African Union seeks India’s help

• In a bid to fight the rapid spread of the Ebola virus disease, the African Union Support to Ebola Outbreak in West Africa, a team formed for emergency response on Ebola that is under the African Union Commission Social Affairs, has urged the Indian government to lend support with medical human resources.
• The Indian government has had disasters, including natural and human made in many aspects and is very good at emergency preparedness and emergency response, hence, working with them in that aspect could really be supportive to tackle the issues, according to Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko, the commissioner for social affairs at the AUC. — IANS

U.N. support to Satyarthi, Malala

• Lauding this year’s Nobel Peace laureates Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said the two “remarkable” Asians give hope to people around the world struggling against exploitation and assured the world body’s support to their “vitally important work”.
• Mr. Ban congratulated Mr. Satyarthi and Ms. Yousafzai in his remarks to the Asia Society Game Changer Awards here on Thursday, noting that the awards celebrate an array of “remarkable” Asians.
• The inaugural award has been instituted by leading educational and cultural organization Asia Society honouring “true leaders making a positive contribution to the future of Asia.”

Hong Kong demonstrators try to retake protest camp

• Fresh clashes broke out in Hong Kong on Friday night as demonstrators attempted to retake a protest camp partially cleared by police earlier in the day, jeopardising talks to end weeks of mass democracy rallies.
• Officers used pepper spray and batons to beat back activists as they tried to reoccupy a busy main road in the bustling Mongkok district, which has been home to a protest camp for nearly three weeks, an AFP reporter on the scene saw.
• “We want to take back this spot because it’s what we had,” said Gary Yip, a 17-year-old high school student.
• It is the third consecutive night that violence has broken out after a fortnight of comparative calm — a development that risks sinking only recently resurrected plans to hold talks between student leaders and the city’s Beijing-backed authorities.
• The Asian financial hub has been rocked by demonstrations for nearly three weeks — some of which drew crowds of tens of thousands — calling for free elections and the resignation of the city’s leader Leung Chun-ying.
• Protesters have held sit-ins at three major intersections causing significant disruption to a city usually known for its stability, and presenting Beijing with one of the most significant challenges to its authority since the 1989 Tiananmen protests.
• China has insisted that Mr. Leung’s successor must be vetted by a loyalist committee before standing for election in 2017, a proposal protesters have dismissed as “fake democracy”.
• Earlier in the day, officers had significantly reduced the size of the northern Mongkok camp — the second largest after the main protest site opposite the government’s headquarters in central Hong Kong — in a swift dawn raid that saw no resistance from demonstrators.
• Mongkok had previously seen clashes between protesters and masked government loyalists earlier in the month.
• Throughout Friday, demonstrators managed to hold on to one side of a multi-lane road where the camp had been located. Police then struggled to maintain order as crowds of pro-democracy supporters began to swell during the evening.
• Violence broke out around 8 p.m. (1200 GMT) after several protesters tried to push through a police cordon.

Nigeria claims deal with Boko Haram

• Nigeria’s military and presidency on Friday claimed to have reached a deal with Boko Haram militants on a ceasefire but released contradictory statements on whether a deal for the release of more than 219 kidnapped schoolgirls was in place.
• “A ceasefire agreement has been concluded between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad [Boko Haram],” Chief of Defence Staff Air Marshal Alex Badeh said. “I have accordingly directed the service chiefs to ensure immediate compliance with this development in the field.”
• Separately, President Goodluck Jonathan’s Principal Secretary Hassan Tukur told AFP that an agreement to end hostilities had been reached following talks, as well as the release of 219 girls held captive since April. “Boko Haram issued the ceasefire as a result of the discussions we have been having with them,” said Mr. Tukur, adding that the announcement was made “last night” (Thursday). “They have agreed to release the Chibok girls,” he continued, referring to the 219 teenage girls held hostage after their April 14 kidnapping from a secondary school in Chibok, northeast Nigeria.
• Nigeria’s chief security spokesman, however, said that there was no deal in place for the release of the schoolgirls. “No. That part has not been agreed but we are inching closer and closer,” the head of the National Information Centre, Mike Omeri, said.
• The different branches of the government have frequently made contradictory statements on major national events in the past, with competing agendas often leading to confusing and contradictory positions.
• Questions surrounded the purported deal, given that Jonathan is expected to declare his re-election bid and positive news about the hostages and violence could give him a political boost.
• There was also uncertainty about the identity of Danladi Ahmadu, who was said by Mr. Tukur to be Boko Haram’s representative at the talks and who gave a radio interview broadcast this morning.
• Multiple analysts cast doubt on Mr. Ahmadu’s credibility as a Boko Haram envoy while Nigeria has made similar ceasefire claims in the past which failed to materialise.

India, China agree to defuse tensions

• Indian and Chinese diplomats agreed to defuse tensions of the past three months at a two-day meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) in Delhi that concluded here on Friday. But a month after Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed to restarting the high-level talks of Special Representatives on border issues, India is yet to announce its nominee for the dialogue.
• Sources tell The Hindu that officials in New Delhi and Beijing are deadlocked over “issues of bureaucratic rank,” given that Chinese Special Representative Yang Jiechi is a “state councillor,” equal to the Indian rank of Minister of State, while National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, who would have been the obvious choice for the post, has not been designated to that rank.
• Ahead of Mr. Xi’s visit to India, Mr. Doval travelled to Beijing as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy, and the announcement of his nomination as Special Representative was expected during the President’s visit. However, Chinese officials made it clear informally that Mr. Doval should have the Minister of State rank for the talks to continue. Former NSAs Shivshankar Menon and M.K. Narayanan were both of that rank. Upset with China’s rebuff, New Delhi is learnt to have put off the announcement.
• Some reports speculated that the Chairman of the National Security Advisory Board Shyam Saran or India’s Ambassador to the U.S., S. Jaishankar, both of whom have been Ambassadors to China, could be alternative choices and would be given other responsibilities on external security issues.
• Experts say the delay has come at the cost of resumption of dialogue at the highest level, making the Line of Actual Control more vulnerable to stand-offs of the kind seen in Chumar since July 25 — first over the construction of a road near Chumar by China and then an irrigation canal and observation post by India.
• “Clearly, without having the Special Representatives in place, the government cannot signal any interest in resuming this very important process of clarifying the LAC,” says Srinath Raghavan, a military expert at the Centre for Policy Research.