May 1 (Bloomberg) — Swine flu samples caught in a laboratory backlog in Mexico are slowing the probe into the severity of the virus that’s sweeping across the world, experts including the World Health Organization’s Francesco Checchi say.

Asia’s first confirmed case of swine flu has been detected in Hong Kong.

Mexico City, May 1 : Mexican authorities late Thursday revised the number of confirmed infections with the new variant of influenza A(H1N1), better known as swine flu, to 312 from 91 on Wednesday night.

THE health alert warnings on swine flu – let’s call it Mexican influenza - is obviously a deadly serious matter but at the same time airlines, especially low cost carriers, are trying to keep their planes full by dangling all kinds of carrots.

Call it “Mexican flu,” “The 2009 H1N1 Flu,” “North American Influenza”… but pork producers are asking please, stop calling it “swine flu.”

JERUSALEM -The outbreak of swine flu should be renamed “Mexican” influenza in deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, said an Israeli health official…

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Felipe Calderon told his people to stay home from tomorrow for a five-day partial shut-down of the economy, after the World Health Organisation (WHO) said a swine flu pandemic was imminent.

Dead pigs in China, evil factory farms in Mexico and an Al Qaeda plot involving Mexican drug cartels are a few wild theories seeking to explain a deadly swine flu outbreak that has killed up to 176 people.

SINGAPORE, April 30 (Bernama) â- Singapore today raised its disease outbreak response system alert status for the Mexican swine flu from Yellow to Orange, or from Phase 2 to Phase 3 of its five alert phases.

MOSCOW, April 30 (Itar-Tass) - The media statement of the Mexican ambassador to Beijing to the effect that the deadly swine influenza virus originated not in Mexico, but in Eurasia, has passed practically unnoticed.