Yanukovych under military pressure

Ukraine’s military urged “urgent steps” from president Viktor Yanukovych to ease turmoil in the country, weighing in for the first time on the ex-Soviet nation’s worst crisis since independence.

The army’s call on the embattled leader, who on Thursday took indefinite sick leave, came as protesters refused to leave occupied municipal buildings in Kiev and as the West prepared to receive opposition leaders over the weekend.

It came as a prominent opposition activist who went missing more than a week ago reappeared, saying he had been tortured by unidentified assailants.