The Buzz

Pregnancy and caffeine

Two new research studies on pregnancy and caffeine consumption add conflicting data to a long-brewing question: Should expectant mothers abstain from caffeine? A Mount Sinai medical school study published in the journal Epidemiology concluded that drinking moderate amounts of coffee-about 1.7 cups of coffee-won't increase a woman's likelihood of miscarrying. But a Kaiser Permanente study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology called the same amount a "high" dose of caffeine and concluded that women consuming that amount or more doubled their risk of miscarriage.

Not to worry, said physician Gene Rudd, senior vice president of the Christian Medical Association: The Kaiser study "adds a little bit of a new layer of caution, but these articles, when they come out, are not the final answer. They simply add to the body of evidence out there that says 'drink responsibly.'"

Rudd, who specializes in obstetrics/gynecology and maternal/fetal medicine, said he isn't ready to change what he's been telling expectant moms since the 1970s: There is some evidence for concern over caffeine in high doses. But two small cups of coffee a day, or their caffeine equivalent "is probably safe," he said, based on 40 years of scientific data. "I tell my patients, if you want to be completely safe, don't drink any."

Eradicating Ebola

February 6 marks an important milestone for health workers and mission staff in northwestern Uganda, where an outbreak of a new type of Ebola virus that began last November can be officially declared over. That is the day that cases tracked for exposure will safely pass the incubation period.

The outbreak ended with 149 cases and 37 deaths. But over 800 people were monitored for exposure, a key component to preventing an epidemic from becoming more widespread-and more deadly. Experts attribute its successful containment to prompt intervention from government, humanitarian, and faith-based organizations. Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, Uganda's health ministry, the World Health Organization, and Pennsylvania-based World Harvest Mission, which operates a medical clinic and other ministries in Bundibugyo where the outbreak began, all worked to that end.

"For now, we are pretty much back to life before Ebola, although we do so without our friend and colleague Dr. Jonah Kule, who died in the fight against Ebola," physician Scott Myhre of World Harvest Mission told WORLD. "That was a devastating loss for us and for Bundibugyo."

A "safe" version of Ebola has been developed by researchers, according to a report in this month's Nature, so that the deadly virus can be studied in a variety of lab settings. But given the rare rate of infection it is doubtful that, short of a cure, a vaccine would be developed.

Jose Padilla

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke on Jan. 22 sentenced Jose Padilla and two terrorist co-conspirators to prison, but almost no one was happy about it. Padilla, 37, drew a prison term of just over 17 years. Conspirators Adham Amin Hassoun, 45, and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, 46, drew sentences of 15 years and 12 years, respectively. All three men were convicted in August of conspiracy to murder, maim, or kidnap persons overseas and to provide material support to terrorist groups.

Defense attorneys decried the sentences as overly harsh. But prosecutors say they will appeal them because they are too light. And the judge departed from federal guidelines that required her to sentence all three men to life in prison without parole. Cooke said that the conditions of Padilla's five-year incarceration at the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C., had been "harsh," meriting him a lesser sentence.

Early retirement

That voter turnout in Cuba's parliamentary elections was 95 percent and that voters in Fidel Castro's home district reelected him to the National Assembly was no surprise. But the unexpected could come Feb. 24, when the assembly convenes and may or may not choose the 81-year-old ailing dictator as its next council president. Castro could cede the role, a position he has held for over 50 years, permanently to his brother Raoul. Castro recently hinted that he has no intention of clinging to power or standing in the way of a new generation of leaders. He was not well enough to speak to the voters in his district of Santiago-but he did vote.

Go figure

Think biofuels are the answer to global warming and oil dependency? Think again, says the European Union. Its Environmental Audit Committee told parliamentarians that biofuels are ineffective at cutting greenhouse gases and they cost too much. According to MP Tim Yeo, they also "have a detrimental impact on the environment." Turns out biofuels should not be grown on forest land, wetlands, or permanent grasslands, where the carbon produced in planting makes for a net environmental loss. And when existing agricultural land is used for production, food prices are likely to go up, and surpluses shipped to the poor overseas are likely to suffer.

Wounded warrior

Marine 2nd Lt. Andrew Kinard spent most of 2007 in hospital beds and operating rooms. He spent the evening of Jan. 28, 2008, seated in Laura Bush's box at the State of the Union address, a guest of the president. Kinard, a former Naval Academy rugby player, went to Iraq in September 2006. Weeks later, an IED exploded beneath him, shearing off both his legs. As doctors fought to save him, Kinard's hometown church, First Baptist of Spartanburg, S.C., rallied around his family. The marine, who has since learned to walk on prosthetic legs, credited his survival to "the divine power of prayer." Of his night as President Bush's guest, Kinard told the Spartanburg Herald, "I'm just very honored to have been invited to represent these men and women who have been injured in combat."

Flood protection

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers won a battle in court on Jan. 30. U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval dismissed a class-action lawsuit against the Corps over the breaching of New Orleans' levees after Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005. Duval chastised the Corps for "its failure to accomplish what was its task," but said the 1928 Flood Control Act protects the federal government from lawsuits over flood-control projects. The plaintiff's attorneys said they would appeal the ruling.

Border ID

U.S. citizens may need more time to cross the border after new rules on identification went into effect last week. Under the new rules, people will have to show a passport, a driver's license, or other proof of citizenship at border crossings instead of simply declaring that they are citizens. Jayson Ahern, deputy commissioner with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told the Associated Press that the new rules are necessary for national security. "In the post-9/11 world," he said, "oral declarations are simply not enough to secure the country's borders."

Money to burn

Are soaring tuition prices due to tremendous financial needs at America's colleges and universities? Not at some of them. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, of the Senate Finance Committee has looked into the finances of higher education and not liked what he found. While tuition prices have exploded, so have some university endowment funds. "Tuition has gone up, college presidents' salaries have gone up, and endowments continue to go up and up," said Grassley. "We need to start seeing tuition relief for families go up just as fast." On Jan. 24, he and Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., sent a letter to 136 schools that have endowments of $500 million or more, asking how they are using their growing endowment funds to make education more affordable for students.

Some numbers

Current world population: 6.7 billion

World Christian population: 2.2 billion

World population increase per day: 219,000

Net Christian converts per day: 79,000

Fastest-growing Christian population: China with 16,500 per day

Christian martyrs in 2007: 175,000 (or 480 per day)

Christian martyrs in 1970: 377,000 (1,033 per day)

As reported by the International Bulletin of Missionary Research and digested by religion scholar Martin Marty

Tending north

Attacks on schools, churches, and other "soft targets" in Iraq have increased, even as reports of overall improved security cannot be denied. A Pentagon briefing last month gave the first detailed account of progress on the ground from December 2006 to December 2007. The slideshow accompanying the presentation noted an IED explosion rate of 1,600 in 2006 compared to about 600 in 2007 and tracked al-Qaeda in Iraq's movement from central Iraq and Baghdad to scattered pockets north of Baqubah in Diyala province, and from Tikrit up to Mosul.

In those pockets militants remain capable of deadly attacks. In Baqubah a suicide bomber posed as a merchant, carrying an electric heater on top of a cart Jan. 22. Just outside a two-story schoolhouse the cart, laden with explosives, detonated. At least one bystander was killed and 21 injured-including 12 students, eight teachers, and a policeman.

Panicked parents rushed to the school. "I can't think of any reason to target students," said 15-year-old Mohammed Abbas, his wounded head in a bandage as his father stood near his hospital bed. "We did not expect that explosions would reach our school." The same day a roadside bomb exploded near a girl's school in Baghdad, wounding a 7-year-old boy.

The trend, along with church bombings in January and attacks on funerals and social gatherings, suggests al-Qaeda in its own dispersed state is picking vulnerable targets away from U.S. crosshairs-targets that can most undermine public confidence.

Targets in the north are also increasingly likely to affect religious and ethnic minorities. The new area of unrest is situated near the ruins of ancient Nineveh and the birthplace of the Assyrian church. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) on a recent trip to Iraq met with minority representatives in Mosul and later told WORLD: "This may be the most dangerous area of Iraq at the moment."