Hurricane Maria strengthened to a Category Two storm today with maximum sustained winds of 175 kilometers per hour as it menaced Caribbean islands already hard-hit by megastorm Irma.
The US National Hurricane Center expected Maria to grow into a "major hurricane" -- a Category Three -- later Monday with the French territory of Guadeloupe -- the staging area for relief operations for several islands battered by Irma -- in the crosshairs.
Warnings were also triggered for Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis and the British island of Montserrat.
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