Full Coverage: Hong Kong protests

Formal talks between the Hong Kong government and student leaders set for Friday have been called off, raising the specter of more demonstrations in a city already weary from 12 days of protests.

One of the many colorful images from the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong was of a demonstrator wearing a Gulf War-era U.S. military helmet and carrying a red-white-and-blue Captain America shield.

A week earlier, the officer may have been among Hong Kong’s finest in riot gear, firing tear gas canisters into crowds of pro-democracy protesters.

Hong Kong’s top government official, Leung Chun-ying, faced a new crisis Wednesday after an Australian newspaper reported that the embattled chief executive pocketed millions of dollars in secret fees from an engineering firm in exchange for supporting its interests in Asia.

Student leaders and Hong Kong government officials said they will begin formal talks Friday aimed at ending mass demonstrations that have shut down key parts of this semiautonomous Chinese city for more than a week.

Just months after being elected leader of Hong Kong’s biggest university student group, Alex Chow joined in the city’s annual, orderly July 1 pro-democracy march.

As Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests continued overnight into Monday, demonstrators in this city’s financial district of Admiralty showed solidarity through oil paintings and sculpture while engaging in salon-style debates against the backdrop of glamorous five-star hotels and steel and glass office towers.

As the ranks of protesters thinned Monday after nine days of democracy demonstrations, Hong Kong student protest leaders and government officials said they were continuing to hold informal -- but decidedly preliminary -- talks.

After stealing a short nap in a police van, the veteran officer was back on the streets early Sunday morning to kick off what would likely be his second consecutive 17-hour shift.

Opponents of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement violently confronted its supporters Friday in the dense commercial district of Mong Kok, ripping down canopies, dragging away metal barricades and throwing punches as the street protests took a chaotic and bloody turn on their sixth day.

If commerce is the lifeblood of this fast-dealing metropolis, Ben Pui was having little of it Saturday idling behind his glass shop counter filled with exotic medicinal herbs.

Hot pink and tangerine, chartreuse and bright blue, the Post-it notes flutter up the outdoor stairway like thousands of fragile Technicolor butterflies, clinging hopefully to the concrete wall of the government office.

Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong and the Beijing-backed government appeared to be on a collision course Saturday night as the city’s chief executive issued a stern warning that people should clear the streets and protest leaders staged a defiant rally drawing tens of thousands.

Student leaders urged Hong Kong democracy demonstrators to hold their ground Sunday night as preliminary negotiations ensued between protest leaders and government officials.

China frequently accuses the West, and the United States in particular, of stirring up trouble and fanning fears of China.

Screaming until they were red in the face, arguing until they burst into tears, supporters and opponents of Hong Kong’s democracy protests faced off Friday afternoon in the dense commercial district of Mong Kok.

Hong Kong celebrities are known for their omnipresence and outspokenness.

In a significant turn that could fracture Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, the territory’s chief executive said late Thursday that members of his administration would hold talks with a student group.

Denouncing Beijing-backed dignitaries and continuing their street demonstrations, democracy protesters overshadowed ceremonies in Hong Kong on Wednesday marking the 65th anniversary of the founding of Communist China.

The colorful skyscrapers and massive luxury shops glistening along both sides of Hong Kong’s harbor offer architectural proof of the economic boom that hit this city after Britain handed the former colony back to China in 1997.

Striking photos, videos and news about Hong Kong’s ongoing democracy protests and clashes with police have exploded across TV, radio, newspapers worldwide in recent days, to say nothing of Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites.

Despite mounting calls from pro-democracy protesters, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said Tuesday that he would not step down and appealed to organizers of the Occupy Central movement to send their followers home.

Police discharged tear gas and fired rubber bullets in the air Sunday in a failed attempt to scatter pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong who appear to pose the greatest test yet for China’s “one country, two systems” approach to governing the former British protectorate.

Thousands of Hong Kong college students are boycotting classes this week to press for democratic reforms in the southern Chinese territory.

Protesters clashed with Hong Kong police Monday at a heated news conference about limits imposed by mainland Chinese authorities on the territory’s 2017 election.

Braving heat and rain showers, and hoisting signs with slogans such as “Universal suffrage!”

Two weeks ago, Matthew Prince, the chief executive of San Francisco tech company CloudFlare, had no clue that people in Hong Kong were preparing to hold a controversial online referendum on democratic reforms.

More than 400,000 Hong Kong residents cast electronic ballots Friday in a nonbinding referendum aimed at giving the Chinese city’s 7.2 million people more of a voice in how their chief executive is selected, organizers of the vote said.

As government officials continued to stifle any attempts to mark the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre on the Chinese mainland, thousands of people held a vigil in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park on Wednesday in remembrance of the violent crackdown.