Mexico's oil price expected to fall in 2004 
The prices of Mexican petroleum would fall to 19 US dollars per barrel in 2004, down some 5 dollars from the average price of 24.72 dollars in 2003, the International Consultant firm predicted on Sunday. 

Mexico would lose 680 million dollars in foreign exchange earnings if the oil price drops next year, the firm said. 

The oil price was originally set at 18.35 dollars per barrel inthe country's financial budget, but the real average price was 24.72 dollars, generating a 34- percent rise in revenues. 

As a major source of revenue for the country, the oil export earnings increased by 29 percent in the first five months of this year, up 6 percent from the same period last year. 

The oil prices on the international market have been on the rise in recent months, fueled by the Iraq war, Venezuela's nationwide strike by oil workers and the shrinking oil storage in the United States. 

As normal production is beginning to resume in Venezuela and Iraq and non-OPEC members will keep their current production quotas, Mexico is expected to see a fall in its oil export prices next year.

Brazilian president faces challenges in reforms 
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has faced a series of new challenges in accelerating his economic reforms, especially in agrarian reform, as thousands of poor people invaded lands of farmers and vacant buildings in cities. 

The crisis broke out a week ago, when squatters invaded a 22-hectare plot of land owned by car maker Volkswagen on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city. By Sunday, more than 4,000 were camped out in a makeshift shantytown, demanding title to the land. 

Then thousands more squatters have taken over vacant buildings in central Sao Paulo. Rural activists also moved onto land owned by ranchers in some states, blocked highways and staged marches threatening to occupy more land. 

Land owners have exacerbated the situation in southern Brazil by creating their own groups of armed militias to protect their properties. 

At the same time, civil servants, once Silva's most faithful supporters and now opposed to his pension reforms, clashed with riot police in a failed attempt to take their protest inside the halls of Congress in the capital of Brasilia. 

While thousands of poor Brazilian squatters invaded urban and rural properties and public servants trying to break into Congressclashed with police, the country's unemployment hit a new high of 13 percent, compared with the 10.5 percent when Silva took office in January. 

Silva, a former radical union leader and head of Brazil's leftist Workers Party, is trying to stabilize the country's fragile economy with conservative fiscal policies. But the protests highlight the growing pressure he faces to fulfill costlycampaign promises to help raise living standards for the one in five poor Brazilians. 

Observers say investor confidence would be hit hard by the ongoing events in the largest country of South America. 

Escalating social unrest "could be an additional factor inhibiting private investments," Brazilian economist Gesner Oliveira told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. 

In order to calm the dissatisfaction from poor people, Silva last week promised to accelerate agrarian reform that would give land to Brazil's poor and welcomed a decision by the central bank lowering Brazil's benchmark lending rate from 26 percent to 24.5 percent, saying it will help the struggling economy. 

Meanwhile, analysts say Silva will convince Congress to pass his reform measures to revive the economy. 

Overhauling the debt-ridden public pensions and cumbersome tax systems would be major achievements for Silva and enable him to concentrate on his campaign promises of creating millions of jobs and to help the poor, they say. 

Group in New York demands WTC twin towers be rebuilt 
A group rallied outside New York City Hall on Saturday to call for the twin towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) to be rebuilt. 

The group of activists and business executives, who called themselves the "WTC Restoration Movement," are protesting at the redevelopment plan by architect Daniel Libeskind. They argued that the design is not the public choice, and demanded that the twin towers be rebuilt as they were. 

"I think it's important that we restore them as they were -- only stronger -- as a way of saying no to al Qaeda and that we remain a free and prosperous nation," said syndicated columnist Deroy Murdock. 

"Unfortunately, Daniel Libeskind's switch-blade park, as I callit, is a nightmare vision. It doesn't stand for what this country does in term of our economic strength and prowess. I think the best way to just say no to al Qaeda is to put the towers back where they belong," he said. 

Libeskind's design, including the world's tallest tower and a sunken space for a memorial that preserves the empty look of the site, was chosen after a period of public comment by a committee organized by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the developer of the WTC site. 

"All the way along, the officials have not been listening to people except for show. They have their preconceived notions, and they're not prepared to do what we really have to do. And we are not going to let them get away with it,"said Louis Epstein, founder of the movement. 

The group also wants restoration of all commercial office and retail space that was destroyed in the World Trade Center attack.