Your issue lies in the line: sed -e "s/$REGISTERED_IP/$CURRENT_IP/g" /etc/hosts > /etc/hosts.new
Take a look at the modification I made below, it should help.
if [ $CURRENT_IP != $REGISTERED_IP ] ; then
echo -n "IP address has changed: creating a new /etc/hosts file"
sed -i.old "s/$REGISTERED_IP/$CURRENT_IP/g" /etc/hosts
echo "."
else
echo "IP address hasn't changed: no update needed."
fi
Hope this helps.
~Tad