World News - "China's foreign direct investment dropped 22.5 percent from a year earlier in April, marking the seventh month of decline as corporations cut spending amid the global economic crisis, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MoC) said Friday...." [Kyodo (Japan)/Factiva]

Xinhua adds that in the first four months of 2009 "...the figure shrank to $27.67 billion, said MOC spokesperson Yao Jian. In April alone, the investment dropped... to $5.89 billion, the seventh straight monthly fall, said Yao.... The number of new foreign-funded ventures also saw a 34.2 percent decline to 6,241 in the first four months, as companies became more prudent about expanding...." [Xinhua/Factiva]

AFP reports that "...the data was released at the end of a week in which a series of statistics showed the economy was still severely impacted by the global financial crisis. On Wednesday, the government said industrial output... had grown by 7.3 percent in April from a year earlier, a weakening from 8.3 percent growth in March....However, economists told state media Friday they did not expect the steep declines in foreign direct investment to continue for much longer. 'The economy's contraction is likely to relax in the second half of the year,' Dong Xian'an, an analyst with Southwestern Securities, told China Daily...." [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Mexico To Seek Compensation For Swine Flu. "Mexico will seek economic compensation for damages suffered during the swine flu outbreak, which drove away thousands of tourists - a critical source of foreign revenue, the country's health minister said Thursday. 'There are grounds to apply for compensation ... for the country that has been hardest-hit' by the virus, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said at a news conference....

Cordova said compensation for lost tourist revenue could come from the World Bank or the Inter-American Development Bank (IBD).... The flu's impact was expected to cost the economy around $2.3 billion - around 0.3 percent of gross domestic product - and Mexico has launched a $1.06 billion business support program to help counter the damage...." [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Xinhua adds that "...in an outbreak, 'the nation that gives the most information is the nation that suffers most,' Cordova told a press conference. 'Without international support, nations with disease outbreaks are punished for their honesty,' he argued...." [Xinhua/Factiva]

AP reports that "...swine flu has infected Mexico's relations with China and other countries that have canceled airline flights and halted some trade.... [The Mexican government] rebuked Cuba, Ecuador, Argentina and Peru for banning flights to Mexico, saying they were acting 'incongruously with our traditional ties of friendship.'...[Additionally,] Haiti rejected a Mexican ship last week carrying 77 tons of food aid because of swine flu fears...." [Associated Press/Factiva]