Question: What French term refers in English (contracts especially) to an unforeseeable factor preventing the fulfilment of an agreement?
Answer: Force Majeure

Question: Crazy, derived from a bovine/equine disease?
Answer: Loco- Spanish

Question: Forbidden, unmentionable - from Tongan?
Answer: Taboo

Question: Mountain guide, and 1975 British Leyland van brand, later the Leyland Daf Pilot - from Tibetan?
Answer: Sherpa

Question: Seasonal South Asia wind and accompanying rainfall - from Dutch?
Answer: Monsoon

Question: Clumsy awkward person, whose earlier root gave us also 'clot' in English - from Yiddish?
Answer: Klutz

Question: Variety (of choices) - from Swedish?
Answer: Smorgasbord

Question: Ghost or spirit, typically unseen and moving things - from German?
Answer: Poltergeist

Question: Isolation, quarantine, or secrecy - from Persian/Urdu?
Answer: Purdah

Question: Beer brewed for storing/keeping - from German?
Answer: Lager

Question: Long story - from Old Norse?
Answer: Saga

Question: Joy in the misfortune of others - from German?
Answer: Schadenfreude

Question: Courage - from a rude Spanish metaphor?
Answer: Cojones

Question: Hot steam bath - from Finnish?
Answer: Sauna

Question: Happiness or blissful death through elightenment (literally 'blowing out') - from Sanskrit?
Answer: Nirvana

Question: Soft leather heelless shoe whose sole is upturned to form sides - from Virginian Algonquian?
Answer: Moccasin

Question: What capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh became famous for the 1984 gas poisoning disaster at Dow Chemicals' Union Carbide plant?
Answer: Bhopal

Question: What, according to Forbes magazine in 2011 "...achieved in 7 years what the CIA could not in 60, i.e., knowing what 800million people think, read and listen to..." ?
Answer: Facebook

Question: Who wrote The Stepford Wives, Rosemary's Baby, and The Boys from Brazil?
Answer: Ira Levin

Question: Name the controversial guest character, subject to European extradition proceedings, appearing in the 500th edition of The Simpsons TV animation series?
Answer: Julian Assange

Question: Cymraeg refers to what nation's language, in its own language?
Answer: Wales/Welsh

Question: The European/Asian slow worm (Anguis) is what sort of animal?
Answer: Lizard

Question: Name the UK government minister in the news in 2012 for his initiatives for schools bible distribution and a new royal yacht?
Answer: Michael Gove

Question: The Venetian island of Murano is noted for its centuries-old traditional manufacture of what material in decorative form?
Answer: Glass

Question: 'Guerilla' street art attributed to 'Banski' became a notable feature of what capital city in 2012?
Answer: Moscow

Question: The fashionable Belstaff clothing label was founded in Staffordshire UK in 1924 initially to produce protective waterprooof clothing for?
Answer: Motorcyclists

Question: 'Data Pool 3' refers to millions of documents provided to police investigators by what organization?
Answer: News Corporation

Question: What mixed drink takes its name from the Spanish for 'bleeding'?
Answer: Sangria

Question: The printing/publishing term 'vox nihili' referring to a useles or redundant word, especially from an error, literally means what?
Answer: Voice of nothing

Question: 'Liquor amnii' is normally found in?
Answer: Pregnant women

Question: What colour/color is the second 'O' in the standard original Google logo?
Answer: Yellow

Question: The fuel injection system replaced what traditional device for blending air and fuel in car combustion engines?
Answer: Carburettor

Question: A Pelton wheel converts what power into usable energy?
Answer: Water

Question: A phot is a unit of measurement of?
Answer: Light brightness

Question: What factual UK radio show at 2012 is the world's longest running and has featured guests' choices including a blow-up doll, suicide pill, and (misheard), 'a penis'?
Answer: Desert Island Discs

Question: As at 2012 what 115-island Indian Ocean nation has the smallest population (about 86,000) of any African country?
Answer: Seychelles

Question: Which country has the international telephone dialling code 27?
Answer: South Africa

Question: What length is the shortest side of a right-angled triangle whose longest sides are 4cm and 5cm?
Answer: 3cm

Question: A framework beam - a fink - that supports a wide-spanning roof is also known as a '(what nationality) truss'?
Answer: French

Question: Which corporation suffered embarrassment after sponsoring and naming the weather system which caused multiple fatalities across Eastern Europe in Feb 2012?
Answer: Bmw

Question: Named after Hantan River, South Korea, hantaviruses typically infect humans through transfer from bites, waste, etc., of?
Answer: Rodents

Question: As at 2012 what country is the world's largest democracy?
Answer: India

Question: In 2012 Josefina Vazquez Mota became a presidential candidate for the ruling National Action Party (PAN) in which country?
Answer: Mexico

Question: Name the Australian mining tycoon who after acquiring substantial newspaper shareholdings in 2012 emerged from obscurity as one of the world's richest women?
Answer: Gina Rinehart

Question: Emil Boc resigned as prime minister of which European country in Feb 2012?
Answer: Romania

Question: What is the colour/color sequence of the four letters in the Ebay logo, reading left to right?
Answer: Red Blue Yellow Green

Question: Lisa del Giocondo is better known as what famous characterization?
Answer: Mona Lisa

Question: In the human body the hypophysis is better known as what gland?
Answer: Pituitary gland

Question: The Bedouin people are so named because they originated in?
Answer: Desert

Question: What English word from French meaning literally 'cold blood' refers to (a person's) composure under pressure?
Answer: Sangfroid

Question: The deeply inaccessible lakes Vostok, Whillans, and Ellsworth are in the?
Answer: South Pole

Question: UK road signs for tourist destinations and places of interest are normally a white icon on what colour background?
Answer: Brown

Question: The 1805 Battle of Austerlitz was a major victory for which commander?
Answer: Napoleon

Question: What 'white-tail' species grew in such numbers in US Washington DC parklands as to prompt radical control measures in 2012?
Answer: Deer

Question: What nationality (at 2012, and at founding) are the corporations Samsung, Hyundai and LG?
Answer: South Korean

Question: What film won five Oscars in 2012 including Best Actor, Original Score and Costume Design?
Answer: The Artist

Question: In Feb 2012 British cruise ships Adonia and Star Princess were refused entry to Ushuaia port in the southern tip of which country?
Answer: Argentina

Question: Moody's, Fitch, and Standard and Poor's are leaders in what market?
Answer: Credit ratings

Question: What 'discriminatory' personal title did the French government decree in Feb 2012 should be removed from official forms?
Answer: Mademoiselle

Question: Brent Crude is the common trading classification for oil sourced from the bed of what sea?
Answer: North Sea

Question: In what country was the sports goods company Fila first established (1911) and owned?
Answer: Italy

Question: What airport carries the most international passengers in the world (at 2012)?
Answer: Heathrow

Question: The translation 'long chair' refers to what traditionally French named item of furniture?
Answer: Chaise Longue

Question: King Rama and Queen Sirikit rule which country (at 2012), bordered by Burma, Laos, and Cambodia?
Answer: Thailand

Question: Moishe Shagall, born 1887 in what is now Belarus, became famous under what other name?
Answer: Marc Chagall

Question: From Greek meaning within, what sort of gland secretes hormones, etc., directly into the blood?
Answer: Endocrine

Question: What weekday is traditionally called 'Super...' in the election of US presidential candidates?
Answer: Tuesday