Monument wrapped to cap dramatic day of rallies

Three pro-democracy rally groups came together on Saturday to wrap Democracy Monument in a huge cloth banner bearing messages denouncing the government and calling for reform.

The highly symbolic act followed an equally dramatic scene just two hours earlier, when hundreds of demonstrators turned their backs on a Royal motorcade.

As vehicles carrying Their Majesties the King and Queen to a ceremony to inaugurate a new subway extension passed nearby, the demonstrators faced the other way, raised three-finger salutes and sang the national anthem.

As the evening wore on, speakers in front of the covered monument reiterated their demands for a new…