new prime minister who will have to deal with a deepening economic crisis and try to reassure investors the country will stick to painful budget cuts.
The pressure on the small Baltic nation to form a new government quickly increased after ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on Tuesday gave a junk debt rating to Latvia, only the second EU nation to go below investment grade after Romania.
“We are planning Thursday (to name a new prime minister),” said the spokeswoman for President …

Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been sworn in as prime minister in a unity government with President Robert Mugabe.
Mr Tsvangirai won the first round of last year’s presidential election – but he withdrew from the run-off, citing violence against his supporters.
However he later agreed to share power with Mr Mugabe.
Problems facing the new government include a cholera epidemic, a collapsed economy and a 90% unemployment rate.

Posters showing sinister black crows pecking away at a map of Switzerland have added controversy to Sunday’s referendum on whether to extend the country’s free movement agreement with European Union.
The stark imagery has been used by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, or Schweizerische Volkspartei (SVP), in a repeat of the controversial racial imagery that made it Switzerland’s largest political grouping during elections last year.
The latest SVP poster echoes its Oct 2008 campaign image which played on popular resentment of immigrants by showing a group of white sheep kicking a …

A referendum on extending the freedom of movement for workers within the European Union to Bulgaria and Romania, who joined the EU on 1 January 2007, and on removing the sunset clause from the agreement will be held in Switzerland on 8 February 2009. Should Swiss voters reject the continuation and extension, the EU is likely to invoke the so-called “Guillotine clause” to terminate all agreements made as part of the Bilaterals I and Bilaterals II.

Iceland is to hold early election amid growing protests over the coalition government’s failure to avert a financial collapse that has left the island’s economy in tatters.
Below are some questions and answers on what happens next:
WILL THERE BE A SNAP ELECTION AND WHEN?
With leaders of both coalition parties coming out in favour, remaining doubts about an early election have been removed.

George Abela is a Maltese politician