I can't say that this is 100% how it's meant to look, but here is the contents of my current .htaccess file:
DirectoryIndex index.php
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)//(.*)$
RewriteRule . %1/%2 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php?qa-rewrite=$0&%{QUERY_STRING} [L]