Mexico battles swine flu outbreak

Churches stood empty today in heavily Roman Catholic Mexico City after services were cancelled, and health workers screened airports and bus stations for people sickened by a new strain of swine flu that experts fear could become a global epidemic.

President Felipe Calderon has assumed new powers to isolate people infected with the deadly swine flu strain that Mexico’s health minister says has killed up to 81 people and left 1,324 others ill since April 13.