Hong Kong authorities begin clearing main protest camp

Hong Kong authorities on Nov. 18 cleared part of the city's main pro-democracy protest camp, the first of several planned evictions to shrink mass sit-ins that have blocked major thoroughfares for seven weeks.
      
There was no resistance from demonstrators as workers dismantled metal barricades blocking access to a skyscraper opposite government headquarters, on the edge of the sprawling camp in the central Admiralty district.        

Dozens of police and bailiffs stood guard as staff removed the barriers from outside the 33-floor CITIC Tower office block, enforcing a court injunction won by the building's owners.
      
But an argument broke out as the workers removed several more fences from a nearby roundabout, with protesters shouting that the area did not fall under the injunction.
      
"This is unacceptable to the protesters," pro-democracy lawmaker Albert Ho shouted at the bailiffs through a loudspeaker.
      
Demonstrators have been camped on three major Hong Kong thoroughfares since September 28, demanding that Beijing grants free leadership elections to the semi-autonomous Chinese city.
      
Beijing has said it will allow a public vote to elect Hong Kong's next leader in 2017 -- but it insists the candidates must be vetted by a loyalist panel, which the protesters say will ensure the election of a pro-Beijing stooge.
      
The court order covers only the immediate area around the government skyscraper in Admiralty, but not a long section of a multi-lane highway still under occupation and filled with hundreds of colourful tents.
      
Protesters said they had no intention of budging from the rest of the camp.
      
"I will not stop them (removing these barricades)....