Havana/Miami - Cuba was battening down its hatches for the third powerful hurricane this season as Hurricane Paloma barrelled toward the Caribbean island Saturday with category 4 winds.

The center of the storm was expected to approach the coast of south-central Cuba Saturday evening and emerge into the Atlantic Ocean late Sunday, the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami reported.

Maximum sustained winds were 230 kilometres an hour, making Paloma an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the centre said.

Miami - Hurricane Paloma strengthened over the Caribbean and was approaching the Cayman Islands and Cuba with sustained winds of more than 150 kilometres an hour on Friday.

"Paloma is a category one hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Strengthening is likely and Paloma is expected to become a category- two hurricane later today (Friday) and possibly reach category three intensity late tonight or on Saturday," the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said.

Miami - Hurricane Paloma strengthened over the Caribbean and was approaching the Cayman Islands and Cuba with sustained winds of 140 kilometres an hour on Friday.

"Paloma is a category one hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Strengthening is likely and Paloma is expected to become a category two hurricane later today (Friday) and possibly reach category three intensity by Saturday," the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said.

Miami, Florida  - Tropical Storm Paloma strengthened into a hurricane in the Caribbean Sea as it headed toward the Cayman Islands, the National Hurricane Center in the United States said.

Paloma had maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometres per hour by late Thursday, making it a category one hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.

The Miami-based centre said it was expected to strengthen further and forecast that it would reach category two status Friday when it was expected to reach the Caymans and possibly hit category three by Saturday.

On Sunday, it was forecast to hit Cuba, which has already been pummeled by two hurricanes this season.

It is a known fact that corals are near extinction. But nature has its own way to keep life moving. In a last earnest effort of the staghorn corals to survive, it has been learnt that they have started cross-breeding with other related species of corals.  

Zoe Richards of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies informed, "This breaks all the traditional rules about what a species is."

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.