Hong Kong: Prominent democracy activists were arrested on Friday in a dragnet across Hong Kong — a move described by rights groups as a well-worn tactic deployed by China to suffocate dissent ahead of key political events. The sweep comes after a major rally planned by a civil rights group on Saturday was banned by the police on security grounds.

Hong Kong has been locked in three months of political crisis, with increasingly violent clashes between the police and protestors that have prompted an escalating public relations campaign from China. Protesters had planned yet another mass rally on Saturday — the fifth anniversary of Beijing's rejection of a call for universal suffrage in the semi-autonomous city.