Asia

Police swoop as Hong Kong protesters try to flee

    by Anthony Wallace / Catherine Lai  HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Hong Kong riot police swooped on pro-democracy protesters trying to flee a university they had set ablaze Monday, in one of the most violent confrontations seen in nearly six months of unrest. Hundreds of demonstrators clashed throughout the day with police who had threatened to use deadly force, as protests also flared in other parts of the city. Monday’s events were part […]

United States, EU back Georgia protesters

  TBILISI, Georgia (AFP) — The United States and European Union expressed solidarity Monday with Georgia’s anti-government protesters who took to the streets after the ruling party backtracked on promises of electoral reforms. In the biggest anti-government protest in years, more than 20,000 demonstrators rallied on Sunday outside the parliament building in the capital Tbilisi urging the government to resign and calling for new legislative elections. In a joint statement, the US and EU embassies said […]

Protesters set fire to hold off police at Hong Kong campus

by Anthony WALLACE / Catherine LAI HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Pro-democracy demonstrators holed up in a Hong Kong university campus set the main entrance ablaze Monday to prevent surrounding police moving in after officers warned they may use live rounds if confronted by deadly weapons. The police warning, which came after one officer was struck by an arrow, marked a further escalation of the near six-month crisis engulfing the city. China has repeatedly warned […]

Hong Kong police warn of ‘live fire’ as campus protest siege deepens

by Aidan JONES / Yan ZHAO HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Hong Kong police Monday warned for the first time in months of unrest that they may use “live rounds” after pro-democracy protesters fired arrows and threw petrol bombs at officers at a besieged university campus, as the crisis engulfing the city sharply escalated. Protests have tremored through the global financial hub since June, with many in the city of 7.5 million people venting fury […]

Pig infected with African swine fever washes up in Taiwan

BEIJING, China (AFP) — A floating dead pig infected with African swine fever washed up in Taiwan last week, according to a UN report, which also recorded a fresh mainland China outbreak and an attempt to illegally transport infected pigs. China’s swine herd has been devastated by the outbreak of the disease, first reported by the government in August last year. An update on the crisis from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the […]

Thousands in Hong Kong defy Xi with pro-democracy rallies

by Yan ZHAO / Catherine LAI HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to Hong Kong’s streets Friday, defying a warning by Chinese President Xi Jinping, as a campaign of mass disruption extended into a fifth straight day. Black-clad protesters also occupied university campuses, while office workers endured another day of transport chaos with suspensions on the vandalized train network and roads blocked by barricades. Hong Kong has seen relentless protests since […]

China’s Xi warns Hong Kong protesters jeopardise ‘one country, two systems’

by Yan ZHAO / Catherine LAI HONG KONG, China (AFP) — China’s President Xi Jinping warned Thursday that protests in Hong Kong threaten the “one country, two systems” principle governing the semi-autonomous city that has tipped into worsening violence with two dead in a week. Hong Kong has been ruled by a unique system guaranteeing greater freedoms than on the mainland since its handover from British rule to China in 1997. But protests, which began […]

Hong Kong protesters fire arrows at cops and choke city for fourth day

HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Pro-democracy protesters challenging China’s rule of Hong Kong on Thursday choked the city for a fourth straight working day, firing arrows at police, barricading roads and disrupting transport links, as schools and businesses closed. The territory has entered its sixth month of protests, which have morphed from mass rallies into a “blossom everywhere” campaign of debilitating disruption by groups of black-clad mainly student demonstrators. Key arterial roads were clogged by […]

Air pollution shuts schools in Iran’s capital

TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Schools in Tehran were ordered to be closed on Wednesday after the Iranian capital was cloaked in dangerously high levels of air pollution, authorities said. Governor Anoushiravan Mohseni-Bandpey said kindergartens, preschools, and primary schools would be shut in the city and the counties of Gharchak, Pishva and Varamin. “The air quality index for the city of Tehran still has not passed the unhealthy status for sensitive groups,” he was quoted as […]

Mainland China students flee Hong Kong over protest violence fears

  HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Mainland Chinese students have begun fleeing Hong Kong campuses over security fears, police and university officials said Wednesday, as the city’s seething political crisis saw some of its worst violence this week. The most intense clashes on Tuesday occurred at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where pitched battles were fought with the police firing tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets and protesters throwing petrol bombs and bricks, […]

Chaos in Hong Kong as pro-democracy protests ‘blossom everywhere’

  HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Pro-democracy protesters Wednesday stepped up a “blossom everywhere” campaign of road blocks and vandalism across Hong Kong that has crippled the international financial hub this week and ignited some of the worst violence in five months of unrest. The new phase in the crisis, which has forced schools and shopping malls to close as well as the shutdown of large chunks of the vital train network, prompted police to […]

Hong Kong clashes rage on university campus and business district

by Su Xinqi and Jerome Taylor HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters fought intense battles with riot police on a university campus and paralyzed the city’s upmarket business district Tuesday, extending one of the most violent stretches of unrest seen in more than five months of political chaos. The confrontations followed a particularly brutal day on Monday when police shot a protester and a man was set on fire, prompting calls from […]