MANAGUA, Nicaragua — In a grainy, nighttime video, journalist Angel Gahona, clad in jeans and a blue shirt, holds up a cellphone and narrates as he approaches the facade of city hall in Bluefields, Nicaragua, reporting live via Facebook on protests that have rocked the Central American nation for four days. He was taken to hospital with a serious head wound but another Bluefields reporter, Ileana Lacayo, said he died en route. MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said Saturday that his government is willing to enter into talks over social security reforms that have sparked four days of protests and clashes in which, rights monitors say, at least 25 people have died. Dozens more have been injured or arrested. Ortega said Saturday in his first public appearance since the demonstrations began, that his government is willing to enter into talks over the dispute. In a nationally televised address, he said he is open to negotiations so that there is “no more terror for Nicaraguan families.”

But he said the dialogue would be just with business leaders and not with other sectors of society. "The United States calls for a broad-based dialogue involving all sectors of society to resolve the current conflict, restore respect for human rights, and achieve a better, more democratic future for all Nicaraguans," Nauert said. He also seemed to try to justify what has been a heavy-handed response by the government and allied groups, accusing demonstrators, most of them university students, of being manipulated by unspecified "minority" political interests and of being infiltrated by gangsters. The government seemed to have the situation under control on Saturday, with deployment of army troops across the country. The kids do not even know the party that is manipulating them," Mr Ortega said. "Gang members are being brought into the kids' protests and are criminalising the protests. That is why they are put at risk," Ortega said. Those remarks appeared to fan the flames, as soon afterward thousands of people spilled back into the streets in seven cities including the capital, Managua, after tensions had calmed somewhat Friday night. Image copyright AFP Image caption Mr Ortega won the 2016 election along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, who became Nicaragua's vice-president

The protests are the biggest challenge to Mr Ortega's authority since he took office in 2007. On Friday night vice-president, first lady and government spokesperson Rosario Murillo said nine people had been confirmed dead in the clashes, though the human rights group Cenidh said Saturday it had counted at least 25 deaths nationwide. "We cannot go into a dialogue if these minimal conditions are not met," it said. The US condemned the police violence on Sunday and urged the government to allow journalists to go about their work without risk. Here we will give our all until the government understands that it will not continue to do whatever it pleases," Lombardo Ruiz Picado, a leader of the student protesters, told The Associated Press by phone from inside the school. In the morning, army troops were deployed to Esteli, a city north of Managua that has been a main flashpoint of the demonstrations, to help police repel protesters. The Roman Catholic Conference of Bishops in Nicaragua condemned repression against protesters and urged the government to listen to them and drop the social security reforms. In a statement, the conference said: "A unilateral decision always brings with it social instability. Rectifying decisions is a sign of humanity, listening is the path of reason, seeking peace at all cost is wisdom," the conference said in a statement. A journalist was shot dead, seemingly by a sniper, in Nicaragua Saturday while live-streaming the latest wave of demonstrations against the government's planned pension and social security reforms.
Reporter Ángel Gahona is shot dead during a live broadcast from Bluefields, Nicaragua, while reporting on antigovernment protests.