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Hong Kong Court Rejects Challenge to Mask Ban; Protests Continue

Agence France-Presse

   HONG KONG - Hong Kong police fired tear gas at pro-democracy protesters
   Sunday after tens of thousands hit the streets once more to defy a ban
   on face masks despite half the city's subway stations remaining closed.

   Large crowds marched through torrential rain in unsanctioned rallies on
   both sides of Victoria Harbor Sunday afternoon.

   Clashes soon erupted as police fired tear gas at protesters blocking
   roads and building barricades in at least three different locations.

   Protesters have staged unsanctioned flash mob rallies across the
   strife-torn city -- some vandalizing subway stations and shops -- after
   Hong Kong's leader outlawed face coverings at protests, invoking
   colonial-era emergency powers not used for half a century.

   Pro-democracy lawmakers went to the High Court on Sunday seeking an
   emergency injunction against the ban, arguing the emergency powers
   bypassed the legislature and contravened the city's mini-constitution.

   But a senior judge dismissed their injunction demand.

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