São Paulo will commemorate its 453rd Anniversary with a special program:

Centro de São Paulo: 10 a.m. - Mass at the Catedral da Sé 11 a.m. - Traditional event at Pátio do Colégio

Av. Jacu-Pêssego: 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. - Shows with Radio Transcontinental FM: Os Travessos, Jeito Moleque, and Pixote

Trólebus Travel: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. - Departs Pátio do Colégio (75 minutes to see some of the city's cultural highlights: Pátio do Colégio / Rua Boa Vista / Rua Líbero Badaró / Viaduto do Chá / Av. São João / Ipiranga / Praça da República / Av. São Luiz / Xavier de Toledo / Viaduto do Chá / Líbero Badaró / Largo São Francisco / Praça da Sé / Pateo do Colegio) It is free!

Masp 8 p.m. - Journalist Gilberto Dimenstein will release his book about the city.

Teatro Municipal 9 p.m. - Orquestra Sinfônica Municipal (OSM) and Balé da Cidade de São Paulo

Biblioteca Mario de Andrade: 6 p.m. - Arrigo Barnabé & Vânia Bastos

Guaianases Praça de Eventos

Estrada de Itaquera 5:30 p.m. - Show with Alexandre Pires

Parque da Independência / Museu do Ipiranga 10 a.m. - "Bichos do Brasil" - Teatro de Bonecos Pia Fraus 4 p.m. - Paulinho da Viola and Quinteto Branco e Preto 6 p.m. - Naná Vasconcelos - Cordel do Fogo Encantado

Teatro Paulo Eiró Avenida Adolfo Pinheiro, 765 - Santo Amaro Tel: (11) 5546-0449 8 p.m. - Orquestra Popular de Câmara

Teatro Artur Azevedo Avenida Paes de Barros, 955 - Mooca Tel: (11) 6605-8007 8 p.m. - Zimbo Trio and Orchestra

Teatro João Caetano Rua Borges Lagoa, 650 - Vila Clementino Tel: (11) 5549-1744 8 p.m. - Pequenas Notáveis

Teatro Cacilda Becker Rua Tito, 295 - Lapa Tel: (11) 3864-4513 8 pm - Arruda Brasil

Teatro Décio de Almeida Prado (Old Teatro da USP) Campus da USP 8 p.m. - Graça Cunha

Teatro Flavio Império Rua Professor Alves Pedroso, 600 - Cangaíba Tel: (11) 6621-2719 8 p.m. - Cia. Raso da Catarina

Teatro Martins Penna Largo do Rosário, 20 - Penha Tel: (11) 293-6630 8 p.m. - Chorando as Pitangas

Choose the best option and enjoy the day! For more information, visit the São Paulo website: www.cidadedesaopaulo.com

January 14 Edited by Richard Lapper, Latin America editor

The mess in Mercosur

Expect Mercosur to get into an even bigger tangle when leaders of the five members of the South American customs union meet in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday for a two day summit. And Venezuela which joined the group last year is likely to be central to any controversy. On the one hand, the radical President Hugo Chávez can be relied upon to irritate his more cautious Brazilian hosts by grandstanding about the benefits to the region of "21st Century Socialism". On the other, the bid by Venezuela's ally, Bolivia, to become the sixth member of the club is going to create a headache for negotiators. Bolivia is currently an associate member like Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. If it were to join Bolivia would have to agree to accept Mercosur's common external tariff, which at an average of about 12 per cent is much higher than its own average of about 5 per cent. That would require a disruptive hike in protection. But any move by Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela to allow an exception would increase frictions with Uruguay and Paraguay, the two smaller Mercosur members who have tried unsuccessfully to negotiate their own more flexible application of the external tariff rules. Brazil's left-turn?

The timing was bad, but Brazil's announcement that further concessions for private companies to run federal highways have been suspended does not mean that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is embarking on Hugo Chávez-style state socialism.

The announcement, its subsequent partial retraction, and an extraordinary statement soon after by Brazil's deputy attorney general comparing highway concession holders to drug traffickers, do, however, suggest something almost equally worrying - a lack of direction in policy making at the highest levels of government. As one member of the highway concessions industry said on Friday: "This government is completely lost and doesn't know which way to turn."

It is bad enough that the issue of whether private companies should run public services is under discussion again a decade after Brazil put its first highway concessions out to tender. Merely re-opening the debate has rattled investors, just as the government urgently needs to find new sources of capital to fund a much-needed overhaul of transport infrastructure.

What is worse is that the macro-economic stability won at great cost by the previous government and largely maintained during the first Lula administration may now itself be under threat. As at least one commentator has noted, Brazil's fiscal responsibility law, one of the cornerstones of stability, is no longer being respected as it should. If this is a trend to be continued, it is policy drift of the worst type.

Notes by Richard Lapper, Jonathan Wheatley, Adam Thomson and Benedict Mander