NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The proportion of babies born with a defect called gastroschisis has nearly doubled since 1995, according to a large new study.

The cause of gastroschisis - which is a hole in the baby's abdomen - is unclear, although it's known to be more likely in the children of teen mothers. A mother's exposure to certain chemicals has also been tied to the malformation, though not conclusively.

In the new study, researchers looked at rates of gastroschisis in millions of live births over an 11-year period in the U.S.

"We have a pattern where the prevalence is very much highest among young women and it's growing more rapidly among that group than any other group," said Russell Kirby, a professor at the University of South Florida and the lead author of the study.

Kirby's study could not explain why the birth defect is becoming more common, and gastroschisis itself is not well understood.

The malformation involves an opening next to the belly button, through which the baby's intestines protrude.

Newborns with gastroschisis require immediate surgery to close the hole and put the organs back in place.

Most babies with gastroschisis survive, but Kirby said some children have problems with growth and development and there is not a lot of research about the long term outcomes for these kids.

By general estimates, the condition is relatively rare, with a rate of 2 to 3 cases per 10,000 live births in the U.S. But in recent years, studies have suggested the defect is being seen more often.

To get a better sense of how the numbers have changed over time, Kirby and his colleagues gathered birth defect monitoring data from 15 states.

They found that among 13.2 million births between 1995 and 2005, there were 4,713 babies born with gastroschisis, which translates to about 3.5 out of every 10,000 babies.

This number grew steadily over the study period, however, starting out at 2.3 out of every 10,000 babies in 1995 and climbing to 4.4 out of every 10,000 infants in 2005.

"I do believe the numbers," said James Robbins, a professor who studies birth defects at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

The increase in gastroschisis primarily affected mothers under age 25, and especially under age 20, whereas those who gave birth in their 30s had no change in their risk of having a baby with the birth defect.

Mothers who had their babies in their early twenties experienced a 5.8 percent increase each year in the risk of having a child born with gastroschisis, Kirby's group reported in the medical journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Among these mothers, the number of babies born with gastroschisis went from 4 out of every 10,000 babies in 1995 to 7 in 10,000 babies in 2005.

Teen mothers saw a 6.8 percent yearly increase in the proportion of babies born with gastroschisis.

In 1995, there were 8 babies with gastroschisis out of every 10,000 babies born to women under age 20. By 2005, that number was 15 out of every 10,000 babies.

The proportion of babies with gastroschisis born to Asian women and Native American women remained steady over the study period.

White, black and Hispanic mothers, however, experienced a roughly four to six percent increased risk each year of having a baby with the malformation.

Researchers have not identified what's behind these increases.

A previous study of women in Washington state found that exposure to the weed killer atrazine was tied to an increased risk of having a baby with gastroschisis, although it did not show that the chemical caused the malformation (see Reuters Health story of February 8, 2010 here: http://reut.rs/l9aVTl).

Robbins said that smoking is a considered a risk factor, but he doesn't think that's behind the pattern detected in this study.

"I don't think there's a clear explanation for why the rates are going up," said Robbins, who was not involved in the current research.

Kirby speculated that it's possible nutrition could have something to do with the trend, but more research is needed to figure it out.

"We know that there are influences of different vitamins and nutrients that definitely affect fetal development," he said.

But as far as their relation to gastroschisis, "that's just a suspicion."

Kirby's research team is currently following up to see how the numbers have changed since 2005.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/12xgYVu Obstetrics & Gynecology, August 2013.

You might not want to eat your vegetables for an entirely new reason after seeing some strange fruit and veggies that reportedly have turned up in villages surrounding Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Images of the bizarrely deformed flora - which range from tomatoes with tumor-like growths to monstrous cabbage and conjoined peaches - turned up on the website Imgur this week, with the title, "Effects from the Fukushima radiation disaster?"

ABC News examined the inner workings of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant. Find out more here.

It was unclear exactly where the images came from, but the title of the image set suggested that the deformed fruits and veggies were a result of the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown.

Deformed Fruit

The disaster occurred after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck Japan's coast, leading to more than 15,000 deaths. The incident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant was the worst nuclear incident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

The fruit and vegetable images began to tear across the Web after they were posted as a slideshow and trending topic by MSN.com on Tuesday.

Timothy Mousseau, a biology professor at the University of South Carolina who is currently studying fauna in Fukushima, told ABCNews.com that there is some evidence for increased mutations in the area, but that the images that have emerged online would need follow-up studies to be confirmed as legitimate.

"We have seen some evidence of increased mutation rates in plants and barn swallows in Fukushima, but we have not had the funding to do the sort if rigorous science that is necessary to examine such questions in a convincing manner," he said. "The vegetable photos are suggestive but, at present, are only anecdotal. Follow-up studies need to be conducted by qualified researchers to verify the validity of these observations."

Deformed Fruit

Last year, Japanese scientists said that "abnormalities" detected in the country's butterflies may be a result of radioactive fallout from the Fukushima disaster. Researchers said that "artificial radionuclides" from the stricken power plant caused "physiological and genetic damage" to pale grass blue butterflies.

Five months after the disaster, cesium 137 and 134 were detected in more than a dozen bluefin tuna caught near San Diego. The levels were 10 times higher than tuna found in previous years.

Deformed Fruit

The highest-ranking American official to be tried and convicted for abducting terror suspects overseas has been arrested in Panama, opening the possibility that he could be sent to prison for an "extraordinary rendition." In 2009, an Italian court convicted Robert Lady, the former CIA station chief in Milan, and 22 other American operatives for kidnapping a Muslim cleric six years earlier.

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The abduction of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr was in 2003 at the height of the CIA's aggressive use of rendition, where foreign terrorism suspects were arrested in one country and then either transported to a U.S. facility in another country or turned over to a different government for questioning. (Nasr was eventually sent to Egypt, where he claims he was tortured.) The Italian intelligence services were also accused of being complicit, but courts did not allow them to be charged.

RELATED: Some Dare Call It Conspiracy: What Killed an IAEA Agent in Iran?

None of accused Americans appeared to face charges in Italy and Lady is now retired from the CIA. But earlier this year, he was sentenced to nine years in prison and is considered a fugitive by the Italians.

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His whereabouts have been unknown since they first attempted to arrest him in 2005, but he has defended his actions in several interviews, stating that he was simply following orders while fighting the "war against terrorism."

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It's not known how long Lady was in Panama or under what circumstances he was arrested, but there had been previous rumors that he settled in Honduras after leaving Italy. It's highly likely that Italy will request extradition, but it remains to be seen how far the U.S. will go to prevent that, or if they can pressure Panama — which is now involved in its second international law enforcement episode this week — to let him go.

A vendor counts money in a shop in Tehran's Grand Bazaar January 19, 2009. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran has not paid back any of its loans to the World Bank for more than six months, the bank said on Thursday, a further sign of the strains on the sanctions-hit Iranian economy.

Faced with a combination of poor fiscal management and Western economic sanctions for its disputed nuclear program, Iran has suffered from spiraling prices and high unemployment in the last year.

The World Bank said it was placing Iran's loans in non-performing status, as it must do when a country has not made any payments for more than half a year. Iran owed the bank $697 million on June 30, of which $79 million was overdue.

The designation from the World Bank, often a lender of last resort to cash-strapped governments, means Iran may find it even harder to get money from commercial creditors.

Iran will also be ineligible for any new World Bank funds, although the country has not borrowed from the bank since 2005 and has no current World Bank programs. It is still required to make payments on what it owes the bank.

The World Bank said it took a hit of $81 million in the fiscal year that ended on June 30 due to Iran's non-performing loans, a tiny percentage of its multibillion-dollar lending portfolio.

Zimbabwe is the only other country beside Iran that is in "non-accrual status" - it has not made any payments to the World Bank since 2000.

The United States and its allies have imposed hard-hitting sanctions against Iran's oil and banking sectors to choke off funding to its nuclear program. Western governments say Iran seeks to develop the ability to make weapons, while Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

The sanctions nearly halved Iran's oil revenues in 2012 to around $50 billion-$60 billion. Iranian banks were disconnected from the global financial network, making payment transfers to or from Iran extremely difficult.

The World Bank said it is fully in compliance with international and U.N. sanctions against Iran.

(Reporting by Anna Yukhananov; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

LONDON (AP) — British counterterrorism police are questioning two eastern European men in connection with two explosions near mosques in central England in recent weeks.

No injuries were reported in either blast, which came amid heightened religious tensions in the U.K. over the killing of a British soldier by suspected Islamic extremists.

West Midlands Police said Thursday that a 25-year-old man and a 22-year-old man were arrested under the Terrorism Act in relation to the two blasts.

The first explosion occurred near the Aisha Mosque and Islamic Center in Walsall on June 21, and the second blast near the Kanz-ul-Iman Muslim Welfare Association Central Jamia mosque in the town of Tipton on July 12.

On Thursday, police said officers are carrying out a search in the area where the men were detained and have evacuated some properties as a precaution. Army bomb disposal experts are at the scene, the force added.

Police also evacuated a mosque in Wolverhampton, saying "new information" had been received in light of the Walsall and Tipson inquiries regarding a possible "device activation" on June 28 at the Wolverhampton Central Mosque. Police did not provide further details, saying only that a military bomb disposal team was en route.

West Midlands Police have stepped up patrols following the Walsall and Tipson blasts.

The Tipton blast came on the same day as the funeral of soldier Lee Rigby, who was killed in broad daylight by alleged Islamic extremists on a London street. That attack in May triggered a spike in religious tensions in subsequent weeks.