WASHINGTON (CNN) - After a day of hearings held Friday at the Food and Drug Administration, the fate of bisphenol A, a compound extensively used in food and beverage containers, remained undecided.

According to the agency, current permissible levels of exposure to BPA pose no immediate health risks to the general public, including infants and babies.

But a subcommittee composed of experts and charged by the agency's Science Board to review that assessment released a 17-page report this week critical of that conclusion. "The margins of safety defined by FDA as adequate are not adequate," said Martin Philbert, chairman of the seven-member subcommittee and professor of toxicology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

In addition to being used to make hard, clear plastic water bottles and baby bottles, BPA is contained in the linings of food cans and soft drink cans. Animal studies show that BPA may mimic estrogen, advancing the onset of puberty and increasing the risk of cancer.

(CNN) - Seven members of the Mexican military were found inside the United States on Friday, telling border agents they had become disoriented while on patrol and accidentally crossed into the country, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said.

The incident began about 8 a.m. Friday, when the Border Patrol's Yuma, Arizona, sector was notified that a military-style Hummer was broken down, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) said in a written statement. Agents and a CBP pilot responded, found the vehicle and determined the entry was unauthorized.

"The seven individuals in the vehicle were dressed in military-style clothing," CBP said.

The men told CBP agents they were members of the Mexican military. Agents told them they were inside the United States and "peaceably" took them into custody, the statement said. "At no time were any hostilities exchanged between the agents and military officials."

(CNN) - Chicago author and radio announcer Studs Terkel died Friday at 96.

Terkel had grown frail since the publication last year of his memoir, "Touch and Go," said Gordon Mayer, vice president of the Community Media Workshop, which Terkel had supported. "I'm still in touch but I'm ready to go," he said last year at his last public appearance with workshop, a nonprofit that recognizes Chicago reporters who take risks in covering the city.

"My dad led a long, full, eventful - sometimes tempestuous - satisfying life," said his son, Dan Terkel, in a statement.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The State Department has notified almost 400 passport applicants in the Washington, D.C. area that its database security had been breached, allowing a group of criminals to obtain private information and use it to acquire credit cards, the department said Friday.

The scheme, involving both the State Department and Postal Service, was discovered by accident. According to documents filed in U.S. district court, police officers were on a routine patrol in late March when they stopped a suspicious vehicle because the windows were excessively tinted in violation of city law.

After smelling marijuana, the officers searched the car and found 21 credit cards not in the driver's name, and the printouts of eight passport applications, four of which matched the names on the credit cards.

An on-scene check with American Express revealed some of the cards in question had recently been used and American Express had placed a "fraud alert" on the them, the documents said.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Libya has paid $1.5 billion to the families of terror victims, ending the remaining roadblock to full relations with the United States, the State Department said Friday.

The payment ends Tripoli's legal liability from U.S. terror cases and paves the way for increased U.S. involvement in the oil-rich nation. President Bush Friday signed an executive order restoring Libyan immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing pending cases over compensation as part of a deal reached this summer.

"The removes the last obstacle to a normal relationship between the United States and Libya," said David Welch, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, who negotiated the agreement. He called Libya's rehabilitation from a terrorist nation to a U.S. ally "historic."

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A Pennsylvania judge rejected state Republican party demands to obtain lists of voters registered by the community group known as ACORN.

The state GOP accuses ACORN of widespread fraud in helping register some 140,000 voters in Pennsylvania. ACORN welcomed the ruling against the Pennsylvania state Republican party, spokeswoman Ali Kronley told CNN Friday, turning the GOP charges back against the party. 

"This kind of manufactured crisis is masking their own efforts to keep voters from voting," she said.

The top lawyer representing the Pennsylvania Republicans said they were "disappointed." But, Heather Heidelbaugh added, the wording of the court order indicates the judge thinks ACORN has problems.

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) - Three migrants died Friday after the boat they were traveling in ran aground off an island near Miami Beach.

The dilapidated boat was carrying 42 people, including migrants from the Dominican Republic and Brazil, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Elee Erice.

The cause of death for the three migrants has not yet been determined.

From Ed Hornick
CNN

(CNN) - Sen. Barack Obama told CNN Friday that turning around the economy and energy independence are his top priorities for 2009 if elected president.

In an interview with Wolf Blitzer in Des Moines, Iowa, Obama was asked to name his top priority from a list of issues, including taxes, health care, education, energy policy and immigration.

"(The) top priority may not be any of those five. It may be continuing to stabilize the financial system. We don't know yet what's going to happen in January," he said. "None of this can be accomplished if we continue to see a potential meltdown in the banking system and financial system. So that's priority number one - making sure the plumbing works."

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The United States has received $1.5 billion from Libya as payment for victims of terrorist attacks, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Congress on Friday.

"These funds are sufficient to provide the required compensation to victims of terrorism under the Libyan Claims Resolution Act," the State Department said in a statement. "The administration will now move expeditiously to arrange for distribution of these funds in lieu of the pending U.S. court cases against Libya."

The payment was a key element in a complicated U.S.-Libya agreement that involves improving relations, ending legal liability for Libya related to the attacks and opening the way for U.S. investment in the oil-rich country.

(CNN) - The top U.S. diplomat for Africa said Friday she was encouraged that the deadly conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo won't grow into "something that looks like genocide."

Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer spoke to CNN International by phone from Kigali, Rwanda, Congo's neighbor, where she planned to meet Saturday with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

Frazer, who visited Thursday with Congo President Joseph Kabila, was making diplomatic rounds to deliver a U.S. message: "We understand the need for the Rwandans and the Congolese to work together to try to end the human crisis that's unfolded in North Kivu (province), as well as to cooperate together to address the negative forces in the eastern Congo."