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.”

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Iraq and Iran have agreed to exchange the remains of soldiers killed during the Iraq-Iran war that raged in the 1980s, the Iraqi government spokesman said.

Ali al-Dabbagh said both sides have set a preliminary date of November 15 for the exchange at a border post. The Iraqi government will receive the remains of 200 Iraqis from the Iranian side in exchange for the remains of 41 Iranians. Al-Dabbagh said that the Iraqi government will have funeral proceedings and official burials of those Iraqi soldiers.

This announcement comes after Iran and Iraq on October 16 signed “a memorandum of understanding aimed at clarifying the fate of persons missing in connection with the 1980-1988 war.”

From Bill Mears
CNN Supreme Court Producer

MARSHFIELD, Vermont (CNN) — When Diana Winn Levine wants to play a guitar, she needs the assistance of her daughter, Jessamine.

While one strums, the other fingers the notes. It’s an awkward arrangement but it works. At the end, Levine raises a empowering fist salute, but it’s a phantom gesture. Her hand is not there.

Levine went to get treated for a severe migraine in April 2000, and weeks later left a hospital without her arm below the elbow. Now the Supreme Court will decide whether the professional musician can keep a nearly $7 million jury award, in an important business case with broad implications for consumers and corporations alike. Arguments in the case are set for Monday.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — Two separate suspected U.S. missile strikes killed 28 people in northwest Pakistan Friday, military sources and local and intelligence officials told CNN.

In the first strike, suspected U.S. missiles from two unmanned drones hit a village in North Waziristan, killing 21 people, local and intelligence officials said.

According to the officials, the attack occurred in a village in Mir Ali. The missiles hit a house, which then burned to the ground, the officials said. It was not immediately clear if those killed had been inside. Those killed were not identified.

Later, two suspected U.S. drones fired two missiles at a house in South Waziristan, killing seven people, locals and military and intelligence sources said.

Five of the dead were suspected to have been Arab fighters, a tribal chief said.

Five people were also injured in the attack, which occurred around 10:30 p.m. in a village near Wana, according to local and intelligence sources.

No other details were immediately available, and there was no immediate reaction from the U.S. military.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — A second suspected U.S. missile strike hit a
village in South Waziristan Friday, killing seven people, including five
suspected foreign fighters, military sources said.Earlier Friday, suspected U.S. missiles from two unmanned drones killed Twenty-one people in North Waziristan, local and intelligence officials said.

NEW YORK (CNN) — A New York Police Department transit officer was under arrest Friday for his alleged involvement in a brutal robbery crew which targeted large-scale drug traffickers along the East Coast.

The United State’s Attorney’s office has indicted three men, one of whom, Jorge Arbaje-Diaz, was a three-year veteran of the NYPD. Police previously arrested 15 alleged members of the gang in May.

Arbaje-Diaz is accused of participating in a “violent robbery crew responsible for more than one hundred armed robberies of narcotics traffickers,” according to a U.S. Attorney’s office statement.

The robberies netted at least 750 kilograms of cocaine and $4 million in drug proceeds over the course of five years.

Arbaje-Diaz was one of at least 18 members of the crew which accessed drug traffickers homes by posing as police officers. The gang is accused of handcuffing, torturing and threatening their victims with arrest if they did not reveal where they stashed their drugs and money.

(CNN) — If the Democrats reach their goal of capturing 60 seats in the Senate, North Carolina may be a major reason why.

Freshman Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole is trailing her Democratic opponent, Kay Hagan, by nine points, 53 percent to 44 percent, a new CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Friday suggests. Hagan had a smaller lead in other recent polls in North Carolina.

An already bitter contest turned uglier this week, when an ad by Dole’s campaign suggested Hagan was “godless.” The Dole campaign says it based its charge on Hagan’s attendance at a fundraiser in the home of an advisor to the Godless Americans’ political action committee, a group that promotes rights for
atheists.

Hagan, a state senator from Greensboro, returned fire, saying she was “absolutely appalled” by the ad, calling it “politics of the worst kind.” She also filed a lawsuit to prevent the ad from running.

The poll in North Carolina was conducted before Dole’s campaign commercial began airing.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Justice Department will deploy more than 800 federal observers and monitors to voting sites in 23 states to make sure voters’ federal rights are not violated on election day.

While many of the problems that may occur in what is expected to be a record turnout next Tuesday will come under the purview of state and local officials since they have the primary responsibility for running elections, the federal government is responsible for making sure federal laws are not
violated.

The primary law in question is the Voting Rights Act, which bans intimidation based on race, color, or religion. The department will also investigate and prosecute cases of voter fraud.

Unlike in years past, the Justice Department announced last month it will not use any criminal prosecutors to monitor elections to allay concerns of some voting rights advocates including them would discourage some from voting.

The observers will come from the Office of Personnel Management while the monitors will be Justice Department employees. Usually the destinations chosen are ones where claims of discrimination have occurred in the past or where there are current allegations.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — Suspected U.S. missiles from two unmanned drones killed 21 people Friday in northwest Pakistan, local and intelligence officials said.

According to the officials, the attack occurred in North Waziristan. North Waziristan, a region near the Afghan border, is rife with Islamic extremists.

(CNN) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will start advertising for the first time in rival John McCain’s home state just days before the November 4 election, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters Friday.

Plouffe said the campaign will broadcast its positive spot, “Something,” in Arizona.

“We’re running a positive ad there. It’s Sen. McCain’s home state. We’re cognizant of that,” Plouffe said.

The latest CNN Arizona Poll of Polls, released Friday morning, finds McCain leading by 4 percentage points in his home state.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The monthly Iraqi civilian death tolls from violence across the country have dropped in October, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said on Friday.

The official believes it is the lowest monthly Iraqi civilian death toll since the bombing of the Askariya Mosque in Samarra in February 2006, an event that caused widespread sectarian warfare.

Listing figures from the Interior, Health, and Defense ministries, the official said 278 civilians were killed and 464 wounded this month, compared to 359 killed and 705 wounded in September.

Twenty-two police were killed and 64 were wounded, compared to 56 killed and 145 wounded in September. Eighteen soldiers were killed and 40 were wounded, compared to 26 killed and 41 wounded in September.

The figures illustrate the drop in violence in Iraq.

JERUSALEM (CNN) — Two Israeli television channels have dropped plans to air full-length versions of telephone interviews they conducted with the man who assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

In the wake of a torrent of public criticism, Israeli broadcast channels 2 and 10 said they decided not to air the entire interviews each did this week with convicted killer Yigal Amir.

Both channels teased the interviews in their news broadcasts Thursday evening in advance of the upcoming 13th anniversary of Rabin’s murder.

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) — Police in the northeastern Indian state of Assam were examining a message Friday that claimed responsibility for a series of blasts that killed 74 people the day before, the inspector-general of Assam police said.

J. Mahanta said the message was sent to a local news network.

“We are investigating,” he added.

Police also have picked up several people for questioning, he said, without elaborating.

Nine bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in crowded areas of Assam on Thursday and wounded nearly 370 people, in addition to those killed, Assam police Inspector Shidendra Roy told CNN.

NEW YORK (CNN) — A gunman is in custody after holding 11 children
hostage in an elementary school classroom Friday morning in Stockton Springs,
Maine, according to Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen
McCausland.

The gunman released all 11 children unharmed after holding them in a
classroom at Stockton Springs Elementary School for about a half-hour, handing
his firearm to one of the students he released, said McCausland. He was later
tackled in the school’s hallway by a law enforcement officer.Police identified the gunman as Randall Hofman, 55, of Stockton Springs.
Hofman was being sought by police in Maine after pointing a firearm at a police
officer at a traffic safety roadblock on October 24th.