By CHOE SANG-HUN

SAN FRANCISCO — Just over two months after threatening to leave China because of censorship and intrusions from hackers, Google on Monday closed its Internet search service there and began directing users in that country to its uncensored search engine in Hong Kong.

While the decision to route mainland Chinese users to Hong Kong is an attempt by Google to skirt censorship requirements without running afoul of Chinese laws, it appears to have angered officials in China, setting the stage for a possible escalation of the conflict, which may include blocking the Hong Kong search service in mainland China.

The state-controlled Xinhua news agency quoted an unnamed official with the State Council Information Office describing Google’s move as “totally wrong.”

“Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks,” the official said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the government will handle the Google case “according to the law,” Reuters reported. The ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, said at a regular briefing in Beijing that Google’s move was an isolated act by a commercial company, and that it should not affect China-U.S. ties “unless politicized’’ by others.

Google declined to comment on its talks with Chinese authorities, but said that it was under the impression that its move would be seen as a viable compromise.

“We got reasonable indications that this was O.K.,” Sergey Brin, a Google founder and its president of technology, said. “We can’t be completely confident.”

Google’s retreat from China, for now, is only partial. In a blog post, Google said it would retain much of its existing operations in China, including its research and development team and its local sales force. While the China search engine, google.cn, has stopped working, Google will continue to operate online maps and music services in China.

Google’s move represents a powerful rejection of Beijing’s censorship but also a risky ploy in which Google, a global technology powerhouse, will essentially turn its back on the world’s largest Internet market, with nearly 400 million Web users.

“Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on google.cn has been hard,” David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, wrote in the blog post. “The Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a nonnegotiable legal requirement.”

Mr. Drummond said that Google’s search engine based in Hong Kong would provide mainland users results in the simplified Chinese characters used on the mainland and that he believed it was “entirely legal.”

“We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision,” Mr. Drummond said, “though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services.” Some Western analysts say Chinese regulators could retaliate against Google by blocking its Hong Kong or American search engines entirely, just as it blocks YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Google’s decision to scale back operations in China ends a nearly four-year bet that Google’s search engine in China, even if censored, would help bring more information to Chinese citizens and loosen the government’s controls on the Web.

Instead, specialists say, Chinese authorities have tightened their grip on the Internet in recent years. In January, Google said it would no longer cooperate with government censors after hackers based in China stole some of the company’s source code and even broke into the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights advocates.

“It is certainly a historic moment,” said Xiao Qiang of the China Internet project at the University of California, Berkeley. “The Internet was seen as a catalyst for China being more integrated into the world. The fact that Google cannot exist in China clearly indicates that China’s path as a rising power is going in a direction different from what the world expected and what many Chinese were hoping for.”

While other multinational companies are not expected to follow suit, some Western executives say Google’s decision is a symbol of a worsening business climate in China for foreign corporations and perhaps an indication that the Chinese government is favoring home-grown companies. Despite its size and reputation for innovation, Google trails its main Chinese rival, Baidu.com, which was modeled on Google, with 33 percent market share to Baidu’s 63 percent.

The decision to shut down google.cn will have a limited financial impact on Google, which is based in Mountain View, Calif. China accounted for a small fraction of Google’s $23.6 billion in global revenue last year. Ads that once appeared on google.cn will now appear on Google’s Hong Kong site. Still, abandoning a direct presence in the largest Internet search market in the world could have long-term repercussions and thwart Google’s global ambitions, analysts say.

Government officials in Beijing have sharpened their attacks on Google in recent weeks. China experts say it may be some time before the confrontation is resolved.

“This has become a war of ideas between the American company moralizing about Internet censorship and the Chinese government having its own views on the matter,” said Emily Parker, a senior fellow at the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society.

In China, many students and professionals said they feared they were about to lose access to Google’s vast resources.

In January, when Google first threatened to leave China, many young people placed wreaths at the company headquarters in Beijing as a sign of mourning.

The attacks were aimed at Google and more than 30 other American companies. While Google did not say the attacks were sponsored by the government, the company said it had enough information about the attacks to justify its threat to leave China.

People, inside and outside of Google, investigating the attacks have since traced them to two universities in China: Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Lanxiang Vocational School. The schools and the government have denied any involvement.

After serving Chinese users through its search engine based in the United States, Google decided to enter the Chinese market in 2006 with a local search engine under an arrangement with the government that required it to purge search results on banned topics. But since then, Google has struggled to comply with Chinese censorship rules and failed to gain significant market share from Baidu.com.

Google is not the first American Internet company to stumble in China. Nearly every major American brand has arrived with high hopes only to be stymied by government rules or fierce competition from Chinese rivals.

After struggling to compete, Yahoo sold its Chinese operations to Alibaba Group, a local company; eBay and Amazon never gained traction; and Microsoft’s MSN instant messaging service badly trails that of Tencent.

Google’s departure could present an opportunity for Baidu, whose stock has soared since the confrontation between Google and China began. It could also give a chance to Microsoft, a perennial underdog in Internet search, to make inroads in the Chinese market. Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, has a very small share of the market.

Dustland fairytale beginin
Just another white trash
County kiss
Sixty one
Long brown hair and foolish eyes
Look just like you gone into some
Kind of slick chrome american prince
A blue jean serenade
Moon river what'd you do to be
But i don't believe you

Some cinderella in a party dress but
She was looking for a night gown
I saw the devil warping up his hands
Hes getting ready for the show down
I saw the minute that i turn away
I got my money on a pond tonight

Change came in disguised of revelation
Set his soul on fire
She said she'd always knew he'd come around
And the decades disappear like sinking
Ships we persevere god gives us hope
But we still fear
We don't know
The mind is poison castle in the sky
Sit stranded vandalized
The draw bridge is closing

Some cinderella in a party dress but
She was looking for a night gown
I saw the devil warping up his hands
Hes getting ready for the show down
I saw the ending were they turned the page
I threw my money and i ran away
Strait to the vally of the great divide

And were the dreams roll high
And were the wind dont blow
Out here the good girls die
And the sky wont snow
Out here the bird don't sing
Out here the field don't grow
Out here the bell don't ring
Out here the bell don't ring
Out here the good girls die

Now cinderella don't you go to sleep
Its such a bitter form of refuge
Ahh don't you know the kingdoms under siege
And everybody needs you
Is there still magic in the midnight sun
Or did you leave it back in sixty-one
In the of the cadence in the young mans eyes
And were the dreams roll high

(CNN) -- Governments and health officials around the world continued to take steps Wednesday against the outbreak of swine flu that has killed scores of people in Mexico and spread to the U.S., Europe and possibly Asia.

Mexican health officials suspect that the swine flu outbreak has caused more than 159 deaths and roughly 2,500 illnesses.

The World Health Organization says at least 105 cases have been confirmed worldwide, including 64 in the United States; 26 in Mexico; six in Canada; three in New Zealand; and two each in Spain, the United Kingdom and Israel. WHO has confirmed deaths only in Mexico, where seven people have died from swine flu.

In the United States, California, Indiana and Texas also were reporting additional cases not confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, Mexican authorities are focusing on a young boy being referred to as "patient zero" by his doctors -- 5-year-old Edgar Hernandez, who survived the earliest documented case of the swine flu outbreak.  Watch a report on "patient zero" »

His family lives in the village of La Gloria in the state of Veracruz, where a flu outbreak was reported on April 2.

Lab tests confirmed that he was the only patient in Veracruz to test positive for the swine flu virus; the others had contracted a common flu. Health officials had returned to Edgar's sample only after cases of the new flu strain were spotted around the country. He has recovered from his symptoms.

The World Health Organization on Monday raised its alert level from three to four on its six-level scale. Read what steps countries are taking

The move means the U.N. agency has determined that the virus is capable of significant human-to-human transmission -- a major step toward a pandemic, but not necessarily inevitable, Dr. Keiji Fukuda said.

"In this age of global travel, where people move around in airplanes so quickly, there is no region to which this virus could not spread," said Fukuda, assistant director-general of the WHO.

Governments around the world scrambled to prevent further outbreak.

Some, like China and Russia, banned pork imports from the United States and Mexico. Several others, such as Japan and Indonesia, used thermographic devices to test the temperature of passengers arriving from Mexico.

The Philippines' health department urged people to avoid kissing and hugging in public.

Argentina announced a five-day ban on flights from Mexico. Four cruise lines -- Holland America, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Princess -- canceled upcoming calls to Mexican ports.

U.S. President Barack Obama said the outbreak was a cause for concern, not for alarm. The government urged travelers to avoid non-essential travel to Mexico. Tell us what you think about the swine flu outbreak

About 35,000 public venues in Mexico City were shut down or told to serve only take-out meals Tuesday, as officials try to contain the outbreak.

In addition to ordering restaurants to serve only take-out food, authorities ordered the closing of bars, clubs, movie theaters, pool halls, theaters, gyms, sport centers and convention halls until May 6, said Juan Jose Garcia Ochoa, one of the city government's top officials.  Watch denials by Mexicans that the swine flu started in Mexico »

Armed police officers are also guarding hospitals in Mexico City while roads and schools in the city of 20 million people are deserted. Officials also have talked about shutting down the bus and subway systems. Watch

Blue masks shield the faces of mothers and babies from a virus that doctors are still trying to understand, let alone bring under control. Read about what precautions people are taking

"I'm pretty nervous of this whole virus thing," Berta Hernandez said as she touched up her eyeliner inside a packed and humid subway car. She did not dare lift her surgical mask to put on lip gloss.

"I'm nervous of the people who aren't wearing masks. Maybe they will suddenly sneeze or cough," she said

Some health experts fear the disease could become a pandemic, partly because it has killed young, healthy adults in Mexico.  Watch how a flu virus might spread »

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued emergency authorization for the use of two of the most common anti-viral drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza. The authorization allows the distribution of the drugs by a broader range of health care workers and loosens age limits for their use. The median age of all the U.S. cases is 16 years.

In Mexico City, however, there is a shortage of such medication. And the government ran out of surgical masks after handing them out to one out of every five residents.

Panicked citizens continue to flood in night and day at hospitals, only to be turned away by armed guards.

"I was looking for a mask at my local pharmacy, but they sold out," supermarket worker Rafael Martinez said as he rode the subway. "I know it's a risk, but I can't find one.'

Swine flu is a contagious respiratory disease that usually affects pigs. It is caused by a type-A influenza virus. The current strain is a new variation of an H1N1 virus, which is a mix of human and animal versions. iReport.com: Do you think we should be worried about swine flu?

When the flu spreads person-to-person, instead of from animals to humans, it can continue to mutate, making it harder to treat or fight off because people have no natural immunity.

The symptoms are similar to common flu. They include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

The virus spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes around another person. People can become infected by touching something with the flu virus on it and then touching their mouth, nose or eyes.

In 1968, a "Hong Kong" flu pandemic killed about 1 million people worldwide. And in 1918, a "Spanish" flu pandemic killed as many as 100 million people. Putting those figures into perspective about 36,000 people die from flu-related symptoms each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers do not know how the virus is jumping relatively easily from person to person, or why it is affecting society's healthiest demographic.

"When you think about the flu, the seasonal flu, the flu that we're accustomed to, it typically tends to have the worse ramifications in people that don't have developed immune systems -- the elderly and the very young. They can't fight it off," said Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent.

"What's counterintuitive with this particular virus, it's in the people who have robust immune systems. As their body starts to respond, to try and fight off that virus, they produce tons of inflammatory cells. Those inflammatory cells can sort of flood the lungs.

"So, in essence, it's not the virus itself that's so problematic, but the body's reaction to it."