Airport honour for Hope

Burbank airport in Los Angeles may be renamed in memory of US comic legend Bob Hope.

The company in charge of using his name has agreed with officials to honour the entertainer, who died in July aged 100.

A group of councils that run the California airport still have to approve the name change.

Other famous US citizens immortalised at the nation's airports include actor John Wayne and presidents Ronald Reagan and John F Kennedy.

---

Sister Sledge back anti-gun drive

Members of US dance group Sister Sledge have visited the UK parliament as part of a campaign to combat rising gun crime.

Joni and Debbie Sledge added their voices to the Disarm Trust campaign at the Commons on the day a parliamentary report into gun crime was published.

Joni Sledge said the increase in gun crime in Britain was frightening. "I've seen things in Britain that are really disturbing," she said.

The quartet - famous for hits such as We Are Family and Lost In Music - are due to perform at a sell-out show in London on Wednesday evening.

---

Ritter sitcom back on air

A US sitcom which featured the late actor John Ritter has returned with a plot reflecting his absence and his character's death.

The ABC show, 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, was shown on Tuesday after being drastically rewritten.

Ritter, 54, had completed three episodes for the new season when he died of a heart ailment on 11 September. His last episode aired on 7 October.

During the episode it was revealed that his character Paul Hennessy, who had dashed out to buy milk, had died of a heart attack at the grocer's.

---

Sting and Streisand for charity CD

Sting, Eric Clapton and Barbra Streisand have donated songs to a compilation to raise funds for Save the Children.

The album begins with a duet by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli called Prayer.

Also featured are Sting's Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot, Streisand's I Believe/You'll Never Walk Alone and Carole King 's You've Got a Friend.

Clapton, Carly Simon and James Taylor contributed live recordings, while songs by Jewel, Barry Manilow, Paul Simon, Don Henley and Eva Cassidy round off the collection.

---

Baby boy for Letterman

Late-night talk-show host David Letterman has revealed he has become a father at the age of 56.

Letterman told his studio audience his long-time girlfriend, Regina Lasko, had given birth to a boy, Harry Joseph Letterman, just before midnight on Monday.

The Emmy-award winning host said his nine-pound, 11-ounce boy had been named after his own father, who died at the age of 57, adding: "God bless dad and God bless Harry."

And in a jokey reference to a notorious incident involving singer Michael Jackson, he said: "First thing I took him home and dangled him over the balcony."

---

Dixie Chick expecting twins

Dixie Chicks fiddle player Martie Maguire is pregnant with twins, according to an announcement she posted on the group's official web site.

"After two-and-a-half long (but very fun) years of trying to get pregnant, Gareth and I have finally succeeded," Maguire wrote. "Yes, we are delighted to inform y'all that I am expecting not one, but two little chicklets."

Both of the other members of the group have already had children - Emily Robison had a boy in 2002, and Natalie Maines had a boy in 2001.

The band appear to have bounced back from a barrage of condemnation after Maines criticised President Bush only days before the war in Iraq.