Hurricane Odile aims at Mexico\\\'s Baja

Rapidly strengthening Hurricane Odile further intensified Sunday morning and was swirling over the Pacific as a major storm expected to make a close brush with the southern portion of Mexico's Baja California peninsula by nightfall. The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said Odile became a powerful Category 4 hurricane before dawn Sunday. Odile's core was predicted to stay out in the Pacific, but it was following a track that was forecast to take the storm's edge very close or even over Baja's southern end by Sunday night and into Monday. The storm's maximum sustained winds had increased to 135 (215 kph) Sunday morning. It was centered about 225 miles (360 kilometers) west of Manzanillo, Mexico and 285 mils (460 kilometers) south-southeast of the southern tip of Baja California. Odile was moving to the north-northwest at 15 mph (24 kph), according to AP.