WASHINGTON – Federal health officials want to know whether hand sanitizers used by millions of Americans work as well as manufacturers claim and whether there are any health risks to their growing use.
The Food and Drug Administration is asking for new studies on how the antiseptic gels and rubs fight germs and get absorbed into the body, with a particular focus on children and pregnant women. The proposal unveiled Wednesday is part of an ongoing government effort to review decades-old chemicals that have never had a comprehensive federal review.
Agency officials stressed that the review “does not mean the FDA believes these products are ineffective or unsafe.”
WASHINGTON – CIA Director John Brennan said Wednesday that the attack in Istanbul has the earmarks of strikes by Islamic State militants and that the group is likely trying to hit the United States in the Middle East and on U.S. soil.
He said Tuesday’s attack at Istanbul’s busy Ataturk Airport that killed 41 people and wounded hundreds “bears the hallmarks of ISIL’s depravity.”
“If anybody here believes the U.S. homeland is hermetically sealed and that ISIL would not consider that, I would guard against it,” Brennan said, using another acronym for the group.
CAIRO – Egyptian investigators say wreckage from the EgyptAir flight that crashed in May shows “signs of damage because of high temperature” and a flight data recorder indicates there was smoke on board.
The flight from Paris to Cairo crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19 for reasons that remain unknown. The pilots made no distress call, and no militant group has claimed to have brought down the plane.
The Egyptian investigating committee said in a statement Wednesday that a recovered flight data recorder, one of the plane’s black boxes, showed that there was smoke in the lavatory and onboard equipment.
Associated Press
