MIAMI, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Hurricane Ike, a powerful and dangerous Category 4 storm, bore down on Cuba Sunday with sustained winds of near 135 mph, meteorologists said.

As of 5 a.m. Sunday, Ike was located 65 miles east of the Bahamas' Great Inagua Island, moving nearly due west at 15 mph. Forecasters from the U.S. National Weather Service's National Hurricane Center in Miami predicted Ike would traverse Cuba lengthwise from east to west starting Sunday night before exiting into the warm Gulf of Mexico waters and heading toward Louisiana late Monday.

The Cuban government issued hurricane warnings for the provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguin, Las Tunas, Granma, Camaguey and Ciego de Avila. Storm surges of 13 to 18 feet above normal were predicted for Cuba and the Bahamas, while residents of the Florida Keys were urged to stay on the lookout for hurricane-force winds, the Weather Service said.

Rainfall amounts of 4 to 6 inches were expected in and around Cuba Sunday, with Hispaniola Island predicted to see 6 to 12 inches with isolated areas of up to 20 inches of rain.

Hanna downgraded, moves into Canada

SAINT JOHN, New Brunswick, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Meteorologists downgraded Tropical Storm Hanna to a tropical rainstorm Sunday as it entered Canada's maritime provinces, bringing 1 to 3 inches of rain.

Canada's Atlantic Storm Prediction Center Sunday issued rainfall warnings for southern New Brunswick and western Nova Scotia, which could experience flash flooding from the remnants of Hanna, Accuweather.com reported.

The storm's run up the eastern U.S. coast Saturday caused Amtrak to cancel some trains, including the Silver Meteor between New York City and Miami, and the autotrain that runs from Lorton, Va., to Sanford, Fla. It also forced the delay of the NFL game between Philadelphia and New York Saturday night and pushed a NASCAR auto race in Richmond back to Sunday, Accuweather.com said.

Hanna's arrival along the Carolinas coast Saturday was preceded Friday by strong winds producing 8-foot breakers and powerful rip currents on northern Florida beaches. Some Hanna rainfall amounts included 5.11 inches at Washington D.C. and 5.13 inches at Danbury, Conn.

Bomber kills 6 in staged Iraq car accident

TAL AFAR, Iraq, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- At least six people died and 50 more were wounded in Iraq Sunday when a suicide car bomber drew a crowd with a staged traffic accident, officials said.

Iraq Interior Ministry officials said the incident happened in Tal Afar at an outdoor market, CNN reported. They said the bomber purposely collided with another vehicle and began arguing with its driver, detonating his bomb as a crowd gathered around the shouting men.

Officials told CNN the bombing happened in the same marketplace where another car bombing left more than 24 people dead last month.

Elsewhere in Iraq, four people were killed in two separate roadside blasts, one in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province north of Baghdad, and another south of the same city, CNN reported.

Military sources also said 10 Iraqis were injured in three explosions hitting different areas of Baghdad, the Kuwait News Agency, KUNA, reported.

A bomb was detonated near Al-Shaab International Stadium and Al-Qadsiya swimming pool injuring four Iraqis, the news agency said. Another bomb injured three policemen and a third explosion in the Zafaraniya neighborhood in southern Baghdad injuring three policemen after their patrol was also targeted.

Freddie, Fannie worse off than thought

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. mortgage giants Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) understated their financial troubles and have a smaller capital cushion than previously thought, sources say.

Scrutiny of the troubled mortgage companies by the U.S. Treasury Department in the last week has revealed their accounting methods were concealing a much more dire financial situation, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported Sunday.

Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper said those revelations have persuaded U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to move ahead with a government takeover of the companies, expected to be announced Sunday.

The companies, which own or back $5.3 trillion in mortgages, failed to properly account for losses, using questionable accounting methods to push them into the future so that they wouldn't need to be reported until next year, sources told the Times.

The newspaper said Paulson's decision will mean the U.S. Treasury department will begin buying mortgage securities in a move meant to bolster confidence by the companies' foreign debt holders, hopefully restoring confidence to the credit markets and bringing stability to the U.S. stock market.

The bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is likely to cost U.S. taxpayers tens of billion of dollars, the newspaper said.