Thousands march peacefully in Hong Kong defying police ban on mass rally

Thousands marched peacefully in Hong Kong on Saturday in pouring rain, the latest of a series of anti-government protests that have plunged the Chinese-ruled city into its worst political crisis in decades.
 

Police blocked plans for a mass show of force downtown to mark the fifth anniversary of a decision by China to curtail democratic reforms in the former British colony, which returned to China in 1997.
 

People took to the streets anyway, many joining a "Christian march" from the Wanchai entertainment district in a sea of umbrellas, heading to government offices on the lower reaches of the Mid-Levels residential