Miami, Florida - Hurricane Omar swept across the northern Leeward Islands after strengthening to a category 3 storm in the Caribbean with maximum sustained winds of 195 kilometres per hour and higher gusts, the National Hurricane Center in the United States said.

It gained in intensity on the five-step Saffir-Simpson Scale before hitting the Antilles and beginning its march late Wednesday across the Leeward Islands.

The Villages (Florida, US), Sept. 22: The Palin wave shows no signs of diminishing.

On her first trip as John McCain’s running mate to the battleground state of Florida, Palin drew a massive crowd of 60,000 people.

A Fox News report said that she was welcomed like a star, with tens of thousands cramming into a plaza and nearby streets in the enormous retirement community about an hour north of Orlando.

Some waited more than five hours in 92-degree heat to see her speak for 23 minutes.

New York, Sept. 9: In her first campaign outing since the Democratic National Convention, New York’s junior Senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton, avoided criticizing new contender for female voters, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

The Obama Campaign is seeing Clinton as the best counter to Palin as far as attracting the votes of white working women and mothers who supported her during the Democratic primaries.

Leading an evening rally in Tampa, Clinton, however, chose to use a line that she had used at two earlier events -- “No way, no how, no McCain — no Palin!”

Washington - Residents of the Caribbean Turks and Caicos islands began surveying damage on Sunday following the devastating impact of Hurricane Ike, as the "extremely dangerous" category 4 storm continued on its path toward Cuba and Florida Keys.

At 8 a.m. (1300 GMT) Ike had winds of over 215 kilometres per hour, just east of Grand Inagua in the Bahamas.

Residents of Turks and Caicos islands said on Sunday that the worst there had passed, but the damage looked "pretty huge."

Speaking to US news channel CNN, Audley Astwood, a reporter at a radio station on Grand Turk island said that "it looks very dismal outside."

Washington - Supporters of presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton engaged in passionate, tense and at times testy exchanges over the disputed primaries of Florida and Michigan on Sa