Hong Kong leader hopes for peaceful resolution of university standoff

Hong Kong's embattled leader, Carrie Lam, hopes a standoff between police and anti-government protesters at a major university can be resolved peacefully, she said on Tuesday, adding that she had told the police to handle it in a humane way.

Lam was speaking after a new chief of police called for citizens' support to end more than five months of social unrest, with protesters trapped by police for the third day at a university in the Asian financial hub.

Lam had said violence roiling the former British colony exceeded protesters' demands for democracy and described demonstrators as now being the people's enemy.