Tropical storm Bertha forms off the eastern Barbados coast: NHC

(Reuters) - Tropical Storm Bertha, the second named storm of the 2014 Atlantic Hurricane Season, has formed east of the southern Lesser Antilles, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Thursday. The storm was located about 275 miles (445 km) east-southeast of Barbados, and about 385 miles (620 km) east-southeast of St. Lucia, with maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour (75 kph), the Miami-based weather forecasters said. The storm is moving toward the west-northwest at near 20 miles per hour (31 kph). (Reporting by Anupam Chatterjee in Bangalore; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)