Sept 26 (Reuters) – Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd
[DLTE.UL], the world’s largest accounting and consulting firm,
was accused on Monday of failing to detect fraud during its
audits of one of the biggest private mortgage firms to collapse
during the U.S. housing crash.

A trust overseeing the bankruptcy of Taylor, Bean &
Whitaker Mortgage Corp, or TBW, and one of the company’s
subsidiaries filed complaints in a Florida court claiming a
combined $7.6 billion in losses.

MIAMI (Reuters) – U.S. long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad’s quest to become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage was thrown into doubt late on Saturday after she was stung in the face and eyes, apparently by jellyfish, in the Florida Straits, her team said.

Nyad, 62, departed from the Cuban capital of Havana on Friday evening on her quest to make the 103-mile (166-km) crossing through shark-infested waters, a grueling swim expected to last around 60 hours.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad’s quest to become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage was thrown into doubt late on Saturday after she was stung in the face and eyes, apparently by jellyfish, in the Florida Straits, her team said.

Nyad, 62, departed from the Cuban capital of Havana on Friday evening on her quest to make the 103-mile crossing through shark-infested waters, a grueling swim expected to last around 60 hours.

MIAMI (Reuters) – American long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad stroked in the Florida Straits on Saturday, enduring stinging sea creatures as she pressed ahead in her latest bid to become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage.

Nyad, 62, departed from the Cuban capital of Havana Friday evening in her quest to make the 103-mile (166-km) crossing, a grueling swim expected to last a total of around 60 hours.

MIAMI (Reuters) – A former top Bolivian anti-drug official was sentenced to 14 years in a U.S. prison on Friday in a cocaine trafficking case that proved a major embarrassment for Bolivian President Evo Morales.

Retired General Rene Sanabria, a former head of Bolivia’s leading counternarcotics unit, pleaded guilty in June to charges of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is making a new drive to put his socialist revolution on wheels.

The fiery critic of capitalism is promoting a government-led joint venture with a Chinese automaker that he says will offer cheaper cars to Venezuelans and promote socialist principles on the factory floor.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ended a third round of chemotherapy on Friday, saying he “couldn’t feel better” as he led a caravan to the presidential palace cheered on by thousands of supporters.

Wearing a red beret and an olive green military uniform, Chavez stood up through the sunroof of a sport utility vehicle and waved to crowds lining the streets after he completed a cancer treatment session at a Caracas hospital.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday he will only recognize a Libyan government led by his friend and ally Muammar Gaddafi and accused the United States of inciting the country’s civil war.

Chavez accused Western powers of riding roughshod over international laws by supporting the rebels in their revolt against Gaddafi.

MIAMI (Reuters) – The Colorado State University hurricane forecasting team on Wednesday maintained its 2011 Atlantic hurricane season forecast at nine hurricanes, with five of them expected to be major.

The leading storm research team, founded by hurricane forecast pioneer William Gray, said the six-month hurricane season which started on June 1 would likely see 16 tropical storms, unchanged from its June 1 outlook.

MIAMI (Reuters) – President Hugo Chavez’s battle against cancer has Venezuela’s fiercely critical exiles abuzz, but few are betting it heralds the end of his 12-year grip on power in their oil producing homeland.

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans have fled the country in the last decade to escape what they say is rising crime, dwindling economic opportunities and political persecution.