Temporary Thai truce on eve of king's birthday

Protesters and police observed a temporary truce Wednesday as Thailand prepared to mark the birthday of its revered king, after police had stepped back in a dramatic move to calm violent clashes. In the day's only significant demonstration, hundreds of protesters descended on the national police headquarters in Bangkok's glitzy downtown shopping district, where police allowed them to cut barbed wire and pull away sections of a concrete barrier. The prevailing mood was calm in the capital, as demonstrators joined Bangkok authorities to clean up the area around Democracy Monument, where tens of thousands have camped out in more than a month of rallies against the embattled government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Some debris has been cleared at battle-scarred areas around key government buildings, which saw ugly clashes with police earlier in the week as demonstrators tried to storm them.