Hong Kong: Thousands of defiant school students across Hong Kong skipped classes on Monday, using the first day of the new academic year to add their voices to anti-government protests which has fuelled months of unrest in the city. The students, most of them wearing black T-shirts over their uniforms, were expected to head to the city centre for a rally in Edinburgh Place against the now-shelved extradition bill, which would have allowed the transfer of fugitives to jurisdictions with which Hong Kong lacks an extradition deal, including mainland China, the South China Morning Post reported. The school boycott, co-organised by localist party Demosisto, was part of a broader anti-government campaign triggered by the Bill. (IANS)