World closer to swine flu pandemic

The World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert for the swine flu virus to phase 4, indicating a significantly increased risk of a pandemic, a global outbreak of a serious disease.The last such outbreak, a "Hong Kong" flu pandemic in 1968, killed about one million people.

Although deaths have only occurred in Mexico, more than 40 people in five states were sickened with the flu in the United States, including 20 at a New York City school.The streets of Mexico City were a sea of blue surgical face masks as most residents preferred to cover up against infection than stay home from work. Cafes, bars, gyms and even law courts were closed, however, and the city was eerily quiet.

Fearful Christians paraded a centuries-old statue of Jesus, believed to protect against disease, through the city center for the first time in more than a century.Mayor Marcelo Ebrard stopped short of closing the packed subway system, saying: "We have to exhaust every avenue before we resort to a complete economic paralysis of the city."

The swine flu is not caught from eating pig meat products, but several countries imposed import bans on pork from the United States. Stocks in companies such as airlines were also hit as investors worried about the impact on travel.Spain became the first country in Europe to confirm a case of swine flu when a man who returned from a trip to Mexico last week was found to have the virus.