The death toll from anti-government protests in Nicaragua has risen to 25 as the national police were accused of using live rounds against demonstrators. Those killed include Ángel Gahona, a journalist who was shot dead while presenting a live broadcast on protests in Bluefields, a town on the country’s Caribbean coast.

Grainy, night-time footage shows Gahona holding up a mobile phone as he approaches city hall, reporting live via Facebook on four days of protests in the Central American country. Seconds later a gunshot rings out and Gahona slumps lifeless to the kerb. Voices cry his name and someone presses a piece of cloth to his head to try to staunch the stream of blood. Footage of the incident quickly spread on to local and social media.

According to human rights groups, 25 people have died since 18 April in unrest over social security reforms planned by the government of president Daniel Ortega. At least 67 people have been shot by the police with live rounds or rubber bullets, or beaten by members of the Sandinista Youth and other pro-government groups. A further 43 people were reported to have “disappeared” over the weekend. Speaking to tens of thousands of people during his Sunday address in St Peter’s Square, Rome, Francis called for “an end to every form of violence” and asked people “to avoid the useless shedding of blood”. Francis, the first Latin American pope, called for differences to be resolved peacefully and with a sense of responsibility.(theguardian)…[+]