USA TODAY: Clashes between Hong Kong police and protesters overnight Sunday and Monday morning marked a violent escalation for the more than two month-old pro-democracy movement in the South China port city, where many residents resent the restrictions that Beijing has set on the territory’s next leadership elections in 2017.
To increase pressure on Hong Kong authorities, who have made zero concessions to protesters’ demands but allow major thoroughfares to remain blocked, a leading student group urged protesters Sunday night to surround government headquarters in Admiralty, close to the main protest site in the city’s financial district.
Running battles ensued for hours as riot police deployed pepper spray, batons and water hoses to stop activists storming government buildings and laying siege to the office of Hong Kong’s embattled Chief Executive, Leung Chun-ying. Some protesters held yellow umbrellas, the symbol of the pro-democracy movement, and many wore hard hats, masks and goggles to ward off the effects of pepper spray… (more)
