EFCC finally breaks silence on freezing Davido, Adeleke’s accounts

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has finally reacted to media claims that it has frozen the accounts of musician, David Adeleke, aka Davido and that of his uncle, Ademola Adeleke.

The commission in a statement signed on Sunday by its spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said there was no truth in the claims being circulated by the Peoples Democratic Party and some politically motivated elements.

The anti-graft agency described report as a plan to taint the image of the agency.

The statement read, “The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has been drawn to media publications alleging that it had frozen the account of Senator Ademola Adeleke, candidate of the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in the September 22, 2018 Osun State governorship election and those of his family members, including the musician, David Adeleke.

“The Commission calls on members the public to disregard the report, which is patently false and contrived to dress the agency with a partisan garb in the unfolding political contest in Osun State.

“For the avoidance of doubt, at no time did the EFCC place a freeze order on any account belonging to members of the Adeleke family.

“The purported freeze order which has unfortunately been amplified by pliable sections of the media without any attempt at confirmation is alien to the Commission and another example of fake news.

“The EFCC frowns at the seeming attempts by faceless forces to drag it into the political fray and, for the umpteenth time, restates its neutrality as a law enforcement organization that is sworn to uphold the law at all times, irrespective whose interest is at stake.”

Trump gets pass from Congress on Puerto Rico deaths

Far more people died from Hurricane Maria than Katrina, but the House and Senate have asked fewer questions.

After Hurricane Katrina crashed into the Gulf Coast in 2005, Congress sprang into action.

Seventeen days after the storm made landfall, the Republican-led House created a bipartisan select committee to investigate the Bush administration’s response to the storm. In the Senate, the committee with oversight over the Federal Emergency Management Agency held 22 hearings in six months. Within eight months, both committees had released 500-plus-page investigations into the Bush administration’s handling of the crisis with dozens of recommendations for reform.

In the year since Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, killing nearly 70 percent more people than Katrina, the GOP-led House has yet to create a select committee to oversee the Trump administration’s recovery efforts. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees FEMA, has held just two hearings related to the storm. Neither the House nor the Senate have issued any major reports, and none appear to be in the works.

The lack of congressional oversight is especially striking since serious questions remain unanswered about a hurricane that killed an estimated 2,975 people, according to researchers at George Washington University. President Donald Trump falsely claimed last week that the death count was inflated as part of a partisan Democratic attack. But with only limited oversight from Congress, disaster experts contend, it is difficult to hold officials accountable for delayed responses last year, to help FEMA learn from its mistakes or to provide a documented accounting of what happened in order to refute claims like the one in Trump’s tweet.

“Puerto Rico is getting far less attention, in spite of it being one of the worst disasters in modern American history, than Katrina and far less attention than we got for Superstorm Sandy,” said Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University. “From the beginning, the handling of Maria’s consequences both from the White House and Congress has been abysmally inadequate.”

After being slow to demand further oversight from congressional leaders,Democrats are now sharply criticizing Republicans for failing to act, calling for an independent commission to investigate the storm and promising to open a new investigation if they win back the House in November. They say that Republicans are providing political cover for Trump, whose response to the Puerto Rican disaster was slower than his efforts to clean up damage from Hurricane Harvey in Texas just a month earlier.

Republicans reject the criticism that they have not fully investigated the storm. They point to hearings across different committees, congressional trips to Puerto Rico and thousands of documents reviewed by congressional staff. The House has also twice passed bills aimed at helping FEMA to better prepare for future disasters.

“[The committees] have conducted rigorous oversight of the U.S. government’s response following the storms including holding full committee and subcommittee hearings, a field hearing, and bipartisan briefings,” said AshLee Strong, press secretary for House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) “This work is not over as we continue to conduct oversight including Congressional requests of the Government Accountability Office and forthcoming review of the Inspector General’s audit.”

Nonetheless, a two-month POLITICO review of Congress’ actions after Katrina and Maria found that the House and Senate acted far more aggressively in the year after Katrina than in the past year after Maria.

Soon after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, House GOP leaders called for an investigation and created a select committee to investigate the storm. Democrats, in fact, voted almost unanimously against the creation of the committee, arguing that Republicans, who would lead the committee, would use it to whitewash the Bush administration’s response to the storm. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told Democrats to boycott the committee altogether, but representatives from the Gulf states participated anyway, believing that the committee, despite its makeup, was the best chance to get information out of the administration.

Former Rep. Charlie Melancon of Louisiana, the ranking Democrat on the committee, recalled that he didn’t remember the committee accomplishing much. “In my mind, it was to make it look like Congress or GOP leadership was doing something,” he said.

2019: Why I’m Supporting Saraki’s Presidential Ambition – Ex-President IBB Reveals

Former Nigerian military head of state, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, has spoken on why he throwin his support on 2019 presidential aspirant, Dr. Bukola Saraki.

While speaking in Minna, the Niger State capital on Saturday, former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, threw his weight behind the presidential ambition of Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki.

Babangida who made the disclosure while playing host to Saraki, said in supporting Saraki’s presidential bid, he was only returning a favour the senior Saraki paid him during his own presidential ambition.

“it is my turn to do what your father did to me,” Babangida said, adding that he will treat Saraki as his own son and ensure that he succeeds in his bid.

“I will rightly observe that you are my son, for coming to pay a courtesy visit. I remember when I was still in office, I spoke with your father, Oloye Saraki, who always provided advice on a number of things attached to this country.

“He always made himself available to me, to give advice and encouragement which will move the country forward. Your visit is historical. Now, it is your time and turn to come to me and I will do just that.”

General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye Reacts To Viral Report Of Speaking To Tinubu About Gov. Ambode

In a disclaimer posted on his verified Twitter and Facebook pages, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, on Sunday, denied having a telephone conversation with the APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu, about the second term ambition of the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode.

A report on Saturday had alleged that Adeboye had in a telephone conversation with Tinubu, appealed to him to support Ambode’s second term ambition.

There had allegedly been a falling out between Ambode and Tinubu, which has led to the emergence of other aspirants on the platform of the APC in Lagos State.

Read Adeboye’s statement below;

“Our attention has been drawn to news making the rounds from dailies especially the New Telegraph Pastor E.A Adeboye, the General Overseer of the RCCG had a recent phone conversation with the Leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC).

“We would like to inform the general public that this is false and Pastor E.A Adeboye has not and would not be involved in inter /intra party politics in Nigeria and anywhere RCCG is present across the world.

“Pastor E.A Adeboye advices all well meaning Nigerians just like him to get their PVC’s and exercise their civic duty.
“God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

White House opens internal investigation into Trump prank call

Mr Melendez claims the call shows 'how easy it is to infiltrate the White House'

The White House has opened an investigation into how a comedian managed to prank call Donald Trump on Air Force One.

The call involved comedian John Melendez pretending to be New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, and being connected to the president for a conversation about immigration and the new nomination for a judge to be placed on the Supreme Court.

Mr Melendez, who recorded the call and published excerpts on his "Stuttering John" podcast claimed that he had been passed to President Trump by his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The White House office of legislative affairs contacted the office of Mr Menendez and were told that the senator had not requested a call with the president and it should not go through, but it was put through anyway, seemingly leaving Mr Trump's team embarrassed.

An internal investigation is now underway to determine how the call was handled, a senior official told ABC News. The White House did not return a request for comment from The Independent.

The call occurred on Mr Trump's flight back from a rally in North Dakota on Thursday, with Mr Melendez claiming that the call showed "how easy it is to infiltrate the White House.”

According to the recording, Mr Trump told Mr Melendez that he wanted "to take care" of the issue over immigration at the US border - which has been a source of much criticism for the president in recent weeks.

Mr Melendez then seemingly tried to influence the president on his next Supreme Court pick, telling him - as Mr Menendez the senator - that he would support a vote for his pick as long as they weren't “too conservative.”

“Yeah. Well, we will talk to you about it. We're going to probably make a decision, Bob, over the next two weeks,” Mr Trump said.

Australia names new deputy prime minister

Michael McCormack was on Monday elected Australia’s new deputy prime minister after being selected as the leader of the country’s National Party, the junior partner in the country’s coalition government.

McCormack replaces former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce who was forced to resign last week amid public anger over an extramarital affair with his former press secretary with whom he is now expecting a child.

The leader of the National Party automatically becomes deputy prime minister under the terms of the coalition agreement with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberal party.

“I will honour the faith and trust and responsibility by always doing my best,” McCormack told reporters in Canberra.

The appointment of McCormack will ease pressure on the government that was left reeling after revelations of Joyce’s affair, a scandal that threatened to fracture the government.

Turnbull called Joyce’s affair a “shocking error of judgment”, to which Joyce responded by calling Turnbull “inept”.

Although offering some respite to Turnbull, McCormack is little known around the country, weakening the government’s re-election prospects.

Turnbull must head back to the polls by May 2019.

El Hadji Diouf set for political career in Senegal

 The former Liverpool and Bolton Wanderers talisman is keen in following Weah's steps by leading the people in his country

Senegal legend El Hadji Diouf has revealed his newly found career in politics as he hopes to change things in his home country.
Inspired by George Weah's presidential success in Liberia, the 37-year-old has set his sights in politics with an ambition to become ‘the solider of the youngsters’.
The two-time African Footballer of the Year who scored 24 goals in 70 appearances for the Teranga Lions is also aiming to effect change in the country's football system through politics.
I am looking after myself and my family. For many years I use to think about football but I have a new career and it is a political career,” Diouf told FourFourTwo.
“I have taken the decision to do politics because I have people waiting for me to change things in my country and I am ready to do that because I want to be the solider of the youngsters."
"My future is defined. In the next two years I will be joining politics, because I know from that point I can change a lot in football."
After undergoing high level coaching courses, the former Blackburn Rovers and Leeds United player whose football career was overshadowed by controversies, admitted that his future is in the political world.
"I have a lot of passion for politics, and I have people in Senegal who are mentoring me," he continued.
"That is the future for me, because a lot of Senegalese people are able to listen to me.

"I took high-level coaching courses, but decided not to continue since I have better plans on things I want to do.
"But I am always available to advise my team whenever called upon.”

Diouf who is currently the special adviser to President Macky Sall on sports,  represented Senegal at the 2002 Fifa World Cup in Korea/Japan and was named in the Fifa World Cup All-Star team and Fifa 100 by Pele as a reward for his great performances in globag showpiece.

Putin: alleged Manafort Russian link fabricated by Trump opponents

An alleged link between U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Russia is being fabricated by Trump’s opponents as a weapon against Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday.
Reports that Putin’s relatives were involved in contacts with Trump administration were untrue, Putin told a briefing at the end of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam. 

EU Prepares for British Government Collapse After Firing of 2nd Minister

European Union negotiators are readying themselves for the collapse of Prime Minister Theresa May’s government as it lurches from one crisis to another, say officials in Brussels.
And Britain’s Opposition Labor Party is eagerly standing by, with its deputy leader warning Thursday that the ruling Conservative government is so fragile “random events could bring it down.”
“Another Day, Another Crisis,” was the Daily Telegraph’s headline Thursday in the wake of May having to fire two key Cabinet ministers in a week — Michael Fallon as her defense secretary over sexual harassment claims, and the ambitious International Development Minister Priti Patel late Wednesday over 14 unauthorized meetings with Israeli ministers, business people and a high-profile lobbyist during a family vacation to Israel.
Weakened government

Britain’s beleaguered prime minister and her aides are dismissing suggestions her government is near collapse, saying her ministers are “getting on with the job.”
Weakened by her gamble last year to hold snap parliamentary elections, which led to the Conservatives losing their majority in the House of Commons, May has been able to hold on to her job because a split Conservative party has been fearful of what would follow her departure and which party faction would win a leadership competition, say analysts.
The ruling party is divided between those who want a clean and total break with the European Union and those who want Britain to maintain close ties with the economic bloc, the country’s biggest trading partner.
This week’s ministerial departures add pressure on May’s minority government following a string of controversies that she appears unable to contain — from a burgeoning sexual harassment scandal that is affecting all parties, but the incumbent Conservatives the worst, and could lead to the departure of her deputy, Damian Green — to rebelliousness among her ministers as they maneuver for political advantage and plot their own policies without paying much heed to Downing Street.
Along with all of that, several ministers have triggered alarm with gaffes that have real-life consequences. Demands have been mounting across the political spectrum for May to dismiss Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson after he misspoke, when he said a British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran had been training journalists when she was arrested.
Johnson’s critics say the ill-advised remarks risk Tehran lengthening the five-year sentence handed to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, purportedly on national security grounds. Her employer, Thomson Reuters, says the characterization that she was in Iran to teach people journalism is false. Johnson has since said he "could have chosen his words more carefully."

“It’s hard to remember a time when a British government was so racked by crisis after crisis,” acknowledged political writer Sonia Sodha of Britain’s leftist The Guardian newspaper.
Few replacement candidates

Sodha believes May could survive until 2019, when Brexit talks are scheduled to have concluded, if for no other reason than no one else in the Conservative party wants to take up “the poisoned chalice” of navigating the country through its exit from the European Union.
And some Conservative lawmakers concede privately that the only reason they want May to continue is that a leadership upheaval could trigger an early election which Labor would likely win.
Other Westminster-watchers aren’t as confident that May — a virtual prisoner of warring party factions over Brexit — can survive much longer.
“Governments often survive sleaze scandals, recessions and even the most disastrous of wars. Few, if any, ever recover when they become laughing stocks, objects of pity and ridicule. That, tragically, is the direction in which Theresa May’s rudderless government is fast heading,” according to Conservative commentator Allister Heath.
More challenges ahead

Much will likely depend on whether the sexual harassment crisis rocking Westminster claims other officials. The government also risks defeat in the coming days on amendments to EU withdrawal legislation. Additionally, another key factor in May's survival is likely to come when later this month, the government reports on the state of the public finances — they could be worse than expected and require further unpopular cuts.
Some analysts are likening May’s position to that of a Conservative predecessor, John Major, whose 1992-1997 government was in disarray almost from the start due to scandals, divisions over Europe and a recession. Major was enraged by the disloyalty of his Cabinet and in an outburst picked up by a television microphone he thought was switched off, labeled three of his ministers “bastards.” Despite its instability, Major's government managed to soldier on for nearly five years.
EU leaders aren’t so sure May can repeat Major’s achievement.
For EU, many unknown

Officials say Brussels is preparing contingency plans for May leaving before the new year and Britain holding early elections months later. An unnamed European leader told the British newspaper The Times, “There is the great difficulty of the leadership in Great Britain, which is more and more fragile. Britain is very weak and the weakness of Theresa May makes negotiations very difficult.”
Talks between British and EU negotiators were resuming Thursday in the sixth round of talks over Brexit. May is hoping her negotiators can secure a breakthrough and persuade the EU to start moving on to talks about a future trade deal even before there is a final deal on the rights of EU citizens living in Britain, what will become of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and the “divorce bill.”
London has suggested that since an agreement is near on the divorce terms, trade talks should start immediately, but the Europeans have a different take.
Speaking Thursday, a top EU lawmaker, Sophie in ’t Veld, warned there has been little progress, saying, “A year-and-a-half has passed since the Brexit vote and we haven’t moved an inch and the situation is getting very, very worrying.” She accused the British government of not being clear about its negotiating position.
Fears are mounting that Britain will crash out of the EU without a trade deal with its neighbors are mounting. On Monday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross warned that losing access to Europe’s financial markets after Brexit would damage Britain’s chances of negotiating a successful trade agreement with Washington. His warning came after the heads of U.S. banks told him they were preparing plans to move staff from London and relocate them to other European cities.

Australians protest against unfolding 'emergency' in offshore detention camp

More than 1,000 people protested in Australia on Saturday against the treatment of hundreds of asylum seekers in an offshore detention center that the United Nations has described as an “unfolding humanitarian emergency”.

About 600 men have barricaded themselves inside the camp on remote Manus island in Papua New Guinea, defying efforts by Australia and PNG to shut it. Food, running water and medical services were cut off by Australia four days ago.

Australian authorities want the men moved to a transit center elsewhere on the island at the start of a process the asylum seekers fear will result in them being resettled in PNG or another developing nation.

The men also fear violent reprisals from the local community.

“These people have committed no crime other than to do what every single one of us would do if we thought our lives, or our family’s lives, were at risk,” Federal Greens lawmaker Adam Bandt told the crowd in Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city.

Another smaller protest was staged in Sydney.

The Manus island center, and one on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru, have been key parts of Australia’s disputed “Sovereign Borders” immigration policy, under which it refuses to allow asylum seekers arriving by boat to reach its shores.

Australia’s offshore detention policies have been heavily criticized by the United Nations and human rights groups but are backed the center-right government and the Labor opposition.

U.N. rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news conference in Geneva on Friday about the “unfolding humanitarian emergency” in the Manus island center, where asylum seekers have been reported digging wells to try to find water.

The Australian government has not responded to Colville’s comments. It frequently does not comment on issues concerning the offshore centers, citing operational reasons.

The relocation of the men is designed as a temporary measure, allowing the United States time to complete vetting of asylum seekers as part of a refugee swap deal, agreed on last year, under which Australia will accept refugees from Central America.
Labor leader Bill Shorten has called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to consider New Zealand’s offer to take 150 refugees from the camps on Manus and Nauru.

'Buhari asked us to focus on northern Nigeria’ -World Bank

World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim who spoke at separate press conferences in Washington DC, U.S alongside Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde on Thursday, disclosed that the bank had concentrated on the northern region of Nigeria in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s request.

He said; “You know, in my very first meeting with President Buhari he said specifically that he would like us to shift our focus to the northern region of Nigeria and we’ve done that. Now, it has been very difficult. The work there has been very difficult. “I think Nigeria, of course, has suffered from the dropping oil prices.

I think things are just now getting better. But the conversation we need to have with Nigeria, I think, is in many ways related to the theme that I brought to the table just this past week, which is investment in human capital. The percentage of the Gross Domestic Product that Nigeria spends on healthcare is less than one percent.”
Punch reports that he further said that;
“Despite that, there is so much turbulence in the northern part of the country, and there is the hit that was taken from the drop in the oil prices. Nigeria has to think ahead and invest in its people. .

Investing in the things that will allow Nigeria to be a thriving, rapidly growing economy in the future is what the country has to focus on right now.” Kim also said, “Focusing on the northern part of Nigeria, we hope that as commodity prices stabilise and oil prices come back up, the economy will grow a bit more.

But very, very much important is the need to focus on what the drivers of growth in the future will be.”
According to the World Bank boss, the bank will invest in human capital in other parts of Africa in order to prepare the continent for the next phase of growth.

California Wildfires Death Toll Rises to 29 as Vast Region Is Scorched

Hundreds of sleep-deprived, stubble-faced firefighters, their yellow coats layered with soot, assembled here Wednesday to hear their commanders say what they already knew: The fires that have devastated California’s wine country were still spreading, nowhere near containment, and the crews battling the blazes were stretched to their limits.

“I wish I could say the cavalry is coming — it’s not,” Battalion Chief Kirk Van Wormer of Cal Fire, the state firefighting agency, told the gathering of firefighters, flecks of ash raining down on them. “Look to your left and look to your right. Those are the people you are responsible for right now.”

Fanned by warm, dry winds, the fires have grown so big, so fast, that the immediate goal fire officials set was not so much to stop the spread as to slow it, to channel it away from threatened cities and towns, and to save lives. Saving homes and businesses was secondary.

The fires have killed at least 29 people in Northern California, officials said on Thursday. Fifteen of the deaths were in Sonoma County. Officials cautioned that the figures could rise as emergency workers are able to return to scorched areas and search for hundreds of people who have been reported missing.

Robert Giordano, the Sonoma County sheriff, said, “So far, in the recoveries, we have found bodies that were almost completely intact, and we have found bodies that were nothing more than ash and bones.” In some cases, he said, the only way to identify the victims was by the serial numbers stamped on artificial joints and other medical devices that were in their bodies.

Statewide, there were 21 major fires burning on Thursday, having consumed more than 191,000 acres since the outbreak began on Sunday night, said Ken Pimlott, the chief of Cal Fire, the state firefighting agency. The number of separate fires rises and falls often, as new blazes flare up and old ones merge with one another, but the size of the devastated area has grown steadily.

In the hardest-hit region, in Napa and Sonoma Counties, the sun was an orange dot in a leaden haze. There were eight major blazes there on Thursday, and the burned area grew to more than 120,000 acres, Cal Fire reported. The agency said that the 34,000-acre Tubbs Fire, which has burned parts of the city of Santa Rosa and has threatened Geyserville, was 10 percent contained, but most of the other blazes in wine country were 3 percent contained or less.

Officials threw out sobering figures on the scale of the devastation, with the caveat that the numbers were just estimates, sure to rise when the crisis has abated enough to allow an accurate damage assessment. Thousands of structures have been destroyed, many more are threatened, and tens of thousands of people have been displaced.

Continue reading the main story

A man hosed down the roof of his home in Agua Caliente, Calif. Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times

“These fires are literally just burning faster than firefighters can run,” Mr. Pimlott said. Wind-whipped embers leapfrogged past the exhausted fire crews, he said, so “we are attacking many, many new fires that we put out while they are still small.”

Almost 8,000 state and local firefighters battled the blazes, using more than 550 fire engines, 73 helicopters and more than 30 airplanes, state officials said, with additional crews and 320 more fire engines en route from neighboring states and from federal agencies. But vast as the resources were, they clearly were not enough.

The standard practice in a California wildfire is for firefighters to work 24-hour shifts, and then have 24 hours off. But many firefighters in Sonoma and Napa have had no real rests for days, catching a few hours of sleep on the ground or in their trucks.

U.S. Attorney General Sessions urges crackdown on asylum policies

 

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Thursday the policies that allow immigrants to seek asylum in the United States were broken and subject to “rampant abuse and fraud.”

In a speech at the department’s Executive Office For Immigration Review, Sessions said too many immigrants were taking advantage of the rules, and urged Congress to pass legislation that could make it harder for asylum petitions to be granted.

Overhauling the U.S. asylum system was on a list of immigration proposals the White House sent Congress over the weekend that President Donald Trump wants in exchange for a legislative fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Most of the principles, including a crackdown on the influx of Central American unaccompanied minors, are likely to be non-starters for Democrats.

Sessions did not announce any specific policy shifts in his speech but urged Congress to act.

“Congress must pass the legislative priorities President Trump announced this week, which included significant asylum reform, swift border returns, and enhanced interior enforcement,” he said.

He said there were “loopholes” in the law that allow immigrants, whom federal officials determine have a “credible fear” of returning to their home countries, to be released pending a hearing before a judge.

He also advocated for imposing and enforcing penalties for “baseless” asylum applications, elevating the threshold standard of proof in credible fear interviews, and expanding the ability to return asylum seekers to safe third countries.

Slideshow (9 Images)

After they pass their credible fear review, many people simply disappear and never show up at their immigration hearings, Sessions said.

He blamed the Obama administration for a policy shift in 2009 that allowed them to be released from custody, and said he believed many peoples’ credible fear claims were simply a “ruse to enter the country illegally.”

Human Rights First, a group that provides pro bono legal assistance to refugees, said the attorney general’s comments mischaracterized asylum seekers as “threats and frauds.”

“These individuals are not criminals,” said senior director Eleanor Acer in a statement, “they are mothers, teenagers, and children desperate to escape violence and persecution.”

UK 'eliminates measles' for first time

The elimination of measles has been achieved in the UK for the first time, the World Health Organization says.

The global health body classes a country as having eliminated the disease when it has stopped it freely circulating for at least three years.

While there are still small clusters, many of these are brought in from abroad and they are not spreading.

But health experts said there should be no complacency, warning there were several large outbreaks across Europe.

The news comes just a week after it was announced England had achieved the target of getting 95% of children to have had the first does of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine by their first birthday.

That figure is considered important because it ensures herd immunity, meaning the disease cannot spread because of the high level of vaccination rates.

MMR vaccination rates dipped after a panic caused by discredited former doctor Andrew Wakefield, who falsely claimed in the late 1990s that the jab caused autism.

Before that the UK was on track to achieve measles elimination.

'Huge achievement'

According to the latest quarterly report on measles, covering April to June, there were just over 60 cases in England, most were in London, linked to small family clusters and imported from abroad.

There was one in Scotland and small outbreaks in Wales and Northern Ireland, which were linked to Romania where there is a major outbreak.

Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at Public Health England, said: "This is a huge achievement and a testament to all the hard work by our health professionals in the NHS to ensure that all children and adults are fully protected with two doses of the MMR vaccine.

"We need to ensure that this is sustained going forward by maintaining and improving coverage of the MMR vaccine in children and by catching up older children and young adults who missed out."