HONG KONG - Hong Kong police fired water cannon and volleys of tear gas to disperse protesters throwing petrol bombs at government buildings on Sunday, as months of sometimes violent demonstrations showed no sign of letting up.
Some protesters threw bricks at police outside the Chinese People's Liberation Army base in the city's Admiralty district, and tore down and set fire to a red banner proclaiming the 70th anniversary on Oct. 1 of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in a direct challenge to Beijing.
One water cannon caught fire after being hit by a petrol bomb. The water cannon fired blue jets of water, used elsewhere in the world to help identify protesters later.
"Radical protesters are currently occupying Harcourt Road in Admiralty, vandalizing Central Government Offices and repeatedly throwing petrol bombs inside," police said in a statement.
Thousands of protesters, many clad in black masks, caps and shades to obscure their identity, raced through the streets of the financial hub in cat-and-mouse tactics with police, setting street fires and blocking roads in the heart of the city.
Authorities moved quickly to douse the fires and police fired volleys of tear gas to disperse protesters, including in the bustling shopping and tourist district of Causeway Bay.
Violence erupted in the district of Fortress Hill on the east of the island as men in white T-shirts, some wielding rods, clashed with anti-government activists.
A heavy police presence could be seen in and around subway stations. Rail operator MTR Corp has become a prime target of vandalism, with activists angry that it closes stations during protests and prevents demonstrators from gathering.
Shops in key protest areas once again shuttered early as more than three months of demonstrations continued to take a toll on business.
The Airport Authority said on Sunday passenger numbers fell 12.4% year-on-year in August to six million. Protesters last month jammed the airport arrivals hall, leading to canceled or delayed flights as they sought to draw world attention to their fight for democracy.
But while chaotic scenes of protesters clashing with police have been beamed live to the world - at times under gleaming skyscrapers in the heart of the financial center - life for many in the Chinese-ruled territory proceeds relatively normally.
BRITISH CONSULATE RALLY
While the turnout on Sunday was smaller than previous weekends, the unrest underscores the defiance of many activists.
Demonstrators are angry about what they see as creeping interference by Beijing in their city's affairs despite a promise of autonomy.
The spark for the protests was planned legislation, now withdrawn, that would have allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial.
The protests have since broadened into calls for universal suffrage.
Earlier on Sunday, protesters gathered peacefully outside the British Consulate, calling on Britain to rein in China and ensure it respects the city's freedoms.
The Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed in 1984, lays out Hong Kong's future after its return to China in 1997, a "one country, two systems" formula that ensures freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland.
"Sino-British Joint Declaration is VOID," one placard read in the protest outside the British Consulate.
"SOS Hong Kong," read another.
"One country, two systems is dead," protesters shouted in English under umbrellas shielding them from the sub-tropical sun, some carrying the colonial flag also bearing the Union Jack. "Free Hong Kong."
China says it is committed to the arrangement, denies meddling and says the city is an internal Chinese issue. It has accused foreign powers, particularly the United States and Britain, of fomenting the unrest and told them to mind their own business.
Britain says it has a legal responsibility to ensure China abides by the 1984 declaration.
Hong Kong island was granted to Britain "in perpetuity" in 1842 at the end of the First Opium War. Kowloon, a peninsula on the mainland opposite Hong Kong island, joined later, after the Second Opium War.
The colony was expanded to include the New Territories, to the north of Kowloon, on a 99-year lease, in 1898.
Britain returned all of the territories to China, which never recognized the "unequal treaties", in 1997.
"The Joint Declaration is a legally binding treaty between the UK and China that remains as valid today as it was when it was signed and ratified over 30 years ago," a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said in June.
"As a co-signatory, the UK government will continue to defend our position."
But it was not immediately clear what Britain could or would want to do to defend that position.
It is pinning its hopes on closer trade and investment cooperation with China, which since 1997 has risen to become the world's second-largest economy, after it leaves the European Union at the end of next month.
(Additional reporting by Twinnie Siu, Alun John, Jessie Pang, Jorge Silva, Farah Master and Clare Jim; Writing by Nick Macfie and Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Robert Birsel, Himani Sarkar and Jan Harvey)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
HONG KONG -- Hong Kong democracy activists are hoping to get out a huge crowd later Sunday in a bid to show the city's leaders that their protest movement remains defiant despite increasingly stark warnings from Beijing.
Ten weeks of demonstrations have plunged the international finance hub into crisis and communist-ruled mainland China has taken an increasingly hardline tone, including labelling the more violent protester actions "terrorist-like."
Clashes have broken out between police and hardcore protesters but the movement has won few concessions from Beijing or the city's unelected leadership.
On Tuesday, protesters blocked passengers from boarding flights at the city's airport and later assaulted two men they accused of being Chinese spies.
The images damaged a campaign that until then had largely only targeted the police or government institutions, and prompted some soul-searching among protesters.
China's propaganda apparatus seized on the violence, with state media churning out a deluge of damning articles, pictures and videos.
State media also ran images of military personnel and armoured personnel carriers across the border in Shenzhen, prompting the United States to warn Beijing against sending in troops, which analysts say would be a reputational and economic disaster for China.
In the aftermath of Tuesday's airport chaos, some protester groups apologized and vowed to hold a huge rally on Sunday.
Billed as a "rational, non-violent" protest, it is being organized by the Civil Human Rights Front, a group that eschews confrontations with police and was the driving force behind record-breaking rallies in June and July that saw hundreds of thousands of people hit the streets.
March banned
During smaller protest marches on Saturday -- which ended without the kind of largescale clashes that have become so commonplace each weekend -- many protesters chanted "See you in Victoria Park!" as they left the streets.
The park has long been used as the staging point for the city's years of democracy protests and will host Sunday's demonstration.
Police have given permission for the rally to go ahead but banned a proposed march.
Previous bans in recent weeks have simply been ignored by protesters and have soon led to clashes with riot police.
The protests were sparked by opposition to a plan to allow extraditions to the mainland, but have since morphed into a wider call for democratic rights in the semi-autonomous city.
Under a deal signed with Britain, authoritarian China agreed to allow Hong Kong to keep its unique freedoms when it was handed back in 1997.
But many Hong Kongers feel those freedoms are being eroded, especially since China's hardline president Xi Jinping came to power.
In the last two months millions of people have hit the streets while clashes have broken out between police and small groups of hardcore protesters.
Battles between police firing tear gas and rubber bullets -- and hardcore protesters using rocks, Molotov cocktails and slingshots -- have since become routine in a city once renowned for its stability.
Beyond suspending the extradition bill, Beijing and city leader Carrie Lam have shown no desire to meet key demands such as an inquiry into police violence, the complete withdrawal of the bill and an amnesty.
But protesters remain unbowed, despite the arrests of more than 700 people and 11 consecutive weekends of rallies that have won few concessions.
Beijing has turned the screws on Hong Kong's businesses, pressuring them to toe the line and condemn the protesters.
On Friday, Cathay Pacific announced the shock resignation of CEO Rupert Hogg after the carrier was excoriated by Beijing because some staff supported the pro-democracy protests.
A day later the "Big Four" accountancy firms scrambled to distance themselves from a advert placed in a newspaper purportedly by employees saying they supported the protests.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
PARIS -- Rioters looted and torched shops and businesses on the famed Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on Saturday, on the 18th weekend of French "yellow vest" protests, characterized by a sharp increase in violence after weeks of dwindling turnout.
President Emmanuel Macron cut short a skiing trip in the Pyrenees to return to Paris for a crisis meeting, as hooded protesters went on the rampage in Paris, leaving a trail of destruction in the touristic heart of the city.
He vowed to take "strong decisions" to prevent further violence, following the emergency talks held at the interior ministry late Saturday.
"There are people today who try by all means... to damage the Republic by breaking, by destroying things at the risk of killing someone," Macron said.
"All those who were there were complicit in" the havoc spread across the Champs-Elysees, he added.
The police appeared overrun as protesters swarmed the Champs-Elysees, vandalizing and later setting fire to Fouquet's brasserie, a favorite hangout of the rich and famous for the past century -- as well as luxury handbag store Longchamp, a bank, another restaurant and several news stands.
The rioters also looted several clothing stores and set fire to barricades in scenes reminiscent of the worst yellow-vest riots in Paris in December.
"Like the vast majority of French people, I feel very angry today," tweeted French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who visited the scene.
"Today's actions are not the work of protesters, but of looters, arsonists and criminals. No cause justifies this violence," he added.
In a statement, the national police denounced the "mindless violence, cowardly attacks" and stressed their determination to guarantee public order against "provocateurs and vandals".
BANK BLAZE
Saturday's turnout was seen a test of the ongoing strength of the movement, which began in November over fuel tax hikes and quickly ballooned into a rebellion against Macron's policies, seen by the protesters as geared towards the rich.
In recent weeks, the protests have dwindled in size. But the interior ministry estimated the turnout in Paris Saturday at 10,000, out of around 32,300 nationwide.
That is a fraction of the 282,000 people they said took part in the inaugural demonstrations across France on November 17, but more than the previous weekend.
Saturday's protests were markedly more violent than in recent weeks. Police said close to 240 people were arrested, while prosecutors said more than 100 had been taken into custody.
The bank set alight was on the ground floor of an apartment building, and fire firefighters had to quickly evacuate the residents, including a 9-month-old baby.
Eleven people suffered minor injuries in the bank blaze, the fire service told AFP.
The violence left 17 members of the police injured, and 42 protesters, said police.
'ULTRA-VIOLENT' MINORITY
The rally coincides with the end of the public debates called by the president to try take the heat out of the protests and give voters a forum to propose policy changes.
Around half a million people turned out at town hall-style meetings held around the country over the past two months.
But many "yellow vests" dismissed the consultation exercise as a smoke-screen.
On Saturday, the police used tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon to try repel protesters who gathered at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe war memorial, which was sacked by protesters on December 1.
But for 7 hours they continued to be pelted with paving stones by mostly black-clad demonstrators.
"There are a number of people who have come just to smash things," Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said, estimating that some 1,500 "ultra-violent" activists had infiltrated the crowd.
"We have been too nice, that's why it's violent today. I'm not in favour (of violence) but we are ruled by corrupt people who dare to lecture us," Jean-Francois Bernard, a landscape gardener who was among the protesters, told AFP.
The presidency later announced that Macron was returning home from La Mongie ski resort where he and his wife Brigitte arrived Thursday to spend the weekend.
'WE WANT RESULTS'
Protesters streamed into the capital by train and car for a rally they called an "ultimatum" to the president. Over 5,000 police were deployed, along with several armored police vehicles.
Macron was caught off guard when grassroots protesters began occupying traffic roundabouts in November over fuel taxes. He has loosened the state's purse strings to the tune of 10 billion euros ($11.2 billion) to try defuse the protests.
But the measures failed to quell the anger of the demonstrators, who accuse the former investment banker of being elitist and favoring the rich.
The Paris protest was one of several in the capital on Saturday, where tens of thousands of climate campaigners also held a demonstration to demand that the French government uphold its commitments on reducing emissions.
Yellow vest protests also took place several other French cities. At Bordeaux, in the southwest, police clashed with protesters and a bank was damaged.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
