Washington, D.C.

FDA approves oral HIV test

The first oral test for the AIDS virus that gives results in 20 minutes won approval Friday from the Food and Drug Administration, a new option for people leery of blood testing.

It’s the second rapid HIV test on the market — the other requires pricking a person’s finger to test a spot of blood.

With the new alternative, health workers simply wipe a treated cotton swab along the gums and stick the swab into a special testing device for on-the-spot results.

The rapid blood test was hailed when it hit the market in 2002 as a way to dramatically increase the number of people who knew they were infected with HIV. Until then, routine HIV tests took up to two weeks to provide results, and 8,000 people a year who tested positive at public clinics never returned to get the news.

Jerusalem

Hamas issues new calls to avenge leader’s killing

Hamas threatened again Friday to avenge Israel’s assassination of its founder, but Israel managed to foil retaliatory attacks, shooting dead two Palestinians who emerged from the Mediterranean in wet suits and flippers. Another militant was killed in the West Bank when his explosives blew up prematurely.

Also Friday, Palestinian leaders criticized the United States for vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israel for killing Sheik Ahmed Yassin. The Hamas leader was struck by a missile Monday as he left a mosque in his wheelchair.

Washington, D.C.

Commander: U.S. stepping up anti-terror efforts in Africa

The U.S. military is stepping up efforts to assist African nations in rooting out terrorist groups that are trying to establish footholds in the vast and often poorly guarded deserts of northern and sub-Saharan Africa, the U.S. commander who oversees that region said Friday.

Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, the commander of U.S. European Command, which covers most of Africa, said U.S. forces two weeks ago provided intelligence information that helped soldiers from Chad and Niger ambush and kill members of an Algerian militant group that U.S. officials say has pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network.

Turkey

Intelligence report charges Iran with nuclear cover-up

Senior Iranian officials are overseeing efforts to conceal key elements of the country’s nuclear program from international inspectors, according to Western diplomats and an intelligence report.

Iran set up a committee to coordinate the concealment efforts after international inspectors uncovered evidence late last year that the Islamic republic had tried to hide aspects of its nuclear program, including secret research on advanced centrifuges that can produce weapons-grade uranium, according to the diplomats.

Iran has said that it would deny access to some sites by international inspectors who were scheduled to continue their work today.