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Footages on social media show police clashing with the protesters, using water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protesters who responded with projectiles and Molotov cocktails, setting a water cannon vehicle on fire, with the clashes disrupting capital’s traffic.

Political and social organizations in Chile called for a new wave of protests on streets throughout March, ahead of the referendum on changing the constitution on April 26.

Furious Chileans have for weeks been protesting social and economic inequality, and against an entrenched political elite that comes from a small number of the wealthiest families in the country, among other issues.

The crisis is the worst in three decades of Chilean democracy and has led to 26 deaths and more than 12,000 injuries, according to the Organization of American States, with another 20,600 people detained, AFP reported.

As with every Friday, since protests began on October 18, thousands gathered at Plaza Italia in the center of Santiago to wave flags, sing and dance in a show of opposition President Sebastian Pinera’s conservative government.

Protesters held up a huge Chilean flag with a closed eye, a symbol of the 300 people who have suffered optical injuries during confrontations with police.

Some demonstrators armed with stones and Molotov cocktails clashed with police, who scattered them with tear gas and water cannon.

Officers erected barricades around the square later in the evening.

Chile’s unrest began with a demonstration against a price hike on metro tickets in Santiago, which spiraled into violent protests across the country.

Lawmakers in Chile’s National Congress last month agreed to hold a referendum on updating the country’s constitution, in force since 1980 and enacted by the former military junta of Augusto Pinochet.

Protesters have demanded the charter be changed to establish the state’s responsibility to provide education and healthcare.

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HRW said the police, known as Carabineros, “committed serious human rights violations, including excessive use of force in the streets and abuses in detention, “during the ongoing Chile protests.

The New York-based right group had received hundreds of disturbing reports of abuse, including cases of beatings and sexual assault, Jose Miguel Vivanco, HRW’s director for the Americas, told a press conference in Santiago.

“We believe that the abuses are not isolated cases, they are not coincidences,“ said Vivanco, AFP reported.

The rights groups said in a statement it met with President Sebastian Pinera in Santiago on Tuesday, recommending a series of reforms to help prevent police misconduct.

The reforms were needed “in the wake of compelling evidence of excessive use of force and abuses against demonstrators and bystanders”.

Among its recommendations is a thorough reform of the Chilean police, including reviewing detention protocols for identity checks, setting up internal control mechanisms and strengthening police training.

 “We recognize the value of the Human Rights Watch report and the recommendations that have been made to us,“ said Lorena Recabarren, the Chilean minister with responsibility for human rights.

She said the findings “concern us and, of course, are ones we receive with pain.”

Meanwhile university student Gustavo Gatica became the first demonstrator to be left fully blind after being hit in the eyes by pellets fired by riot police on Nov 8 during a protest in Santiago.

Gatica’s case has become a symbol among the more than 200 demonstrators who have suffered eye injuries — often resulting in being blinded in one eye — from rubber bullets and pellets fired by riot police.

Due to the high number of injuries and pressure from humanitarian groups, police said they would stop using such weapons.

Meanwhile violent demos continued in Chile’s main cities, with looting and burning reported in places like La Serena and Iquique in the north, and San Antonio and Valparaiso, in central Chile.

In Santiago, thousands gathered for a March downtown that riot police eventually broke up by deploying water cannons.

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According To Iran News, The death toll from violent unrest in Chile rose to 23 on Friday as the country entered its fifth week of social unrest.

Looting and demonstrations took place in cities across the South American nation, and an agreement on a political roadmap that will see Chile draft a new constitution has halted neither the anger, nor the bloodshed.

Furious Chileans have since Oct 18 been protesting social and economic inequality, and against an entrenched political elite that comes from a small number of the wealthiest families in the country, among other issues.

The crisis is the worst in three decades of Chilean democracy and has led to around 2,000 injuries, including some 280 people who suffered eye damage from shotgun pellets.

The latest death was a 13-year-old boy who an interior ministry official said was run over by a van during protests in Arica, about 2,100km north of the capital Santiago.

Thousands of people gathered again on Friday in Plaza Italia, the center of the demonstrations in Santiago and the site of weekly rallies that have seen massive turnout since the social upheaval broke out.

“We cannot ease up. We have to keep expressing ourselves because we have not achieved anything, because the repression continues and also (the government) keeps signing fake agreements, like the peace deal,” Claudia Ortolani, a young protester, told AFP.

Nearby, hooded men were squaring off against police, who broke up the crowd with tear gas and water cannons.

Meanwhile, about a hundred people protested outside the Costanera Center, the largest mall in South America, as around twenty riot police guarded the entrance to the building.

While protests earlier in the week not been huge, the outbursts of violence multiplied in the capital’s metro area on Thursday and Friday.

The anger in the streets had eased after last week’s agreement by Congress to draft a new Constitution.

But with people back on the streets in force again, President Sebastian Pinera’s government again appealed for calm.

Interior Minister Gonzalo Blumel issued a “deep and sincere call to all political forces” to end the unrest.

But in Quilicura, north of Santiago, a shopping center was set on fire and looted by a crowd while in Puente Alto, another working-class area, a gas station, a police headquarters and businesses were attacked.

In the northern city of Antofagasta, a motorist injured five people when he ran down protesters, while a supermarket was ransacked.

Looting, barricades and fires were also recorded in the port of Valparaiso and the city of Vina del Mar, and in Concepcion in the south.

“This situation … affects our offer to take charge,” said police general Enrique Basseletti, after complaints from people irate that they had not seen police on their streets.

Blumel said that 2,500 trainee police officers would be put on the streets early to bolster the force.

On Thursday, authorities arrested 700 people in the unrest. That followed the police decision to suspend the use of birdshot against protesters, following an outcry over eye injury victims.

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The demonstrations seemingly began with a single spark. In Chile it was a hike in metro fares. In Lebanon it was a tax on WhatsApp calls. In Hong Kong it was a proposed extradition bill. Iran News qoutes the story about global protests told by CNN.

That’s the case in Chile, Lebanon and Hong Kong, he added. These are now “sustained protest movements, continuing even after their initial grievance has been met.”

Chile

A demonstrator is detained by the police during a protest in Santiago, Chile, on Saturday.

What’s happening? Chile declared a state of emergency in the capital Santiago after widespread protests sparked by the proposed price hike for subway tickets a little over a week ago.

At least 18 people have died in clashes between protesters and security forces. Shops and business have been looted and set on fire, and metro stations vandalized and closed to the public in widespread demonstrations over living costs and rising debt in the usually stable country.

What’s been the state response? President Sebastian Pinera announced the suspension of the price hike Saturday. On Tuesday, he apologized for “decades” of accumulated problems and announced a new social and economic agenda but it did little to quell the unrest.

The government has responded by deploying thousands of police and armed soldiers to put down the unrest — the first time the military has been deployed since Pinochet’s military dictatorship ended in 1990.

What’s the bigger picture? Chile is one of Latin America’s wealthiest countries, but it also has one of highest levels of income inequality in the world.

Many jobs are informal or temporary, with young people and women among those struggling the most to find quality, skilled work. Calls for wider economic reform over a number of issues including pensions, healthcare and public education show the cracks in the country’s progress since its transition to democracy.

Lebanon

An anti-government protester makes a victory sign, while holding a Lebanese flag and walking past blazing tires during a protest on October 18.

What’s happening? Hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets across the country for anti-government protests that began last Thursday.

The protests were sparked by a proposed 20 cents per day charge for voice over internet protocol (VOIP) use, a feature used by WhatsApp, Facebook, and other applications.

Very quickly, the proposed VOIP tax had morphed into a larger rallying cry for the downfall of the government and drew out the largest demonstrations the country has seen since March 2005, when mass protests ended a decades-long Syrian military presence in the country.

What’s been the state response? The government has now scrapped plans for the VOIP tax.

It also approved an ambitious program that slashes officials’ salaries by 50%, levies large taxes on banks’ profits, scraps further austerity proposals, and seeks to stem big financial losses in the electricity sector, along with other reform measures. But the reforms do not appear to be appeasing protesters.

What’s the bigger picture? People in Lebanon, buckling under the strains of a rapidly declining economy, are taking aim at what they see as crony capitalism. Decades of corruption and government mismanagement by the country’s sectarian leaders have come at too hefty a price, Lebanese protesters say.

Hong Kong

An anti-government protester throws a Molotov cocktail during a demonstration near Central Government Complex in Hong Kong, in September.

What’s happening? Hong Kong’s protests began in March, but they kicked off in earnest in June. They were sparked by widespread opposition to a now-shelved extradition bill that would have allowed extradition to China, but have since expanded to demands for full democracy and police accountability.

What’s been the state response? In September, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced the withdrawal of the extradition bill after three months of large-scale protests, which have roiled the city and damaged its economy. That, however, did not stop the demonstrations.

What’s the bigger picture? Hong Kong belongs to China, but it has its own currency, political system and cultural identity. Many Hong Kong residents don’t see themselves as Chinese, but rather as Hong Kongers.

Ultimately, young Hong Kongers are concerned about China’s growing encroachment in the city — and the perceived threat to freedoms unavailable to Chinese mainlanders, such as the right to protest, the right to a free press, and an independent judiciary. This has led to the regular and increasingly violent protests in the usually peaceful city, resulting in more than 2,000 protesters arrested so far.

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The recent calving of a large iceberg from a southern Chilean glacier threatens local ship navigation and could result in flooding for coastal communities, experts said.

An iceberg measuring some 350 by 380 meters (1,150 by 1,250 feet) broke from the Grey glacier in far southern Chile in late November.

The size of the break surprised local scientists who monitor the glacier.

“Events like this are part of a short-term irreversible tendency” due to rising global temperatures, said Raul Cordero, a climate change expert at the Universidad de Santiago.

The iceberg now seems like a large chunk of ice, “but it will become a threat” since it will move out to sea and break up into smaller pieces, said Ricardo Jana, a glaciologist at the Chilean National Antarctic Institute.

Given its size, the smaller icebergs likely to break off can create problems for area navigation, Jana said.

The icebergs will also contribute to a rise in the sea level, “putting coastal communities at risk for possible flooding,” Jana said.

The Grey glacier is located at the Torres del Paine National Park, some 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles) south of the capital Santiago.

Over the past 30 years the glacier — now measuring some 270 square kilometers — has lost about two square kilometers of ice.

A Chilean flag flutters in the wind near the Grey glacier at the Torres del Paine National Park in far southern Chile

The glacier is part of the Southern Patagonia Ice Fields, the third largest land-based ice field after Antarctica and Greenland. The Ice Fields straddle southern Chile and Argentina.

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