Why big buttocks can be bad for your health

It is with tears in her eyes that Denny recounts how she woke up one day to find a bump the size of a football in her lower back.She could not walk or bend down, and the pain was intense.Even before she saw a doctor, Denny, a 35-year-old Venezuelan lawyer, knew the bump must be a side-effect of liquid silicone that had been injected in her buttocks.It had moved into her back and was putting pressure on her spine."It was a terrible shock. I couldn't walk. That's how my agony started," she says.Buttock injections are one of many common cosmetic procedures Venezuelan women undergo to achieve what society deems to be beautiful.The injections were banned by the government in 2012, six years after Denny had them.

Denny had buttock injections in 2006 and is now suffering from severe side-effects

But the practice continues in spite of the ban. Up to 30% of women between 18 and 50 choose to have these injections, according to the Venezuelan Plastic Surgeons Association.
Men also get injected to boost their pectoral muscles, though the numbers are lower.
No barriers
 
The injections are made using a biopolymer silicone. The fact that this is injected freely into the body makes it more dangerous than implants, where silicone gel is contained within a shell.
The big attraction is that they are much cheaper than implants. An injection can cost as little as 2000 bolivares (£191, $318) and the whole procedure doesn't take more than 20 minutes.
But the risks are incredibly high."The silicone can migrate into other areas of the body, because it doesn't have any barriers. The body can also react immunologically against a foreign material, creating many problems," says Daniel Slobodianik, a cosmetic surgeon.

An MRI scan shows that liquid silicone, injected into her buttocks, has moved to Denny's back

He adds that symptoms can appear years after the procedure.Patients can suffer from allergic reactions and chronic fatigue. If the liquid migrates to other areas of the body it can cause intense joint pain.In Denny's case, the silicone moved up into her back, putting painful pressure on her spine and making it difficult to walk.But to some extent she was lucky.
Figures are unclear, but the Venezuelan Plastic Surgeons Association fear that at least a dozen women die every year from these injections.Dr Slobodianik is only one of two specialists in the country who operate to remove tissue affected by the injections.

Dr Slobodianik is one of only two specialists in Venezuela who remove tissue affected by the injections

He says he has a long waiting list, and Denny had to wait for a year until she could get the surgery.
Many cannot even afford to be operated, because the surgery alone costs around 60,000 bolivares.
"Perfect measurements"Hours before the delicate surgery, Denny explains that she prefers to withhold her full name because some of her family members don't know why she got ill. They think she has a back problem - which is also what she thought for years, before the bump appeared.She says she would have not taken the same decision if she had been aware of the risks.

Mannequins in Venezuela give an idea of the 'perfect' dimensions that many women aspire to

She describes the peer pressure that pushed her to get injected.
"There was a boom. In the office all the women had such nice buttocks. The last straw was when a judge I work with walked in, looking good. Her buttocks looked like two balloons, they were so beautiful," she says.

"I was never obsessed with perfect measurements, but then I let myself be dragged along by the idea that Venezuelan women should look like Barbie dolls."
Venezuelans have won Miss Universe seven times, giving the country a reputation as a factory of beauty queens."Self-esteem"According to Carolina Vazquez Hernandez, a counsellor specialising in women's issues, societal pressure is huge here - even more so than in other countries.Carolina Vazquez Hernandez Counsellor, Aquamater Clinic, Caracas
"We Venezuelan women don't have a clear identity of our roots. Because of this lack of identity, our self-esteem is very weak, and we are able to subject ourselves to anything that will develop our self-esteem," says Ms Vazquez Hernandez.Astrid de la Rosa agrees. She is one of the leading campaigners of the No to Biopolymers association, a non-profit organisation set up to offer support to victims of silicone injections.She says she decided to undergo the procedure herself because her partner was about to leave her.

"I thought that a person will love you because of the way you look," she says.
Shortly after, she started feeling sick. Doctors said her immune system had been affected and diagnosed her with leukaemia.The government ban on biopolymer injections was partly thanks to the work of the No to Biopolymer association.But Ms de la Rosa says it is not enough. "Where is the help for us?"She says she still receives weekly calls from women who get injected, even though it is now illegal."It is not a matter or gender or social class. Women and men do it, there are politicians, actors that have done it," she says. "Where is the help for us?"

Dr Slobodianik shows what can happen when buttock injections go wrong

While the government has banned biopolymer injections because of their health risk, insurance companies do not cover any costs for remedial treatment, because they don't recognise the side-effects of the injections as an illness.Ms de la Rosa says her organisation often collects money to help victims pay for surgery.Denny managed to finance the surgery with her own savings, but money is not on her mind at the moment.

Lying face down in her bed after the surgery, she knows it will take her three weeks until she has finally recovered, and the scar will remain forever.
She is also aware that the silicone may still affect her in the future.
However, she hopes that her tragic experience can at least serve as a warning for women considering having the injections - and help them learn to accept their bodies for what they are.

Passengers couldn't escape South Korean ferry, crew member says

Passengers aboard the doomed South Korean ferry couldn't reach lifeboats to escape because the ship tilted so quickly that it left many of them unable to move, according to a radio transcript released Sunday."Please notify the coast guard. Our ship is in danger. The ship is rolling right now," a crew member on the ship first tells authorities in a dramatic conversation that took place while the Sewol ferry was sinking.

An unidentified crew member on the Sewol talked to two different Vessel Traffic Service centers as the ship sank Wednesday morning, the transcript revealed. Someone on the ship contacted the traffic service in Jeju -- the ferry's destination -- at 8:55 a.m. and communicated with it before the conversation switched to Jindo VTS, which was closer, about 11 minutes later.

"The ship rolled over a lot right now. Cannot move. Please come quickly," the crew member says a minute after initial contact.

At one point Jeju advises the crew to get people into life vests.

"It is hard for people to move," Sewol replies.After the conversation switches to the traffic service in Jindo, the Sewol crew member says several times that the ship is leaning too much for passengers to move.Sewol: "Our ship is listing and may capsize."Jindo VTS: "How are the passengers doing? ..."

Sewol: "It's too listed that they are not able to move."A short time later, another exchange takes place:

Jindo VTS: "Are the passengers able to escape?"Sewol: "The ship listed too much, so it is impossible."The transcript may help answer one of the major questions about the capsizing: Why didn't more passengers escape on lifeboats?

Many missing, scores killed

At least 64 people have died in the sinking, and 238 are missing, the South Korean coast guard said Monday.Search crews brought more than a dozen bodies to shore Sunday morning, a solemn process pierced by screams and cries from the passengers' families.The wrenching scene came after four police boats arrived in rapid succession. The first carried four bodies. The second boat had three more. The third and fourth also carried three bodies each.Each body was taken onto a stretcher on the dock in Jindo, draped in cloth. After an inspection, they were carried along a path guarded by police -- who were also shedding tears -- and past grieving family members.Some relatives refused to accept the outcome."Wake up! Wake up, please!" one man screamed.

With hundreds of people still missing, the heartbreaking scene will likely play out over and over again.Although 174 people were rescued shortly after the vessel sank Wednesday, no survivors have been found since.Nonetheless, 563 divers will continue plunging into the frigid Yellow Sea on Sunday. And 34 aircraft and 204 ships will aid in the search Sunday, the country's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said.One diver described his experience to CNN affiliate JTBC on Sunday. Teams have been focusing on the third and fourth floors of the ship, where investigators believe many of the missing might be. 

"It's hard to say exactly where you are once you enter the ferry, since it is completely dark and you basically have to feel your way around based only on the blueprint of the ferry," diving team leader Hwang Dae Sik said. "So it is hard to say definitively in what compartment you are searching and what your are discovering."As they wait, relatives of the missing have been asked to submit DNA samples.South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Sunday declared the cities of Ansan and Jindo as special disaster zones eligible for national disaster assistance programs, in order to facilitate central government help, a spokesman for the Joint Task Force Headquarters said in a news release.

Ship's captain defends evacuation

According to the transcript, Jindo Vessel Traffic Service urged the captain to take charge.

Jindo VTS: "The captain should make (the) decision to make people escape. We do not know the situation so captain make final decision on passengers' escape."The captain has defended his order to delay the evacuation of the ferry."It is a fairly fast current area, and the water temperature was cold," Capt. Lee Joon Seok said, according to CNN affiliate YTN."I thought that abandoning the ship without discretion would make you drift off a fairly far distance and cause a lot of trouble. At the same time, the rescue ship did not come, and there were no fishing boats or supporting ships around to help at that time." 

The captain has been charged with abandoning his boat, negligence, causing bodily injury, not seeking rescue from other ships and violating "seamen's law," state media reported.

Prosecutor Lee Bong-chang gave more details about the accusations against the captain.

"Mr. Lee is charged with causing the Sewol ship to sink by failing to slow down while sailing the narrow route and making (a) turn excessively," the prosecutor told the semiofficial Yonhap news agency."Lee is also charged with failing to do the right thing to guide the passengers to escape and thereby leading to their death or injury." 

If convicted, the captain faces from five years to life in prison.

The captain wasn't at the helm of the Sewol when it started to sink, the prosecutor said. A third mate was at the helm.So where was the captain?The captain was not in the steering room when the accident took place, according to police and his own account.He said he plotted the ship's course, and then went to his cabin briefly "to tend to something." It was then, the captain said, that the accident happened.A crew member, described as the third mate and identified only as Park, appeared in handcuffs with Lee.

The third mate said she did not make a sharp turn, but "the steering turned much more than usual."

Park is facing charges including negligence and causing injuries leading to deaths, said Yang Joong-jin, a maritime police spokesman.A technician with the surname Cho is also facing the same charges, he said.The captain was one those rescued soon after the Sewol began to sink, violating an "internationally recognized rule that a captain must stay on the vessel," maritime law attorney Jack Hickey said."Pretty much every law, rule, regulation and standard throughout the world says that yes, the captain must stay with the ship until all personnel are safely off of the ship, certainly passengers."

Cambodia Opposition Deputy Leader Vows Party ‘Won’t Betray the People’

The deputy chief of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) said Wednesday that the party will stand firm and not “betray the will of the people” in negotiations with the ruling party aimed at ending the country’s political crisis.

Kem Sokha said the CNRP will make sure its demands for new elections and electoral reforms, including an overhaul of the country’s main electoral body, will be a key part of any compromise reached with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).“I promise that the CNRP won't betray the people’s will. The CNRP will serve the people’s interest,” he told RFA’s Khmer Service while on a visit to Washington.The party would stick to its “firm stance” on demands for fresh polls, electoral reform, and changes to the CPP-picked National Election Committee, which oversees the country’s polls, he added.

He was commenting on talks held between Hun Sen and CNRP President Sam Rainsy last week which had indicated a near-deal in resolving the eight-month standoff the two parties have been locked in since disputed elections in July last year. Hun Sen said, after a phone conversation with Sam Rainsy, that he had agreed to hold early polls and would call them in February 2018, five months before the end of his term. Sam Rainsy said, however, that the CNRP, which had previously insisted on early 2016 polls, had not agreed with Hun Sen on an election date and that their compromise was only “80 percent” complete.

Not agreed

Kem Sokha said Sam Rainsy did not agree in the talks to setting February 2018 as a date for the new elections, saying Sam Rainsy had initially thought Hun Sen had agreed to various CNRP's requests during the talks but later found the CPP was playing a “trick.”  "Sam Rainsy didn't agree to have elections in February 2018,” he said.

Kem Sokha said he had discussed the issue with Sam Rainsy and that setting such a late date for fresh polls was not in the people’s interests. “What the CPP wants for a political compromise will be for the loss of the nation’s interest and will not reflect the will of the people. The people want an early election.” “The election must be held in late 2016 so that we have some time to prepare new voting lists,” he said.

United front
Hun Sen had warned shortly after his talks with Sam Rainsy that although the two sides had reached a compromise, Kem Sokha might break it, suggesting a rift between the two CNRP leaders.  Late last week Sam Rainsy rejected an offer by Hun Sen to sign a deal based on their talks in front of King Norodom Sihamoni.

The CNRP indicated that a deal was not signed because Kem Sokha, who is currently on a 20-day U.S. tour, was out of the country.  Kem Sokha rejected claims that he and Sam Rainsy were anything less than united in their decisions, saying Hun Sen had made such comments as part of a “trick” aimed at splitting the CNRP. "There might be some differences in terms of thinking but there is only one decision," he said.

“Sam Rainsy doesn’t make any decisions alone; we make decisions together. The CPP is playing a trick – they want to make it seem as if we’re on different pages.” He reaffirmed that the CNRP, which has boycotted parliament in protest against last year’s polls, will not join the legislature until its demands are met. Based on the official results of the July elections, the CPP won 68 seats in parliament to the CNRP’s 55, but the CNRP has claimed it won at least 63.

Fighting Flares in Kachin State

Clashes between government troops and Kachin rebels in northern Myanmar have escalated following a week-long offensive by the country’s military, displacing thousands of civilians and casting a shadow over nationwide cease-fire talks, rebel leaders said Friday.

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has been forced to withdraw from some of its outposts after a series of attacks by Myanmar’s army in Mansi and Momauk townships in Kachin state’s Bhamo district since April 10, according to a KIA spokesman. The clashes had spread to Momauk on Sunday after erupting in Mansi last week, he said, while local media reported more clashes nearby in the northern part of Kachin’s neighboring Shan State.

The leader of a group of 16 ethnic rebel groups engaged in talks on a nationwide cease-fire proposed by the government said the recent fighting had prompted “concern” among fellow rebels and made them “lose trust” in the talks. A relief group said more than 8,000 civilians have been displaced by the recent fighting—part of clashes that have flared on and off since a 17-year cease-fire between the KIA and the Myanmar government was shattered in June 2011.

KIA spokesman La Nan said Myanmar troops had staged a full week of offensives including artillery attacks on KIA positions in the two townships from April 10 to 17.  He said the Myanmar army’s 99th brigade had carried out artillery attacks particularly on KIA’s 27th Battalion. “Those at the state level have been discussing a nationwide cease-fire, but the situation in the field is far from that,” he said. 

Fatalities

Both sides have suffered fatalities in the fighting, according to local media reports, but the number of casualties has not been announced and the Myanmar military has not released any reports on the fighting.

President Thein Sein’s spokesman Ye Htut, however, has said several government troops including a senior commander were killed, according to reports.A Myanmar military officer in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina told RFA’s Myanmar Service the fighting in Momauk was triggered by the KIA bombing of a truck on a key road.“The KIA bombed a Myanmar army truck … on the Bhamo-Lweje highway on April 13. The fighting followed that,” the officer said.

KIA outnumbered

La Nan said that when the fighting broke out, the KIA had few troops in the area because of the nationwide cease-fire talks. After the Myanmar military began its offensive, KIA forces were far outnumbered and forced to withdraw, he said. The KIA had stationed some 30 soldiers to guard outposts in the area, when artillery attacks were launched by the military’s eight battalions with a total 1,000 troops, he said.

“We had deployed just a few troops at our outposts because our representatives have been attending peace talks,” he said. Although pledges had been made by both sides in the nationwide cease-fire negotiations to reduce tensions, the Myanmar army had strengthened its forces in the area, he said. “They cannot be believed,” he said. “The Myanmar military has strengthened their forces. They have built underground tunnels 3 to 4 miles [5 to 6 kilometers] long that they use to connect their posts. Their military officers and soldiers have been threatening local people, telling them they’re going to clear out the KIA.”

Thein Sein’s government is aiming to get all of the country’s rebel groups to sign on to the nationwide-ceasefire pact in a bid to end decades of conflict and speed up reforms as the country emerges from decades under military rule.  Representatives from the KIA—which is one of Myanmar’s largest rebel groups and one of two that has not yet signed a full individual cease-fire with the government—took part in high-level talks on the accord earlier this month in Yangon, where rebels and government negotiators  said they settled on a unified draft text for the accord.

NCCT

Nai Hong Sar, leader of the Nationwide Cease-fire Coordination Team (NCCT), which represents the KIA and 15 other ethnic rebel groups the talks, said members were concerned about the recent fighting which was a setback to the peace process.

“We are very concerned about it. We are disappointed and have lost trust in [the talks].” He said the success of the talks would depend on whether the Myanmar government showed it was willing to make peace. “It depends a lot on their attitude,” he said. “There will be delays and it will be very difficult to reach the nationwide cease-fire. We are still disagreed on having one policy on the nationwide cease-fire.”

Thousands displaced

The KIA’s political wing has claimed that the recent fighting has displaced up to 10,000 people, though sources from the Myanmar army’s northern command downplayed the numbers, Myanmar Eleven reported. Local NGO Karuna Myanmar said that since the fighting flared up, some 5,000 refugees have fled to Muse and Nanhkan and more have crossed into China, according to the report.

In addition, up to 3,000 local villagers have fled to the Man Wain Gyi displaced persons’ camp, according to the report. Some 800 families living in the La Gut Yan refugee camp who had been displaced from their homes in previous fighting had also fled to the Man Wain Gyi camp, it said. Refugees who crossed the border are facing difficulties with the Chinese authorities, it said.

The fighting came as the KIA’s Deputy Commander-in-Chief General Gun Maw was on a trip to the United States, on what is believed to be the highest-level visit by a KIA leader to the U.S. Gun Maw met with human rights and political affairs officials at the State Department in Washington on Monday and was expected to meet with lawmakers later during his 12-day trip.

UXO injuries, deaths on the rise

Forty people were injured or killed by landmines and other unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the first two months of 2014, a figure nearly twice as high as that recorded in the same period last year, a recent report from the Cambodian Mine Action Centre shows.In its report, CMAC recorded six deaths and 34 injuries in January and February this year, a 90 per cent increase in casualties from the first two months of 2013, which saw two people killed and 19 injured.

Heng Ratana, director-general of CMAC, ascribed the increase in casualties to recent explosions each involving multiple victims, noting that the number of actual explosions in the two-month period remained roughly the same. According to Ratana, incidents mostly – and increasingly – injured children.

“They collect the explosives and play with them,” he said.Last month, two children were injured along with their aunt when they stepped ona landmine in Banteay Mean-chey province, near the Thai border. In February, three children were killed when they tampered with an unexploded 60-millimetre rocket that they found near their village in Kampong Chhnang province while herding cattle.

Cambodia’s UXO was left behind after decades of war, and the Kingdom’s northwestern provinces – such as Battambang, Oddar Meanchey, Banteay Meanchey and Preah Vihear – remain the country’s most dangerous areas for UXO, according to the Cambodia Mine Victims Information System.

Chinese rob rifles, shooting at Quang Ninh’s border gate

The four Chinese women at the Bac Phong Sinh Border Gate.

12pm today, April 18, security forces at the Bac Phong Sinh Border Gate discovered 16 Chinese people, including 10 men, 4 women and 2 children trying to illegally cross the Vietnam-China border in Quang Duc commune, Hai Ha district, Quang Ninh province.Vietnamese security guards asked these people to enter the border-gate station to fulfill procedures for the handover to China. While waiting for performing the procedures, a few men took the rifles of security guards and fired.Lt. Gen. Vu Chi Thuc, Director of Quang Ninh Province Police Agency was immediately at the scene to handle the incident. 

According to Thuc, the Chinese men took advantage of the Vietnamese soldiers’ lack of vigilance to rob rifles. They held their ground at the station and damaged the furniture. When the border guards tightened the siege, some people are believed to have committed suicide.Tien Phong Newspaper reported that two Vietnamese officers may be held in the station. Hundreds of Vietnamese policemen and border guards tightened the blockade and kept asking these people to surrender.According to official information from the Quang Ninh authorities at around 4.30pm, seven people died, including two Vietnamese border guards and some people were injured, including four Vietnamese soldiers. The relevant bodies coordinated with the Chinese Border Guards to handle the incident.