GENEVA: The WHO said it had triggered its emergency management system in response to Friday’s “huge” earthquake in Myanmar and was mobilizing its logistics hub in Dubai to prepare trauma injury supplies.
The World Health Organization is coordinating its earthquake response from its Geneva headquarters “because we see this as a huge event” with “clearly a very, very big threat to life and health,” spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a media briefing.
“We’ve activated our logistics hub to look particularly for trauma supplies and things like external fixators because we expect that there will be many, many injuries that need to be dealt with,” Harris said.
She said the WHO would also be concentrating on getting in essential medicines, while the health infrastructure in Myanmar itself might be damaged.
Harris said that due to recent experience with the 2023 Turkiye-Syria earthquakes, “we know very well what you need to send in first.”
The UN health agency already has a special cell to deal with Myanmar, which has been rocked by fighting between numerous ethnic rebel groups and the army.
And by chance, the WHO had done an assessment in recent weeks of the best ways to get supplies into Myanmar.
“We are ready to move in — but now we have to know exactly where, what and why. It’s information from the ground that’s really critical right now,” said Harris.
WHO readying medical supplies for ‘huge’ Myanmar quake
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WHO readying medical supplies for ‘huge’ Myanmar quake
- WHO is coordinating its earthquake response from its Geneva headquarters “because we see this as a huge event” spokeswoman Margaret Harris said
- She said the WHO would also be concentrating on getting in essential medicines
Poland to seek help from two other countries in Epstein investigation
- The Polish National Prosecutor’s Office confirmed in its statement that it had initiated an investigation into human trafficking
- Prosecutors suspect the trafficking consisted of recruiting women and girls for work abroad
WARSAW: Poland will ask two other European countries for information and evidence needed for its investigation into human trafficking related to late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
In a statement, they said documents from the Epstein files indicated a reasonable suspicion that human trafficking had taken place in Poland. They did not name the European countries they would contact but a source familiar with the matter told Reuters the prosecutors would ask France and Sweden for help.
The US Justice Department’s release of millions of internal documents related to Epstein has revealed the late financier and sex offender’s ties to many prominent people in politics, finance, academia and business — both before and after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges.
In February, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that Poland would launch an investigation into possible links between Epstein and Russian intelligence, as well as any offenses affecting Polish citizens.
The Polish National Prosecutor’s Office confirmed in its statement that it had initiated an investigation into human trafficking committed in the period from 2009 to August 2019 on the territory of Poland and other countries.
Prosecutors suspect the trafficking consisted of recruiting women and girls for work abroad under false pretenses and of then transporting them outside Poland and handing them over to other people for sexual exploitation, the statement said.
Files reviewed by Reuters show that a man called Daniel Siad had informed Epstein about his travels through Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, among other countries, scouting for models.
He also mentioned his cooperation with Jean-Luc Brunel, a key suspect and longtime Epstein associate, who died in a French prison in 2022.
According to Polish media reports, Siad was born in Algeria and moved to Sweden at the age of 23.
Reuters reached out to him on two phone numbers and an email address found in the files, but has not yet received answers to questions sent.
In February, Swedish newspaper Expressen quoted Siad as saying he had never committed a crime and was open to talking to investigators in any interested country.
