The Federal Government of Australia has given the Hill & Knowlton PR firm a $300,000 contract to to promote a controversial national nuclear waste dump planned near Woomera in South Australia.

Responding to reports of rising vegetarianism among teenagers, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association "responded to the looming vegetarian crisis by launching a website, Cool 2B Real, in an attempt to link meat consumption with some degree of hipness. The site, which looks like a cross between a Barbie fan page and a Taco Bell ad (beef-filled tacos and gigantic hamburgers dot the screen), extols teenage girls to 'Keep it Real' - 'real' as in a person who eats beef, preferably three or four times a day.

In his State of the Union address, President Bush asked Americans to imagine what would have happened if the Sept. 11 hijackers had been armed with poison gas or germs. "However, U.S. officials and private analysts said Bush's suggestion that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein might give such weapons to terrorists - and the implication that the risk of American retaliation can no longer deter him - stretches the analysis of U.S. intelligence agencies to, and perhaps beyond, the limit," reports Warren P. Strobel.