AP answers your news questions, from NFL playoff pay to prosecution of the Mumbai attackers

Ask AP: NFL bonus pay, Mumbai terror prosecutions

Beyond the fame and glory that come to NFL players who star in the postseason or win the Super Bowl, what’s it mean to their wallets?

Curiosity about bonus pay for playoff victories inspired one of the questions in this edition of “Ask AP,” a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers’ questions about the news.

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The recent revelation of the online publication of TSA screening protocols referred to identification cards for members of Congress. This implies that members of Congress are exempt from the typical airline screening procedures that average citizens are subjected to.

Has Congress contrived yet another way to insulate itself from the travel hassles inflicted on the rest of us?

KJ Hoffman

Basking Ridge, N.J.

Members of Congress are not exempt from airport passenger screening, Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Kristin Lee says. But senators and House members can use their official ID cards in lieu of a driver’s license or passport at screening checkpoints, she says.

The TSA screeners’ manual includes examples not only of congressional IDs but also of other not-often-seen federal IDs that are valid substitutes for driver’s licenses or passports at screening checkpoints. They include those for CIA agents, federal air marshals and federal Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco agents.

Eileen Sullivan

AP Homeland Security Writer

Washington

How much extra pay do players whose teams advance in the NFL playoffs earn?

Tom Jeffs

Edison, N.J.

Here’s how the playoff pay breaks down:

— Wild-card round — Division winner: $21,000 ($20,000 in 2008); other: $19,000 ($18,000 in 2008)

— Divisional playoffs — Winners and losers get $21,000 ($20,000 in 2008)

— Conference Championships — Winners and losers get $38,000 ($37,500 in 2008)

— Super Bowl — Winners: $83,000 ($78,000 in 2008); losers: $42,000 ($40,000 in 2008)

— Pro Bowl — Winners: $45,000 (same as 2008); losers: $22,500 (same as 2008).

To sum up: A player on a division winner participating in the wild-card round and winning the Super Bowl would receive a total of $163,000. A player on a wild-card team that wins the Super Bowl would get a total of $161,000. (Division winners with byes make no money in the first round.)

Many players, too, have contracts that reward them with extra money for postseason wins and other accomplishments.

Barry Wilner

AP Football Writer

It’s been about a year since the terror attacks in Mumbai, India. I was wondering whether the alleged perpetrators of the attacks in Pakistan have been caught and convicted yet. And have the targeted hotels reopened?

Daniel Lippman

Washington

Nine of the 10 attackers were killed in the siege. Indian police arrested one, who is currently on trial in Mumbai.

Pakistan has put seven alleged militants on trial, charged with either training the assailants or helping organize and fund the attacks. At least two of the men have been named by India as the masterminds. The closed-door trial began in November and is expected to last several months.

(In India on Friday, the accused gunman retracted his confession, saying police tortured him into admitting his role in the attacks that left 166 people dead. On the day the attacks started, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab now claims, police took him from his cell because he resembled one of the gunmen, shot him to make it look like he had been involved in the violence and re-arrested him.)

The hotels are resuming operations.

The 268-room Tower wing of the Taj Mahal hotel reopened last December, but management says the 287-room Palace wing won’t be completely ready until the end of April. The dome that caught fire was in the Palace wing, which was also where the fiercest gunbattles took place. In the Heritage wing, conference rooms and four restaurants have reopened.

The 550-room Trident hotel reopened completely last December. The Trident’s sister hotel, the 337-room Oberoi — the two are connected by a bridge — is still shut and work is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2010.

Erika Kinetz in Mumbai, India

and Chris Brummitt in Islamabad

AP Writers

Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.