MIAMI, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Hurricane Gustav, now classified as a Category 3 hurricane, was strengthening quickly as it approached Cuba Saturday, officials said.

The second major hurricane of the season was packing maximum winds of 110 mph as it approached the western tip of Cuba Saturday morning, National Hurricane Center forecasters in Miami said. It was expected to stay on a path in the next two days that will bring it into the southern Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane warnings were posted for the Cayman Islands and the Cuban capital of Havana. At 5 a.m. Saturday, Gustav's eye was located 255 miles southeast of the western tip of Cuba and was moving northwest at 12 miles per hour, meteorologists said, They said the storm had a good chance of strengthening even further once it reached the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Storm surges of 2 to 5 feet above normal were forecast for the Caymans, with 14 to 19 feet above normal tide levels possible for western Cuba and the Isle of Youth. Forecasters also said Gustav would produce rainfall of 6 to 12 inches across the Cayman Islands and central and western Cuba.

McCain's VP choice may undercut argument

WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Likely Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain's choice of inexperienced Sarah Palin as his running mate could undercut a key argument, analysts say.

McCain, the senator from Arizona, is taking a gamble by choosing Palin, a first-term governor of Alaska, because much of the case he has built against Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, is that his resume was thin, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported Saturday.

Some GOP observers say that argument is now moot, since Palin, 44, has no political experience outside of her home state.

"Here's what I'm worried about," Republican lobbyist Ed Rogers told The Times. "McCain had to protect his reputation as an opponent of status quo Washington. He had to pick someone with the shortest Washington resume. He did that. He picked someone the right wing is going to be happy about. But it's a gamble. The question is, what does it do to the argument that Obama's not ready?"

But other Republican analysts said Palin wouldn't be a liability on the "experience" argument.

Scott Reed, who managed the 1996 presidential campaign of Sen. Bob Dole, said Palin would stack up well against Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.

U.N. moves to help India, Nepal flooding

MENDABARI, India, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says the United Nations is ready to help India and Nepal recover from floods caused by the breach of a river dam.

Ban said he is extending "his deepest condolences to those affected, especially to the families of those who have been killed or who are missing," the Press Trust of India reported Saturday. At least 65 people have been killed along the River Kosi, which separates India from Nepal, and more than 250,000 homes were destroyed by the flooding. Officials estimated 3 million people were affected in Bihar state.

UNICEF has delivered tarpaulin sheets and other items to 8,000 families in India and more than 10,000 people in Nepal, the agency said.

Nepal has apologized to India for the breach in the Kosi River embankment, CNN-IBN reported Saturday, quoting Nepelese Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav as saying the breach was not noticed in time.

"Nobody noticed the cracks in the beginning," Yadav said. "When it was about to break, a few people went there to repair it. But they had a feud with the local workers and the work stopped. The next day the dam collapsed."

Bombing injures 45 in Sri Lankan capital

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- At least 45 people were wounded in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo Saturday when a bomb went off in a busy commercial district, officials said.

The explosive was hidden in an apple cart in Colombo's Pettah district, CNN reported, adding at least two children were hurt in the blast.

Police told the broadcaster they weren't immediately sure if the bomb was planted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a Sri Lankan separatist group.

S. Ossetia to be absorbed into Russia

TSKHINVALI, Georgia, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- South Ossetia says it will become part of Russia and host Russian military bases under a new agreement.

The former province of Georgia will be absorbed into Russia, declared Trazan Kokoity, deputy speaker of South Ossetia's parliament in Tskhivali, only three days after Russia recognized the Georgian breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to be independent states, The Times of London reported Saturday.

Eduard Kokoity, South Ossetia's leader, said during talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that it would become part of Russia within "several years," the newspaper reported. The declaration will likely produce a backlash in the West, which was told Russia had entered South Ossetia only to protect it from Georgian aggression, The Times said.

The Russian news agency Interfax quoted unnamed military sources as saying Russia is planning to construct a pair of military bases in Abkhazia, while the province's foreign minister said earlier that an agreement with Russia on military forces would be signed soon. The Times said the Russian foreign ministry confirmed Medvedev had ordered it to prepare "mutual assistance" agreements with South Ossetia and Abkhazia.