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Skirmishes broke out in Hong Kong today between pro-democracy demonstrators and groups opposed to them, heightening tensions after weeks of largely peaceful protest.

Early Monday morning police moved back numerous protest barriers in order to clear space for cars to begin moving through key streets in the financial district, The Associated Press reports.

Students have been demonstrating for more than two weeks, demanding the open nomination of chief executive candidates for elections who arent pre-approved by Beijing. On Sunday, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying called the pro-democracy movement out of control and said the student protests had almost zero chance of changing Beijings stance on Hong Kong.

Officers this morning said their intention in removing some barricades was not to curb the protests themselves.

Hours after the fences were brought down or pushed back, hundreds of people wearing blue ribbons marched to a main protest zone near government offices in opposition to the pro-democracy protests. Scuffles between the groups broke out, reports The Washington Post.

As they chanted slogans against the sit-in, groups of men took advantage of the chaos to rush the barricades at both ends of Queensway, a normally busy street flanked by gleaming skyscrapers.

At one end, they successfully removed many barricades, using knives to cut through the plastic ties that had held them together and even taking away some of the students tents in two large trucks. At the other end, they were less successful, as students quickly regrouped to man the barriers and the two sides clashed.

There were 40 or 50 of them, all very organized they didn't talk to us, they just removed the barriers violently, said 23-year-old student Chokin Wong, who was sitting down in the middle of the street. We don't want to give back the road to violent people.

Many residents are fed up with the mostly young protesters, either because they are tired of the congestion thats built up downtown after weeks of protest, or because they are pro-Beijing, reports The New York Times. Those who turned out today against the ongoing protests told students they were pawns of the West and accused them of not being real Chinese, The Washington Post reports.

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Clashes at Hong Kong pro-democracy protests after police barricades removed

Opponents of Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement stepped up their pressure Monday, scuffling with demonstrators and attempting to clear barricades near one of the main sit-in sites.

Hundreds of counter-demonstrators, including masked men, confronted pro-democracy protesters behind roadblocks on Queensway, a major traffic artery next to the sit-in site in the Admiralty area, which has been shut down for more than two weeks.

Dozens of taxi drivers joined the clash, honking their horns and demanding the occupiers open the road to traffic.

Police scrambled to separate the two groups. The counter-demonstrators urged the police to clear the barriers, chanting, Open the roads.

As police arrived in greater force, the masked men left the scene. Protesters suspect the group were triads organized gang members who police have said have been active at the citys other major protest site, Mong Kok.

At the same time, a truck with a mounted crane scooped up metal barriers and tents set up by demonstrators farther up Queensway.

It was unclear who was operating the truck. Associations of truck drivers said last week that they would clear barricades by Wednesday.

By late afternoon, students had reclaimed the road and began rebuilding barricades with steel railings, wooden planks and bamboo scaffolding.

Thousands of protesters remained at the Admiralty sit-in Monday night, many in brightly colored tents.

The clashes took place hours after police removed barricades blocking a key highway in Central, the financial district, in the early morning. Attempts to do the same in Mong Kok were met with stiffer resistance from the protesters, who were able to preserve some of their barricades.

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In Hong Kong, opponents scuffle with pro-democracy protesters

Opponents of Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement stepped up their pressure Monday, scuffling with demonstrators and attempting to clear barricades near one of the main sit-in sites.

Hundreds of counter-demonstrators, including masked men, confronted pro-democracy protesters behind roadblocks on Queensway, a major traffic artery next to the sit-in site in the Admiralty area, which has been shut down for more than two weeks.

Dozens of taxi drivers joined the clash, honking their horns and demanding the occupiers open the road to traffic.

Police scrambled to separate the two groups. The counter-demonstrators urged the police to clear the barriers, chanting, Open the roads.

As police arrived in greater force, the masked men left the scene. Protesters suspect the group were triads organized gang members who police have said have been active at the citys other major protest site, Mong Kok.

At the same time, a truck with a mounted crane scooped up metal barriers and tents set up by demonstrators farther up Queensway.

It was unclear who was operating the truck. Associations of truck drivers said last week that they would clear barricades by Wednesday.

By late afternoon, students had reclaimed the road and began rebuilding barricades with steel railings, wooden planks and bamboo scaffolding.

Thousands of protesters remained at the Admiralty sit-in Monday night, many in brightly colored tents.

The clashes took place hours after police removed barricades blocking a key highway in Central, the financial district, in the early morning. Attempts to do the same in Mong Kok were met with stiffer resistance from the protesters, who were able to preserve some of their barricades.

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Crowd charges pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong

Four websites promoting democracy in Hong Kong have been rigged to deliver malicious software, according to a Washington, D.C.-based security company.

The findings show that "dissenting groups, especially those seeking increased levels of freedom, frequently find themselves targeted for surveillance and information extraction," wrote Steven Adair of Volexity in a blog post.

Security experts have seen an uptick in attacks aimed at spying on activists in Hong Kong, who have led demonstrations in protest of restrictions China has placed on the election for the territory's chief executive in 2017.

The websites are the Alliance for True Democracy (ATD), the Democratic Party Hong Kong (DPHK), People Power in Hong Kong and The Professional Commons. Browsing to the websites isn't wise since some of the attacks are still active, he wrote.

The ATD and DPHK websites both had code planted that pulls in a suspected malicious script from another domain, "java-se.com," which has been linked to malicious activity in the past, Adair wrote. That domain was also used in an attack on "www.nikkei.com" in early September.

Volexity was unable to obtain the script for analysis, perhaps because the attackers were filtering out certain IP addresses that are allowed to retrieve the script, Adair wrote.

The People Power in Hong Kong website contains a malicious iframe that points to a Chinese URL shortener address, which then redirects a visitor to an exploit page hosted on a Hong Kong IP address.

After polling the computer to see what software is running, the malicious page can load Java exploits and download malware. Volexity believes that this attack was executed by a different group and is not related to the one using "java-se.com."

The last website, The Professional Commons, contains suspicious JavaScript that loads an iframe which points to the website of a hotel in South Korea, Adair wrote. The iframe tries to load an HTML page that doesn't exist on the South Korean website, which Adair wrote indicates that it is a formerly active attack.

"If it is actually malicious, it is possible the code could be re-activated at any time," he wrote.

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Hong Kong democracy activist websites compromised

Presenting a Petition on the Pro-Democracy Protests in Hong Kong
Kennedy Stewart, MP (Burnaby-Douglas) House of Commons October 8, 2014.

By: Kennedy Stewart

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Presenting a Petition on the Pro-Democracy Protests in Hong Kong - Video