MEXICO

The number of confirmed cases of the new Influenza A (H1N1) flu has climbed to 6,497, including 65 deaths, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

Sony Corp reported a second straight quarterly loss hurt by a firmer yen, sluggish sales and restructuring costs, and it projected another year of red ink during which it will close eight factories worldwide.

Global talks on combating climate change this year might progress best by focusing on Mexico's proposal for a world climate change fund, one of the European Union's top negotiators said.

The two drugs used to treat the influenza should be used carefully and only when needed for the chronically ill, pregnant women and other vulnerable patients, global health officials said on Tuesday.

The new H1N1 flu virus could still mutate into a more virulent form and spark an influenza pandemic that could be expected to circle the globe up to three times, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

Mexico could lose up to $4 billion in tourism income after foreign visitors canceled trips to popular beach resorts and colonial towns due to the flu scare, Tourism Minister Rodolfo Elizondo said on Monday.

Millions of children in Mexico returned to school on Monday to freshly cleaned and disinfected classrooms following more than two weeks of closure caused by the swine flu outbreak.

The new strain of H1N1 flu that has killed 56 people in Mexico and has been carried around the world by travelers acts more like a pandemic strain than regular seasonal flu, researchers reported on Monday.

The new H1N1 virus shows no signs of sustained person-to-person spread outside of North America and so has not yet tipped over into a pandemic, a top World Health Organization official said on Monday.

General Motors Corp is open to considering moving its headquarters from Detroit, selling U.S. plants and renegotiating its restructuring plan with its major union as it heads toward probable bankruptcy, the automaker's chief executive said on Monday.

The new flu strain spread to mainland China, state media reported on Monday, and killed a third person in the United States, as the number of cases of H1N1 influenza worldwide jumped to more than 4,300.

Japan announced on Saturday its first confirmed cases of the new strain of flu -- a teacher in his 40s and two male teenage students who had spent time in Canada.

The new H1N1 flu killed its first patient in Canada, making it the third country after Mexico and the United States to report a death from the virus that has made more than 3,400 people in 28 countries ill.

Japan confirmed its first three cases of N1H1, or swine flu Friday, according to Japan's Kyodo news agency reports.

Asian countries agreed on Friday to boost drug stockpiles, share essential supplies and tighten surveillance against an H1N1 flu virus that posed an imminent health threat to the region.

Mexico's peso firmed on Friday and stocks jumped as the U.S. government's stress tests eased worries about major banks and data showed employers in the United States cut fewer jobs than expected in April.

Outbreaks of the new H1N1 swine flu continue to spread across the United States, with 896 confirmed cases and more to come, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday.

Mexicans were returning to normal life on Thursday after a five-day business shutdown due to the H1N1 flu virus and China eased quarantine measures, but the virus spread slowly in Europe.

Afghanistan's only known pig has been locked in a room, away from visitors to Kabul zoo where it normally grazes beside deer and goats, because people are worried it could infect them with the virus popularly known as swine flu.

Haitian officials rejected a Mexican ship carrying mostly needed food aids due to swine flu fears. The news came Wednesday as Mexico ended a five-day shutdown designed to contain the virus.

Oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, which produces about 25 percent of domestic oil production and 15 percent of natural gas output, could boom more than 1.8 million barrels per day by 2013, according to the government research, however its natural gas will likely to decrease.