BRITNEY IS ENGAGED, REPRESENTATIVE CONFIRMS

Britney is engaged,representative confirms
NEW YORK -- Pop singer Britney Spears is engaged to her dancer boyfriend, a representative of Spears' record label confirmed Friday.
"I can confirm that yes, she is engaged," said Sonia Muckle of Jive Records. Spears, 22, and Kevin Federline, 26, have not yet set a date, Muckle said.
The two began dating a few months ago, after Spears' wedding to childhood friend Jason Alexander in Las Vegas in January. That marriage was annulled within days.
Federline appeared in the movie "You Got Served" and performed as a backup dancer for singer Justin Timberlake, Spears' former boyfriend.
He was previously involved with actress Shar Jackson, of TV's "Moesha." They have a 2-year-old daughter together and are expecting another baby in July.
Spears recently canceled her summer tour because of a knee injury she suffered during a video shoot. Her latest album, "In the Zone," was released in November and has sold more than 2.6 million copies.
Anchorman, cellistget honorary degrees
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- ABC News anchor Peter Jennings and cellist Yo-Yo Ma picked up honorary doctoral degrees Saturday at the American University of Beirut and paid tribute to the school as a place for cultural understanding. Jennings was a newsman in Beirut in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
"I'll go back to the United States and remind my colleagues that if we want better understanding we can go back and spend just a little time on this campus talking to all the people," he said.
The university, founded in 1866, has been a meeting point of ideas and people from the Middle East and West for more than a century.
Jennings, the Toronto-born son of a Canadian radio announcer, dropped out of high school before launching his career in journalism. He also served as ABC News bureau chief in Beirut for seven years.
Acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma spoke about how music transcends borders, then played a few minutes of Bach that he offered "to the amazing history and accomplishments of AUB."
Also honored at the ceremony were Sir Michael Atiyah, a British mathematician, and Vartan Gregorian, an Iranian-born educator and philanthropist who moved to Beirut at age 15 and studied at the Armenian College before later teaching at several U.S. universities.
Character's demisecame as a surprise
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Former "West Wing" actor John Amos says he was reading the newspaper and eating a breakfast burrito when he was told directors planned to kill off his character to "create a cliffhanger."
Amos, who played Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Percy Fitzwallace, said there was no ceremony to end his five-year stint on the popular TV show.
Instead a director approached him and said, "'Hey John, how's the burrito? Oh, hey, did I tell you we're killing Fitzwallace?' It was just like that," Amos said in Saturday's editions of The (Nashville) Tennessean.
Amos was in Nashville to promote his foundation, which promotes arts education in public schools.
Amos, who also starred in the 1970s sitcom "Good Times," says that since his "West Wing" character was killed in an overseas mission gone bad, people have approached him to ask how he's doing. "I have to reassure people that I'm all right and they're all right," he laughed.
Today's birthdays
Business executive Ross Perot is 74. The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Army Gen. John Shalikashvili, is 68. Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is 66. Singer-musician Bruce Johnston (The Beach Boys) is 62. Actress Julia Duffy is 53. Actress Isabelle Adjani is 49. Country singer Lorrie Morgan is 45. Actor Brian Drillinger is 44. Actor Yancey Arias is 33. Actor Tobey Maguire is 29. Gospel singer Leigh Nash is 28. Actress Madylin Sweeten is 13.
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