CORAL GABLES -- Citing a need to be closer to Latin American customers, the Spanish national news agency EFE will move its texts and photo-editing operations from Coral Gables to Bogota, Colombia, affecting about 20 employees. Competitors Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse all operate their Latin American news desks outside of the U.S.

MIAMI -- Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services, the venerable Wall Street investment bank chaired by former Ivax Chairman Phillip Frost, has acquired Coral Gables-based investment bank Capitalink and will relocate its combined headquarters to Miami ? Miami's PineBank, under a cease-and-desist order for failing to comply with federal bank secrecy laws, will be acquired by Miami's Hemisphere National Bank.
? Morgan Stanley will open a private wealth management office in Miami to serve high net worth clients and institutions in Latin America. The office will be headed by Ernesto A. de la Fe, former head of Latin American business development for Lehman Bros. Business briefs
? Four Miami bankers have been convicted in a $170-million bank fraud scheme. Brothers Eduardo and Hector Orlansky face up to 30 years each in prison. R. Peter Stanham and Ariadna Puerto, also former executives with Miami's E.S. Bankest, face lesser penalties. Prosecutors say the bankers garnered millions in loan proceeds by grossly overinflating the value of accounts receivables the company purchased from other banks.

MIAMI-DADE -- For the eighth time in more than 40 years, county voters have defeated a ballot measure to increase the $6,000 annual salary of county commissioners. The latest proposal called for an $83,000 raise.
? Finland-based cell phone giant Nokia, with about 44,000 workers worldwide, has selected Miami for its Latin American regional headquarters. About 40 workers will relocate from Texas; another 50 jobs will be added locally over the next 18 months.
? Pan American Hospital, struggling to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has announced it will lay off about 10% of its non-nursing workforce of 600.

MIAMI LAKES -- Raul Martinez, mayor of Hialeah from 1981 to 2005, has partnered with advertising executive Alejandro "Alex" Fernandez to form Martinez & Fernandez Public Relations.

MONROE COUNTY -- Citing housing costs, more than 60% of tourism service workers in the Florida Keys anticipate leaving the island chain by 2011, according to a study by the Monroe County Tourist Development Council. Twenty percent of the workers say they will leave in the coming year. Tourism is the region's largest industry, employing more than half of all workers and generating $2.2 billion annually.