Tipsville . . .

Sneed hears rumbles interim Cook County Board President BobbieSteele, who appointed state Sen. Rickey Hendon as co-chairman of herpresidential transition committee, may have a special county job forHendon before she leaves office.

- The upshot: Word is the job is much sweeter than Hendon'scurrent gig with the County Board of Review.

- The downshot: Sneed hears there might be a little problemstanding in the way of Hendon's promotion. Stay tuned.

OSAMARAMA . . .

International terrorist Osama bin Laden reportedly was onceobsessed with singer/actress Whitney Houston. Yes, Whitney Houston.

- To wit: Sudanese writer Kola Boof, 37, who claims to be a formersex slave of bin Laden's, said all that and more in an excerpt of herautobiography, Diary of a Lost Girl, published in the September issueof Harper's. Boof claims Osama called Whitney "the most beautifulwoman he had ever seen" and wanted to give her a mansion he owned inKhartoum in exchange for becoming one of his wives.

- To boot: Boof also claims the al-Qaida leader could be a "devoutparty boy" who smoked marijuana and listened to Van Halen as well asthe B-52's song "Rock Lobster."

- The kicker: It should come as no surprise Boof used to write forthe soap opera "Days of Our Lives."

THE JONBENET CASE . . .

Whew! Thank goodness my appetite was not spoiled . . . afterlearning JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Mark Karr was servedbologna in a Los Angeles jail after his champagne flight fromThailand.

- The big question: Is Karr's story full of bologna? Or is theremeat to his confession? In e-mails he sent to assorted people, Karrhas reportedly given a detailed account of how he allegedly enteredthe Ramsey home in 1996 and kidnapped the 6-year-old beauty queen. Orperhaps Karr got those details from the real killer?

- The big query: If Karr is a pedophile who likes little girls,why would he want a sex-change operation? Does he want to be alesbian who likes little girls? What's this all about?

MANDELA MEMO . . .

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's efforts to combat the scourge of AIDS onhis current trip to Africa reminds Sneed of former Gov. George Ryan's2000 trip to the continent, which included a private chat with NelsonMandela.

- Flashback: The press was not permitted to enter the Mandelacompound during Ryan's visit, but Sneed obtained an exclusiveinterview with Ryan, who emerged from the meeting in tears. Ryan toldSneed how moved he was to be in the presence of Mandela, and thatthey discussed the burgeoning AIDS epidemic.

Ryan claims Mandela told him the biggest roadblock to fighting thedisease in Africa was his countrymen's unwillingness to discussanything sexual. It was simply taboo. (Many Africans reportedly stillpoint to wooden dolls to describe to doctors where they hurt.) And wewere told a batch of condoms that were passed out to the populace hadbeen rendered useless by a staple attached to a flier explainingtheir use.

- Fast forward: Like Obama, Ryan and the accompanying pressvisited Robben Island, where Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years.Obama must have more cachet, though: Ryan wasn't permitted insideMandela's cell. There were no photo-ops of Ryan gazing throughMandela's jail cell window . . . a la the Obama pics on the frontpage of Monday's Sun-Times.

SNEEDLINGS . . .

Today's birthdays: Shelley Long, 57; Jay Mohr, 36; Barbara Eden,72, and Rick Springfield, 57.

e-mail: sneed@suntimes.com