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Pro-democracy protesters switch on their mobile phones during a campaign to kick off the Occupy Central civil disobedience event in front of the financial Central district in Hong Kong. Photo by Reuters

Pro-democracy activists have vowed to bring Hong Kong's financial hub to a standstill after China's parliament rejected their demands for the right to freely choose the former British colony's next leader in 2017.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) endorsed a framework to let only two or three candidates run in the 2017 leadership vote. All candidates must first obtain majority backing from a nominating committee likely to be stacked with Beijing loyalists.

The relatively tough decision by the NPC - China's final arbiter on the city's democratic affairs - makes it almost impossible for opposition democrats to get on the ballot.

"This is a legal, fair and reasonable decision. It is a dignified, prudent decision, and its legal effect is beyond doubt," Li Fei, deputy secretary general of the NPC standing committee, told reporters after the decision.

Hundreds of "Occupy Central" activists, who demand Beijing allow a real, free election, prepared to stage a small protest late on Sunday to formally launch a campaign of civil disobedience that will climax with a blockade at some time of the city's important Central business district.

"Today is not only the darkest day in the history of Hong Kong's democratic development, today is also the darkest day of one country, two systems," said Benny Tai, a law professor and one of Occupy Central's main leaders, referring to the formula under which capitalist Hong Kong, with a population of around 7.2 million, was returned to Communist Chinese rule in 1997.

The Occupy movement said in a statement that "all chances of dialogue have been exhausted and the occupation of Central will definitely happen."

It gave no timeframe for its action.

A spokesman for Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, which operates the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, said contingency planning was taken very seriously.

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HK braces for protests as China rules out democracy

End Times | America, the new face of Communism
Despite everything that our founding fathers believed in and fought for, we have literally stood idly by while communists have infiltrated key governmental positions and have influenced both...

By: DeonVSearth

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End Times | America, the new face of Communism - Video

A Response To That Creepy Reading On Communism

By: TheAverageAnarchist

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A Response To That Creepy Reading On Communism - Video

Hungarian Cubes, by photographer Katharina Roters, documents the post-communist era homes in the Hungarian countryside. Photo: Katharina Roters

Hungarian Cubes, by photographer Katharina Roters, documents the post-communist era homes in the Hungarian countryside.

The period in time was known as Goulash Communism," a sort of relaxed strain of communism. Photo: Katharina Roters

The period in time was known as Goulash Communism," a sort of relaxed strain of communism.

Jnos Kdr, who presided over Hungary, was more tolerant of public dissent. Photo: Katharina Roters

Jnos Kdr, who presided over Hungary, was more tolerant of public dissent.

Its fitting, then, that during the Goulash Communism era, a peculiar architectural trend took off: People started painting the facades of their houses with abstract shapes, in wild shades of color. Photo: Katharina Roters

Its fitting, then, that during the Goulash Communism era, a peculiar architectural trend took off: People started painting the facades of their houses with abstract shapes, in wild shades of color.

Roters noticed the painted Magyar Kocka, or Hungarian Cube, houses in 2003 after moving from Germany to a small Hungarian town. Photo: Katharina Roters

Roters noticed the painted Magyar Kocka, or Hungarian Cube, houses in 2003 after moving from Germany to a small Hungarian town.

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The Amazing Art on These Communist-Era Houses Was a Rebellion Back Then

Warsaw: The son of a carpenter, Donald Tusk came of political age in the cauldron of Poland's "Solidarity" movement, which presaged the fall of communism a quarter of a century ago. His appointment as president of the European Council, a long way from the shipyards of his native Gdansk on the Baltic Sea, heralds the rise of Poland to the top table of European policymaking, though critics have questioned his suitability to manage the multilingual art of the classic Brussels compromise.

Tusk becomes a symbol of the country's transformation, and of the shifting balance of power in Europe. He himself spoke of the bloc harnessing the energy of "this ambitious and energetic region", with its experience of dealing with Moscow.

"This would change Poland's international standing spectacularly," Pawel Swieboda, head of the Polish DemosEurope think-tank, said shortly before Tusk's widely anticipated confirmation.

"To be honest, with the exception of John Paul II, no Polish man has ever assumed such high office."

Tusk, 57, is a history graduate and avid soccer fan who has been prime minister since 2007. On Dec. 1, he will take on the job of steering policy meetings of EU leaders, addressing crises from the war in Ukraine to the woes of euro zone economies and issues of immigration, intolerance and inequality affecting the EU's 500 million citizens.

Responding to questions about his lack of French and limited English and how that would affect his ability to follow the polyglot Belgian Van Rompuy in brokering compromise in Europe, he promised to polish up his English by December. "Don't worry," he quipped in response to a question from a British newspaper.

He does, notably, speak good German.

Van Rompuy, for his part, praised Tusk as one of the continent's longest-serving elected leaders and a man who had won the respect of his peers around the EU negotiating table.

STUDENT AGITATORSupporters say Tusk brings with him a reputation as a skilled mediator between the competing political camps and personalities within his conservative Civic Platform party, a talent that may stand him in good stead as he tries to marshal consensus among the 28 leaders of the EU member states.

Some critics also point to his strong consolidation of power within his party and recent hard line on Russia as bad omens.

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Carpenter's Son Takes Poland to Europe's Top Table