Culturite

A year after vowing never to perform on the MTV Video Music Awards again, hip-hop star Kanye West will close the show’s 25th annual ceremony in Hollywood on Sunday, joining a lineup that includes Christina Aguilera and the Jonas Brothers, organizers said.

The outspoken rapper was upset by his treatment at last year’s show, when his performance was relegated to a small stage in the Las Vegas venue.

West also failed to win any prizes, and accused the music cable network of exploiting Britney Spears, who inadvertently stole the show by badly lip-synching and dancing to her new tune.

The faded pop star will again open the show this year, but she will not perform.

“She will be … doing something so mind-bending, it’ll probably make you want to start families with each other in a random, possibly Mormon, way,” the show’s host, English comedian Russell Brand, joked during a press preview at the Paramount Pictures lot where the ceremony will be held.

sarahrich: oooohhh…palin.. dear palin. you are not fit to lead this country. nope. lipstick or no.

joekowalke: Palin: “What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.” Yep, if McCain gets elected and dies. She’d be our president.half a minute ago · Reply · View Tweet

NMinFocus: Palin: “I guess being Mayor is sort of like being a community organzier, except that you have actual duties” half a minute ago · Reply · View Tweet

Tropical Storm Ike strengthened to a Category One hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, the US National Hurricane Center said.

Ike, the fifth hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic season, is still far from any of the islands east of the Caribbean like the Bahamas, according to information released by the Miami-based Hurricane Center.

“It is too early to determine what if any land areas might eventually be affected by Ike,” the Hurricane Center said.

At 5 pm (2100 GMT) the center of Ike was about 1,080 kilometers (670 miles) northeast of the Leeward Islands and was moving in a west-northwest direction near 30 kilometers (18 miles) an hour.

The movement will be “taking Ike over the open waters of the west-central Atlantic during the next couple of days,” the Hurricane Center said.

The storm has maximum sustained winds of 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour, “with higher gusts,” making it a Category One hurricane, the weakest on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.