Powerful storms race westwards

Tropical Storms Ana and Bill, the first named storms of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season, were racing west with gale-force winds last night, and Bill was expected to develop into a hurricane in the next few days, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

Bill, with winds of nearly 64 km/h, was about 1460km west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands. Ana, with the same wind strength, was bearing down on the Leeward Islands.