<span style="color: #222222;">In Hong Kong, anti-government protesters again took to streets today as a surge of public anger continues to rock the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. Today's rally is the seventh weekend in-a-row that residents have come out en-masse.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Authorities locked down the city center, deployed 5,000 officers and shortened the protest route, citing safety concerns, after previous marches turned violent when police confronted small groups of hardcore protesters.<br />''</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The city has been plunged into its worst crisis in recent history by weeks of marches and sporadic violent confrontations between police and pockets of hardcore protesters.<br />''<br />'' The initial protests were lit by a now-suspended bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China. But they have since evolved into a wider movement calling for democratic reforms, universal suffrage and a halt to sliding freedoms in the semi-autonomous territory.<br />''</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Police have fired tear gas and rubber bullets, while the Parliament has been trashed by protesters as Beijing's authority faces its most serious challenge since Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997.</span><br />