US authorities are gearing up for the first hurricane to make landfall since 2008 as Hurricane Irene strengthened across the Caribbean, wreaking havoc in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
The US National Hurricane Center said Irene, currently classified as a category 2 storm, could increase in intensity to category 3, with winds reaching more than 111mph (178km/h) before hitting the south-east US coast, including Florida, North and South Carolina, by the weekend.
Nick Ashford, who with wife Valerie Simpson wrote such legendary Motown songs as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand," has died after a prolonged battle with throat cancer, his publicist announced. He was 70.
Their songs were spun into hits by, among others, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, Marvin Gaye, Chaka Khan, Whitney Houston and Ashford & Simpson themselves - including the '80s hit "Solid As a Rock."
Ashford and Simpson's relationship went back to 1964, when they (she a 17-year-old from the Bronx, he a 21-year-old from Michigan) met in a Harlem church and decided to write songs together. They wed 10 years later.
