News Digest

Hong Kong student leaders urge protesters to regroup in heart of city

Student leaders in Hong Kong called on pro-democracy supporters on Sunday to decamp from outlying protest sites and join the bulk of demonstrators in the heart of the Asian financial centre as they gear up for a potential showdown with police. Tens of thousands of protesters have staged sit-ins across Hong Kong over the past week, demanding the city’s pro-Beijing leader Leung Chun-ying step down and for the right to vote for a leader of their choice in 2017 elections. Scores of protesters in the teeming suburb of Mong Kok, across the harbour from the government centre, sobbed as leaders urged them to pack up and head to the Admiralty district, adjacent to the city’s main business district.

The government and the police have the duty and determination to take all necessary actions to restore social order so the government and the 7 million people of Hong Kong can return to their normal work and life.

Hong Kong’s leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying

Protesters were also retreating from the area outside Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s office, with police removing barricades nearby. The protesters earlier bowed to government pressure and said they would lift a blockade of key government buildings to allow civil servants to return to work on Monday. Many Hong Kong residents expressed anger and frustration at police handling of the unrest, with some accusing security forces of co-operating with criminal gangs, failing to make arrests and helping some attackers to exit the scene quickly.