Chile launches fresh talks to calm deadly unrest

Chile's government met with opposition leaders on Thursday in a fresh bid to end deadly protests that forced the country to abandon hosting two major economic and climate summits, but leftist parties poured scorn on the efforts.

The unrest started with protests against a rise in transport tickets and other austerity measures and descended into vandalism, looting, and clashes between demonstrators and police.

Protesters are angry about low salaries and pensions, poor public healthcare and education, and a yawning gap between rich and poor.

Pinera has reshuffled his government and announced a series of measures aimed at placating protesters.

But they have continued demanding that the right-wing billionaire president step down.

Protests erupted again on Thursday as thousands of Chileans wearing Halloween masks and alien costumes swarmed the Plaza Italia -- the epicenter of the demonstrations -- in response to a leaked recording of First Lady Cecilia Morel complaining the situation in the country was like an alien invasion.

Hundreds of other protesters marched along Santiago's main avenue to the presidential palace, where they clashed with police, who fired tear gas and water trucks.

Earlier on Thursday, following two hours of talks at the presidential palace, the government failed to convince political rivals it has the will to make the necessary changes to appease protesters.

Socialist Party leader Alvaro Elizalde said the government "is not prepared to listen to the citizens' demands."
Heraldo Munoz, leader of the Party for Democracy, said he'd still not seen "clear signals in favour of dialogue."
A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed the finger at Russia, accusing it of seizing on debate in Chile, "and skewing it through the use and abuse of social media -- trolling."
Trump said an alternative location for the signing of a US-China trade deal with Xi will be "announced soon."