Tata Consultancy Services to Engage in Comprehensive Outsourcing for Ecuador's Largest Private Bank.
* One of the largest ever outsourcing deals in Latin America, worth over $140 million * Comprehensive solution includes core banking product, IT outsourcing & BPO services * Strategic engagement aims to strengthen Banco PichinchaA[sup.3]s business efficiency ratios * Will set up a...

Grupo Elektra Receives Authorization to Operate Banco Azteca in Honduras.
- An Additional Step in Solid Expansion to Latin America - MEXICO CITY, Feb. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Grupo Elektra, S.A. de C.V. (BMV: ELEKTRA*) (Latibex: XEKT), Latin America's leading specialty retailer, consumer finance and banking services company, announced today that it obtained an authorization from the local...

Occurrence and condition of migrating Swainson's Thrushes in the British Virgin Islands.
The Swainson's Thrush (Catharus ustulatus) is a neotropical migrant passerine broadly distributed across the forested north and mountainous west of North America (Mack and Wang 2000). Population trends across the species' breeding distribution are inconsistent and difficult to interpret (Mack and Wang 2000), but there is evidence to suggest...

ExpressJet Holdings, Inc. to Present at the Raymond James Growth Airline Conference.
HOUSTON, Jan. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ExpressJet Holdings, Inc. today announced that the company will present at the Raymond James Growth Airline Conference in New York City. Jim Ream and Fred Cromer will present a strategic update on February 1 at 9:00 AM Eastern (8:00 AM Central). A...

Analysis; Ethanol: US weapon against Chavez's oil.
Byline: JAN-UWE RONNEBURGER Deutsche Presse-Agentur SAO PAULO/Buenos Aires (DPA) - Until now there seemed to be no way to stem the growing influence across Latin America of left-wing populist Hugo Chavez, an outspoken critic of the United States. But ethanol could hold the key to...

You say tomato ... as well you should.
Byline: Paul ROGERS COLUMN: ROOTS OF WISDOM Fearing Burr Jr., author of Field and Garden Vegetables of America, was a prominent New England horticulturist who wrote his descriptive guide to 1,100 vegetable varieties some 150 year ago. He identified the tomato as a New World...

Biting without teeth: the citizen submission process and environmental protection.
The Dominican Republic-Central American-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), (1) recently ratified by the U.S. Con gress (2) and signed by the President, (3) has been a controversial piece of the Bush administration's economic policy. The treaty is principally aimed at expanding the market for U.S. business opportunities within...

Costa Rica.
When the first European settlers arrived in what is now Costa Rica in the 16th century, there were an estimated 19 indigenous chiefdoms with about 400,000 inhabitants. Little record is left of that life, and Costa Rica is bereft of the pyramids that dot Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. ...

Foodborne infections and the global food supply: improving health at home and abroad.
ABSTRACT In recent years, fourteen percent of the U.S. food supply has been imported from other countries, including many fresh and perishable foods. Although most outbreaks of illness and individual cases are related to foods from the United States, large and unusual outbreaks have been traced to...

Corpses and capital: narratives of gendered violence in two Costa Rican novels.
In a region prone to violence and political corruption, Costa Rica has been touted as an ecological paradise, a stable democracy, and an egalitarian society. However, Costa Rican fiction from the late twentieth century contests this idyllic image and presents instead a world of intrigue, violence, and criminality. El...