Pro-democracy lawmakers will resign en masse

HONGKONG » Hong Kong’s prodemocracy lawmakers announced Wednesday they would resign enmasse after four of themwere ousted from the semiautonomous Chinese territory’s Legislature in a move one legislator said could sound the “death knell” for democracy there. The resignation of the 15 remaining pro-democracy lawmakers will ratchet up tensions over the future of Hong Kong, a former British colony that has long been a regional financial hub and bastion ofWestern-style civil liberties but over which China’s government has increasingly tightened its control. A new national security law imposed by Beijing this year has alarmed the international community.