A panel of experts is urging federal approval of a home test for HIV — the virus that causes AIDS.

If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration follows the recommendation of the advsiory panel, consumers may be able to buy OraQuick at their drug stores in the near future.

OraQuick uses a mouth swab and has a result within 20 minutes.

The panel said in tests, OraQuick correctly identified HIV-positive people 93 percent of the time.

The experts say the home test could provide a way to expand HIV testing and fight the spread of the virus. They caution that an HIV-positive person could get a negative reading, and that the home test is not as reliable as a test carried out by medical professionals.

Last week, another FDA advisory panel recommended federal approval of a drug proven in tests to prevent HIV.

Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is countersuing the New York hotel maid who accused him of sexually assaulting her.

His $1 million lawsuit says the maid, Guinea native Nafissatou Diallo, cost him not only his IMF job, but political opportunities including the French presidency.

The suit also says the maid's accusations caused Strauss-Kahn extraordinary pain and anguish.

Diallo's lawyers call the lawsuit a publicity stunt.

Diallo accused Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her last year in the luxury hotel where she worked. The charges were dropped when prosecutors questioned Diallo's credibility — but not before Strauss-Kahn was forced to step down as IMF chief.

The incident also destroyed Strauss-Kahn's political career in France, where the Socialists had touted him as a likely presidential candidate in the election.

Strauss-Kahn still faces a civil suit in New York.

U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to sign a bill to renew the charter of the 80-year-old Export-Import Bank over conservative opposition.

The Senate passed the measure Tuesday, a week after approval by the House of Representative.

White House spokesman Jay Carney says the measure is absolutely necessary to ensure American exports can keep growing.

The bank provides loans and credits to help U.S. exporters promote and sell goods overseas.

The bank's supporters say it lets the United States compete with other major world exporters who also get government support.

Some conservatives in Congress want to shut down the bank, saying it promotes unfair trade.

Newly inaugurated French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel say they will work together on proposals to generate economic growth in Europe and avert a currency crisis.

Mr. Hollande flew to Berlin for a key discussion with the German leader shortly after his swearing-in Tuesday. During a joint news conference, the French president said he wanted to show that the friendship between the two countries is a constant. Ms. Merkel expressed faith that their nations can find solutions because both want economic development for Europe.

During his election campaign, Mr. Hollande criticized the austerity deal forged by his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy and the German chancellor. He said he wanted to spur growth and reduce debt without measures that hurt people. Chancellor Merkel had said the recent euro zone treaty, which imposes budget austerity among its 17 member nations, is non-negotiable.

European leaders will meet informally next week and at a summit in June.

Christopher Dickey, Paris Bureau chief of Newsweek magazine, notes that many European Union members have not yet ratified the austere stability pact and some may never do it.

“Much of the conversation about the stability pact takes place in a context in which it sounds like it's a done deal, but it's not a done deal. There are lots of countries out there who signed up for it who are not ready to ratify it and probably will never ratify it. So, Hollande is in a much stronger position politically than he had seemed to be even a few weeks ago. And I think he's going to let Angela Merkel know that.”

Mr. Hollande's first attempt to fly to Germany following his inauguration Tuesday failed after the presidential plane was hit by lightning shortly after take-off from a military air base outside Paris. No one was hurt, but the plane returned to the base, where the president boarded a second aircraft and left for Germany.

Mr. Hollande took office Tuesday in a modest and rain-soaked ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

Before traveling to Germany, he named Jean-Marc Ayrault as prime minister. The parliamentary leader of the Socialist party speaks German. He is expected to name his Cabinet Wednesday.

Mr. Hollande defeated Mr. Sarkozy in a runoff election last week, becoming the country's first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand in 1995.

Syrian activists say government forces shot and killed at least 20 mourners at a funeral procession in central Syria and that minutes later a roadside bomb exploded near U.N. military observers in the area.

The two incidents took place Tuesday in Khan Sheikhoun, near the central city of Hama. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces committed a “massacre” in the presence of the U.N. observers who were in a four-vehicle convoy. There was no independent confirmation of the casualties.

Shortly after the shooting, a roadside bomb exploded near the U.N. group, damaging several vehicles. A video of the incident was posted on the Internet. The U.N. mission confirmed its vehicles were hit by a bomb just minutes after monitors met with rebels from the Free Syrian Army, saying all observers were safe.

Also Tuesday, the relief group Doctors Without Borders said a team of foreign medics returning from a secret mission in Syria reported that civilians wounded in the uprising – and the doctors who treat them – are at risk of arrest or attack. Spokeswoman Marie-Noëlle Rodrigue described the dangers.

“Patients, and doctors, are terrorized [and] tracked down. To be a doctor [in Syria] today is more dangerous than to carry a weapon. Pharmacies are being looted or burned, hospitals are being destroyed, some are being militarized, meaning that if you don't belong to the right side, you can't have access to care. This was seen by the team while they were there.”

Rodrigue said the medics sneaked into the opposition hubs of Homs and Idlib after government ministries repeatedly refused their requests for official legal access into the country.

“It was a two-person team, a surgeon and an anesthesiologist, who managed to enter, and stayed in the northern Idlib region for a couple of days.”

Doctors Without Borders called on all sides in the conflict to fully respect health workers, medical facilities and the wounded.

In another development, the Syrian government said more than half of eligible voters turned out for a May 7 parliamentary election that was boycotted by opposition groups that said it had no credibility while security forces pursue a deadly crackdown on dissent.

The election was the first since a February referendum approved a new constitution allowing the formation of new parties to compete with Syria's Baath-led coalition.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday the vote was “neither free, fair, transparent or representative of the Syrian people.”

Several new parties participated in last week's vote, but the exiled Syrian National Council dismissed the new groups as government creations. Syrian election chief al-Izzaoui read out a list of winning candidates on Tuesday for the 250-seat parliament, which has been dominated for decades by the Baath party of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The opposition SNC, meanwhile, said its members had voted to extend the term of their leader Burhan Ghalioun by another three months.

The United Nations says more than 9,000 people have been killed in violence related to the anti-government uprising that erupted more than a year ago. The Syrian government has blamed armed terrorist groups for much of the country's unrest.

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Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr, on his first visit to China, has defended his country's deepening military ties with the United States and said Beijing has nothing to fear over the increasing presence of U.S. Marines in Australia's Northern Territory.

Carr made the comment during a meeting Tuesday with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, and Lieutenant General Wei Fenghe, the deputy chief of the general staff, in Beijing.

He said Australia's military ties with the United States are “the bedrock of his nation's security,” adding Canberra believes that the United States has helped to guarantee peace in the Asia-Pacific region, where stability has fostered great economic development for countries, including China.

However, Beijing insists that Canberra is revisiting “Cold War alliances” and that the time for such alliances has long since passed.

Carr said he would also like to see greater military cooperation between Australia and China. He said that although his talks with Chinese officials covered a wide range of issues, the discussions were dominated by concerns about the deepening U.S.-Australia military ties, which Beijing interpreted as a move to balance China's rising power.

Foreign Minister Carr was scheduled to meet with Chinese Vice Premiere Li Keqiang to discuss a possible free trade pact between the two countries, as China is currently Australia's biggest trading partner. Carr also addressed cases involving Chinese-Australians who have been jailed recently in China.

News media in the United States are reporting that the government's Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into the more than $2 billion trading loss sustained by the J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. investment bank.

Sources told various news outlets on Tuesday that the probe is at an early stage. The investigation is being started only days after J.P. Morgan's chairman and chief executive, Jamie Dimon, disclosed the loss that stemmed from complex trading transactions in the London office of the U.S.-based firm.

Dimon told J.P. Morgan stockholders at the company's annual meeting that the huge financial setback was the result of “self-inflicted” mistakes by company executives, saying, “This should never have happened.”

Despite the loss, shareholders gave Dimon a vote of confidence, rejecting a proposal to strip him of his title of chairman of the board, and endorsed his $23 million pay package for last year.

The fallout from the loss began on Monday with the bank's chief investment officer, Ina Drew, announcing her retirement after 30 years with the firm. She oversaw the office where the transactions occurred. Other officials are also expected to leave soon.

Dimon, who said the transactions were “poorly reviewed, poorly executed and poorly monitored,” has strongly opposed new U.S. laws aimed at imposing tighter controls on complex financial transactions involving millions of dollars.

During an appearance on ABC television's “The View” program, U.S. President Barack Obama said the J.P. Morgan situation proves that strong regulations are needed to keep the nation's financial sector from making the same mistakes that led to the 2008 global economic crisis.

“This is the best or one of the best managed banks. You could have a bank that isn't as strong, isn't as profitable making those same bets and we might have had to step in and that's exactly why Wall Street reform is so important.”

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng says U.S. diplomats are holding discussions with their Chinese counterparts on plans for him to travel to New York for a teaching fellowship, but have been asked to maintain a low profile on the case.

In an interview with VOA, Chen said an official, sent and authorized by the central government, visited him in the hospital to discuss details of the trip to the United States.

Chen says he thinks the trip will take place eventually, despite the lack of substantial progress. U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said Tuesday that the U.S. has finished processing his visa paperwork and that it has been ready for more than a week.

Chen also says his mother is now allowed to walk around the village without being shadowed, but his older brother is blocked from going out because of murder charges his son is facing.

Chen says the charges against his nephew are unfounded and that he has contacted a lawyer who has agreed to take up the case, despite pressure from authorities.

Chen was given a four-year prison sentence in 2006 for exposing abuses under China's forced abortion policy aimed at population control. He had been under house arrest since 2010, before fleeing on April 22 to the U.S. embassy in Beijing, where he remained for six days.

The self-taught legal activist agreed to depart the embassy under a deal reached by U.S. and Chinese authorities that would have allowed him to stay in a safe place in China and study law. But he changed his mind hours after leaving the embassy, saying his family had been threatened, and he wanted to go to the United States.

The activist, who has been blind since childhood, is at a Beijing hospital recovering from injuries sustained in his escape in late April.

New French President Francois Hollande has met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, shortly after his inauguration as France's first Socialist leader in 17 years.

During their first official meeting, the two leaders were expected to discuss their differences on how to revive Europe's economy and avert the euro crisis looming in the wake of Greece's political and financial problems.

Mr. Holland's first attempt to fly to Germany following his inauguration failed after the presidential plane, a Falcon 7X, was hit by lightning shortly after take-off from a military air base outside Paris. No one was hurt, but the plane returned to the base, where the president boarded a second aircraft and left for Germany.

Mr. Hollande's visit to Berlin for the key talks with Chancellor Merkel was his first order of business after officially taking office in a modest and rain-soaked ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

During his nationally televised inaugural speech, Mr. Hollande promised “a new path” for France, emphasizing growth, justice and what he described as “social democracy.” That approach contrasts greatly with that of the German chancellor, who has pushed for strict austerity measures to help tighten Europe's shaky economy.

Before leaving Paris, Mr. Hollande named Jean-Marc Ayrault as prime minister. The parliamentary leader of the Socialist party speaks German. He is expected to name his Cabinet Wednesday.

Mr. Hollande defeated former president Nicolas Sarkozy in a runoff election last week, becoming the country's first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand in 1995.

Mr. Hollande is expected to push Germany to renegotiate the recent euro zone treaty imposing budget austerity among its 17 member nations. Mr. Hollande is calling for a greater emphasis on growth, but the German leader says the pact is non-negotiable.

Political analyst Tanja Boerzel with the Free University of Berlin says despite the stark political differences, Mr. Hollande and Ms. Merkel may be able to find some common ground.

“I think the German government will be open for suggestions for two reasons. First, Angela Merkel is a pragmatic person who knows that she needs Francois Hollande to further manage the Euro crisis. And second, the German government acknowledged that austerity is not the only way to overcome the crisis.”

Newsweek Paris Bureau Chief Christopher Dickey says both leaders have a lot at stake.

“When Hollande meets Merkel, they both have to come away with a sense of victory, or with something that they can portray as a victory. She comes away saying 'we're keeping the stability pact.' He comes away saying 'ok, we're keeping the stability pact but we are going to negotiate a new growth pact.' This is something that the European Central Bank wants, something that many other European governments want. It is not out there, it is not a wild socialist dream. And I think he'll probably get it, or some variation on it.”

Mr. Hollande's election comes as the euro zone economy posted zero growth in the first three months of 2012 and avoided a recession. Experts had predicted the region's economy would shrink by 0.3 percent for the first quarter.

Later in the week, Mr. Hollande flies to the United States where he will meet with President Barack Obama at the White House on Friday before attending a Group of Eight summit at the presidential retreat outside Washington, and a NATO summit in Chicago.