BBC News with Maria Marshall.
An internal World Health Organization document has blamed the UN agency for botching efforts to stop the spread of Ebola in West Africa. The draft report said the agency had been too slow to act because of the lack of information and incompetent staff. E. F. has this report.
The Director General of the WHO has now admitted she was unhappy when she learned just how big the Ebola outbreak was and cleared indication that the organization knows something has gone badly wrong. The WHO is facing financial cutbacks. Perhaps with Ebola, its officials feared accusation of over-reacting. Critics also claimed the WHO was bureaucratic with little communication between its officers in Africa and headquarters in Geneva. Reacting to charges, a senior WHO official said there would be an investigation into the Ebola crisis but not until the outbreak was over.
The military in Nigeria says it's agreed a ceasefire with the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. However, there has been no word so far from the militant group. Will Ross sends this report from Lagos.
The Chief of Defense Staff Alex B. gave very few details but said a ceasefire agreement has been struck with Boko Haram. A senior official in the presidency told the BBC that as a part of the deal, the 290 abducted school girls would be freed by Boko Haram. Although he said there would be more talks to work out exactly how they would be released. This is a very surprising development as Nigerian officials had not given any indication that the negotiations were taking place.
The BBC has found evidence that a well-established slave trade in southern Thailand with Bangladesh men being sold in servitude. Our Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head reports.
Local officials on Thailand's Andaman coast were alerted to the plight of these men by villagers who spotted them being moved between their jungle camps. Two groups who were rescued in the past week totaling 134. They described being lured from their hometowns in Bangladesh by the promise of better jobs, then being drugged, tied up and packed onto a boat bound for Thailand, there they were held by armed guards who planned to sell them into slavery, probably on fishing boats to plantations. Some of those guards have been caught but officials say the slave trade is run by more powerful figures in Thailand who have yet to be challenged by the authorities.
Kiev says there has been no final agreement in talks about Russian gas supply to Ukraine. However, the Russian president Vladimir Putin said some progress had been made, a view echoed earlier by his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko who said a deal had been struck on the outline of a contract to end the dispute over unpaid bills. Their talks are part of a negotiation between Mr. Putin and European leaders over the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
World News from the BBC.
Angry clashes between police and democracy protestors have continued late into the night in Hong Kong. Reports speak of chaotic scenes as police used pepper spray and batons to force back thousands of protestors as they gather in the Mongkok District. Several were seen being led away by police. They have been trying to retake an area the authorities had partially cleared earlier on Friday.
The Polish authorities have arrested two men on suspicion of spying for Russia. Adam Easton reports from Warsaw.
Until now officials have refused to identify the country the men were allegedly spying for. Prosecutors have still only revealed that one of the detained men is an officer serving in the Polish military while the other is a lawyer based in Warsaw. The Polish media, however, has reported that the officer is a colonel working for the Ministry of Defense and that the lawyer has dual Polish and Russian citizenship. The case is likely to further strain relations between Warsaw and Moscow which has become considerably more difficult following Poland's condemnation of Russia's actions in Ukraine.
Turkish prosecutors have dropped a high-profile corruption case that led the resignation of three administers. Reports said the lack of sufficient evidence and problems in collecting the evidence meant the charge against 53 people could not be stood up. The case focused on allegations the some of two government ministers had organized the giving and taking of bribes.
The congress in the Mexican state of G. has impeached the mayor of the town of E. who's sought by the authorities on organized crime charge. The mayor J. L. is suspected of involvement in the disappearance of 43 students during demonstrations in the town three weeks ago. The mayor and his wife left the town the day after the disturbances and haven't been seen since. Thousands of protestors marched in the city of A. in G. state demanding the safe return of the students.