Hurricane begins to batter Canada

NOVA SCOTIA, Sept 24 (BBC/AP): Hundreds of thousands of people are without power as Hurricane Fiona begins to batter Canada's Atlantic Coast.

Parts of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick are experiencing torrential rain and winds of up to 148 km/h (92 mph).

The Canadian Hurricane Centre warned ahead of its arrival that Fiona could be "a historic, extreme event", with expected power cuts and flooding.

At least eight people died when Fiona cut through the Caribbean.

Fiona transformed from a hurricane into a post-tropical storm late Friday, but meteorologists cautioned that it still could have hurricane-strength winds and would bring drenching rains and huge waves.

More than 207,000 Nova Scotia Power customers were affected by outages by around midnight, officials said.

The fast-moving Fiona was forecast to make landfall in Nova Scotia before dawn Saturday, with its power down from the Category 4 strength it had early Friday when passing by Bermuda, though officials there reported no serious damage.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre issued a hurricane watch for coastal expanses of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Fiona should reach the area as a "large and powerful post-tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds."

"It's going to a bad one," said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who decided to delay his trip to Japan for the funeral for assassinated Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

"We of course hope there won't be much needed, but we feel there probably will be ...," Trudeau said. "Listen to the instructions of local authorities and hang in there for the next 24 hours."

The U.S. hurricane center said Fiona was at Category 2 strength late Friday, with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (165 kph). It was centered about 140 miles (220 kilometers) southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, heading northeast at 46 mph (74 kph).