Hong Kong protesters plan march to US Embassy

Demonstrators in Hong Kong planned to march to the US Embassy on Sunday to drum up international support for their months-long protest movement, a day after attempts to disrupt transportation to the city's international airport were thwarted by police.

The planned march from a central park to the embassy follows yet another night of clashes between police and protesters in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

Hong Kong has been rocked by a summer of unrest kicked off by a proposed law that would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial.

Many saw the extradition bill as a glaring example of the Chinese territory's eroding autonomy since the former British colony was returned to China in 1997.

Hong Kong's government promised last week to withdraw the bill an early demand of protesters but that has failed to appease the demonstrators, who have widened their demands to include other issues, such as greater democracy.

The unrest has become the biggest challenge to Beijing's rule since Hong Kong's return from Britain. Beijing and the entirely state-controlled media have portrayed the protests as an effort by criminals to split the territory from China, backed by hostile foreigners.

The US State Department in a travel advisory Friday said Beijing has undertaken a propaganda campaign "falsely accusing the United States of fomenting unrest in Hong Kong."