Typhoon Mawar losing strength as it heads toward Japan’s Okinawa Islands

By JOHNSON LAI and DAVID RISING
Associated Press

NAHA, Japan (AP) — Typhoon Mawar appears to be losing force as it heads toward Japan’s Okinawa Islands, after largely skirting Taiwan and the Philippines. Philippine meteorological authorities say Mawar’s strength has dropped, with sustained winds now of 96 mph and gusts of up to 118 mph. Mawar is expected to gradually pick up speed but steadily weaken and may be downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it is predicted to hit the area on Friday. The U.S. military, which has some 20,000 troops stationed on multiple facilities on Okinawa islands, says it will take preparatory action as the storm draws closer. Residents on Japan’s southern Sakishima islands were already preparing for the typhoon when a warning siren woke them up to alert them of a North Korean rocket launch.