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• BANGKOK (AP) -- Protesters in Thailand stormed the grounds of the national army headquarters on Friday, asking the military to support their campaign to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
• In a letter addressed to the army chief, the protesters stopped short of calling for a coup but urged military leaders to "take a stand" in Thailand's spiraling political crisis and state which side they are on.
• The crowd of 1,200 people stayed on the sprawling lawn of the Royal Thai Army compound for two hours before filing out peacefully. It was a bold act heavy with symbolism in a country that has experienced 18 successful or attempted military coups since the 1930s.
• The most recent was in 2006, when the military ousted Yingluck's brother, the former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who is living overseas to avoid a corruption conviction but is central to Thailand's political conflict.
• For the past week, thousands of anti-government protesters have marched in Bangkok in a bid to unseat Yingluck, whom they accuse of serving as a proxy for her billionaire brother. Thaksin is adored by much of the country's rural poor and despised by the educated elite and middle-class who accuse him of widespread corruption and other offenses.
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• VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) -- The European Union extended its geopolitical reach eastward on Friday by sealing association agreements with Georgia and Moldova, but blamed Russia for pressuring Ukraine out of a landmark deal with the 28-nation bloc.
• Even though Friday's summit of government leaders ceremoniously celebrated the closer relations with the two small eastern nations, the refusal of Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych to sign up to a similar deal continued to hang heavy over the meeting.
• "There was pressure for sure," French President Francois Hollande said, adding that Ukraine was heavily leaned on, "notably through gas."

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