SoutheasternOhioPreps.com

Al Qaida requires its recruits to sign an employment contract that covers such issues as vacation time (five days a month for bachelors)and salary (700 rupees extra for every wife),according to documents analyzed by terrorism experts.The contract,says Army analyst Lt.Col. Joe Felter,"has the same characteristics that you'd expect to see on jobs.com"

Time

The White House's new report on Hurricane Katrina includes a four-page appendix explaining the acronyms of the dozens of agencies and programs involved in disaster response.Among them: (National Interagency Fire Center),NISAC (National Infrastructure and Analysis Center), and NEEP (National Exercise and Evalution Program).

The Washington Post

whos noreplay

It might be Ralph Jamerson

Members of Congress convicted of crimes committed while in office remain eligible for government pensions.Among the convicted felons getting checks from taxpayers are former Reps. James Traficant ($40,000 annual pension);Dan Rostenkowski ($126,800); and most recently,Randy Duke Cunningham ($36,000.)

USA Today

The U.S. meat industry discards approximately $1 billion of edible meat annually because it is condidered too ugly to sell.

Chicago Tribune

Scientist use about 25 million mice a year in experiments. Scientists pay more for mice with defects--a mouse with arthritis cost $200;two pairs of epileptic mice can cost $2,000;and a mouse genetically modified to specifications can run $100,000.

Associated Press

San Francisco last week became the largest municipal government to call for the impeachment of President Bush.In recent months,the city's Board of Supervisors also condemned China's persecution of the Falun Gong and demanded that Fox News fire Bill O'Reilly.

San Jose Mercury News

Come on............more municipal governments

If current trends continue,nearly half the children in North and South American will be overweight by 2010.About one-third of them are overweight now.

Associated press

I certainly am not

Though Africa has the globe's highest poverty rate and shortest life expectancy,Africans are the most optimistic people in the world with 57% of those polled saying they expected this year to be better than last,"The only thing keeping people going," said Nigerian political scientist Kayode Fayemi, is hope."

The New York Times

Just imagine how better of a place the United States would be if everyone was a little more optimistic.

Chicago Tribune reporters uncovered the identities of 2,600 CIA employees--including many covert operatives-through a basic search of online data services.To the agency's embarrassment,the newspaper also easily found-but did not print--the locations of two dozen "secret" CIA facilities in the U.S.

Chicago Tribune

Only 5 percent of members of Congress are veterans, and only 7 percent have a child currently serving in the military

Newsday

More tham 30 books have already been written about Hillary Clinton,and at least a dozen more will hit the stores before the 2008 presidential campaign.Most are highly critical,with titles such as "Can She Be Stopped" "Hillary Clinton Will Be the Next President of the United States Unless" and "The Shadow Party" "How Hillary Clinton.George Soros,and the Sixties Took Over the Democratic Party"

The New York Observer

To monitor telephone calls and e-mails transmitted by undersea fiber-opyic cables,the National Security Agency sends submarines to the ocean floor to attach "bugs" directly to the cables

The Atlantic Monthly

The Pentagon is spending $3.3 billion this year on special efforts to detect and defuse the makeshift bombs, or improvised explosive devices,being used by insurgents in Iraq.The bombs kill an average of 40 Americans soldiers every month

Associated Press

Drug companies have outsourced about half of all clinical drug trials to India,China,and Brazil,where it's easier and cheaper to find people willing to take unprove drugs for a fee.

Wired

Out of 56 Naval Academy midshipmen accused of sexual assult since 1998,only two have been convicted.The rest were allowed to leave the Academy without facing criminal charges.

The Washington Post