Japan confirmed 27 more human cases of HlNl influenza on Sunday, bringing the country's total to 32 and leading to school closures in affected areas. In Beijing, officials confirmed the third case in mainland China on Saturday. Hong Kong also confirmed its third case on Sunday. The World Health Organization raised its tally of confirmed human cases of the disease, which is commonly known as swine flu, to 8,480, including 72 deaths, in 39 countries. Early Sunday, the ministry confirmed 20 cases, all teenagers at high schools in Hyogo and Osaka. Later Sunday, the Japanese Health and Welfare Ministry announced seven additional confirmed patients: five high school students, a teacher in his 40s and a college student in the western prefecture of Hyogo. All tested positive for the HlNl virus and are recovering at local hospitals. The news of the virus's rapid spread at schools came a day after Japan confirmed its first domestic case of swine flu in another student in Kobe. Kobe canceled its annual festival and other events planned for the weekend. Many of the affected Japanese students had not traveled overseas recently, but they tested positive for the same strain seen worldwide. "We have not determined how the virus spread in the region, and we are doing our best to track down the route of the infections and contain them," said Takeo Kawamura, the chief cabinet secretary. The latest Chinese case was in an 18-year-old student who recently returned from a university in New York State. The woman, a Beijing native identified only by her surname, Liu, arrived in the capital on May 11 on a Continental Airlines flight and went to a hospital three days later with a fever, headache, cough, sore muscles and other symptoms, the Chinese Health Ministry said Saturday. Xinhua, the official news agency, said Ms. Liu had been in contact with only two people