Tens of thousands of protestors filled the streets of Hong Kong Sunday, adamant there was nothing to cheer as the former British colony marked 15 years of Chinese rule and swore in a new leader.

The vast rally came after Leung Chun-ying, a millionaire property consultant seen as close to China's communist rulers, took the chief executive's oath in front of Chinese President Hu Jintao -- who had his speech interrupted.

Thousands of people in Hong Kong noisily protested on Sunday against the city's incoming leader and decried Beijing's alleged interference in the election that propelled him to the top job.

Holding banners and chanting slogans such as "One person, one vote" and "Leung step down", demonstrators marched through the busy city center to Beijing's representative office in the semi-autonomous territory.

Former government adviser and property consultant Leung Chun-ying won Hong Kong's leadership election on Sunday, after the most divisive vote since the city reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.

Leung, 57, will replace outgoing chief executive Donald Tsang in June after winning 689 of the votes from the 1,200-strong election committee that chooses the southern Chinese city's leader, according to an official count.

Thousands of pro-democracy activists took to the streets of Hong Kong Saturday demanding universal suffrage and expressing anger at the city's system of choosing its chief executive.

The protesters walked through the center of the southern Chinese city to government headquarters, brandishing banners and chanting slogans including "no small circle election" and "give me direct elections", local TV news showed.

A Cathay Pacific plane aborted its take-off from a Shanghai airport Friday after smoke was detected in the cabin, forcing an evacuation of the aircraft and injuring nine, the airline said.

Cathay said 351 passengers and 19 crew were evacuated from the Boeing 747 aircraft, which was taxiing at the Chinese city's Pudong International Airport for a flight to Hong Kong when the incident occurred.

Google on Thursday began construction of a new data center in Hong Kong, the first of three planned for Asia as the Web giant expands to meet the region's growing thirst for information technology.

The facility, Google's first outside the United States and Europe, will cost US$300 million and is being built on 2.7 hectares (6.7 acres) in the Tseung Kwan O industrial estate in Kowloon, the firm said.

U.S. film director and multi-Oscar winner Francis Ford Coppola on Sunday likened movie-making to his other great passion, wine, as he attended a prestigious trade fair in Asia's new wine hub Hong Kong.

The director of modern classics such as "Apocalypse Now" and "The Godfather" trilogy told reporters at the opening of the Winefuture expo that the process of producing a fine wine had features in common with directing a great film.

A high-speed catamaran ferry has slammed into a mooring pillar outside Hong Kong, injuring more than 70 people, including a 70-year-old woman who is in critical condition.

The ferry was carrying 140 passengers Friday when it struck the pillar on the island of Cheung Chau as it departed for the heart of the Chinese territory's business district.

Hong Kong police said Sunday they have made the southern Chinese territory's largest ever cocaine bust, seizing more than half a ton of the drug, worth around $77 million.

Authorities said drugs officers raided separate locations over the weekend, including a warehouse in the city's suburbs, finding a total of 567 kilograms (1,250 pounds) of cocaine.

Hong Kong police said on Friday they had arrested a 29-year-old man over a cyber attack on the city's stock exchange website which halted trading in the shares of seven companies.

Police said they detained the man on Thursday, seizing five computers, two mobile phones and other items, a police spokesman told Agence France Presse.