Its center was about 25 km east-southeast of Dominica and 70 km north of Martinique in the eastern Caribbean Sea, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory Monday evening.

The storm was moving west-northwest at a speed of 15 km per hour, with maximum sustained winds of 260 km per hour, according to the agency.

Now a Category-5 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, it is also the fourth major Atlantic hurricane of 2017.

It was forecast that Maria will move near Dominica and the adjacent Leeward Islands during the next few hours.

The storm will churn through the extreme northeastern part of the Caribbean Sea before approaching Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Tuesday night and Wednesday, the center predicted.

A dangerous storm surge accompanied by large and destructive waves will raise water levels by as much as 1.5 meters to 2.1 meters above normal levels in the hurricane warning area, according to the advisory.

Maria is also expected to produce rain accumulation ranging from 5 cm to 63 cm in the island region through Thursday.

Puerto Rico is bracing for the direct landfall of such a strong storm for the first time in 85 years. Its Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla has declared a state of emergency as Maria is expected to hit the Caribbean island on Wednesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency for Puerto Rico on Monday to allow federal resources to assist the U.S. territory's response to the incoming storm.

The vulnerable island region is still reeling under the devastation caused earlier in September by Hurricane Irma, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Over 80 people in the Caribbean and southern United States died due to Irma.

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by Jon Day

TOKYO, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Japan's cabinet approving for the first time a new charter allowing funds from the nation's Official Development Assistance (ODA) program to be used to supply support to foreign military troops involved in exclusively non-combat operations, has drawn some concern and skepticism from notable political pundits and the public alike.

The charter's approval by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet Tuesday, marks Japan's first amendment to its foreign aid charter since 2003 and lifts previous restrictions that were put in place inhibiting Japan from granting foreign militaries financial assistance that could be used to help bankroll international conflicts.

The new charter, formerly known as the ODA Charter, has been renamed the "Development Cooperation Charter," and states that aid to foreign militaries will be considered on a case-by-case basis and evaluated on the merits of overseas militaries' involvement in improving the livelihoods of people, such as troops or personnel, conducting disaster relief operations and undertaking other non- combat-related humanitarian operations.

"If the military or military officers of recipient countries are involved in development cooperation for the purpose of improvement of the people's livelihood and nonmilitary activities such as disaster relief, Japan will consider individual programs case by case, while taking into account the significance of extending such aid," the charter states.

"Addressing development issues contributes to the enhancement of the global security environment, and it is necessary for Japan to strengthen its efforts as part of its 'proactive contribution to peace' based on the principle of international cooperation. Japan will utilize its ODA in a strategic and effective manner," reads the charter.

Senior government officials, like Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, have repeatedly maintained the cabinet's stance that the revised charter is in no way a stepping stone for Japan to expand its global military presence, despite the prime minister, somewhat to the contrary, stating that he plans to steer Japan towards being a more "active" international force, with constitutional reinterpretations last year, in part, helping him pave the way to achieve this.

Abe has also more than intimated that he wants to comprehensively amend Japan's Pacifist Constitution, to the point that many pundits believe that this is one of Abe's primary objectives while in office, or, in other words, the leader's future political legacy.

"Kishida is trumpeting the virtues of the new charter as being able to provide more "strategic development assistance" to overseas militaries and being that Japan will limit itself exclusively to non-military-related operations, the move is simply seeking to contribute to international peace and stability, and could be seen as quite benign," Asian affairs analyst Kaoru Imori told Xinhua on Wednesday.

"But we have to look at the timing of the revision, the geopolitical situation right now and where Japan sits as regards current global conflicts, including those close to home, and the nature of Abe's cabinet, which could legitimately be described as "assertive-bordering-on-aggressive," Imori said.

He added that, in theory, allocating a healthy amount of ODA to foreign militaries to assist in humanitarian operations such as di. Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping   Cheap NBA Jerseys Online   Wholesale Jerseys China   Wholesale Jerseys   Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys   Wholesale Jerseys China   Cheap NFL Jerseys Free Shipping   Wholesale Jerseys From China   Cheap College Basketball Jerseys Cheap   Wholesale NHL Jerseys