Question: What, related etymologically to the Chinese Yuan and the Japanese Yen, is the currency of North and South Korea?
Answer: Won

Question: Former butler Paolo Gabriele was convicted in 2012 of stealing documents, and subsequently leaking secrets, of what major international leadership headquarters?
Answer: The Vatican

Question: A costermonger was/is a traditional street-seller of?
Answer: Fruit and vegetables

Question: The traditional 'proof' measure of beverage alcoholic strength derives from the maritime method of 'proving' that rum was not waterered down, by dousing what with the rum and igniting it?
Answer: Gunpowder

Question: What term meaning unnecessarily confusing language derives from an allusion to turkey noises?
Answer: Gobbledegook

Question: Who is (at 2012) the only person to have won a Nobel Prize for physics and chemistry?
Answer: Marie Curie

Question: Approximately what is the surface temperature of the Sun, in degrees centigrade?
Answer: 5,500

Question: Chinese corporation Huawei, controversially blacklisted in 2012 by the US Government Intelligence Committee, is (at 2012) the world's largest equipment manufacturer in which sector?
Answer: Telecoms

Question: In what US state was 'Custer's Last Stand'?
Answer: Montana

Question: The Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) pioneered and made his vast fortune in which industry in late 1800s USA?
Answer: Steel

Question: What is the English translation of the German news magazine title Der Spiegel?
Answer: The Mirror

Question: Surface, Fire and Nexus are brands/models of what modern (2010s) consumer product?
Answer: Tablet

Question: What puzzle, meaning 'single number' in Japanese, requires the completion of a grid so that each column, row and 3x3 box contain the numbers 1-9?
Answer: Sudoku

Question: In terms of Skyfall product placement what watch brand does James Bond wear?
Answer: Omega

Question: What is Africa's 2nd-largest country, abbreviated to DRC?
Answer: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Question: Totnes in Devon UK campaigned successfully in 2012 to repel what global beverage chain from establishing in its high street?
Answer: Costa Coffee

Question: Likud, meaning 'the consolidation', is the leading conservative political party (at 2012) of which country?
Answer: Israel

Question: What are the three most widely spoken Slavic languages (one point each)?
Answer: Russian, Polish, Ukranian

Question: What sort of musical instrument is a cabasa?
Answer: Percussion

Question: The 2,500th anniversary of whose birth was celebrated in China in 1949?
Answer: Confucius

Question: What creature is the 1940-50s TV puppet character Muffin?
Answer: Mule

Question: In what sport do Indian states and city teams compete for the Ranji Trophy?
Answer: Cricket

Question: The human brain represents roughly what percentage of the body's resting metabolic rate (energy expended)?
Answer: 20%

Question: What chemical elements occupy Atomic Numbers 1, 2 and 3 in the Periodic Table (1 point for each, and a bonus point for the correct order)?
Answer: Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium

Question: Lebanese-American professor/author Nassim Taleb coined the term '(What colour/color What creature?)' referring to an unpredictable random event that has a vast societal/political/economic impact?
Answer: Black Swan

Question: What word prefixes funding and sourcing in creating modern terms for extending ownership and responsibility to a 'user' community?
Answer: Crowd

Question: Via Appia is regarded as the first modern what?
Answer: Road

Question: What was ex-Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi's first criminal conviction (Oct 2012)?
Answer: Tax evasion

Question: What word derives from Latin for iron and refers to many different band-type fastenings, strengtheners, and tips?
Answer: Ferrule

Question: Who created the controversial 66ft statue Verity, loaned to UK seaside town Ilfracombe in 2012?
Answer: Damien Hirst

Question: Research published in 2012 by the University of Rio de Janeiro identified what capability as the fundamental enabler of increased brain size in human evolution?
Answer: Cooking

Question: The attempted assassination of 15 year old Malala Yousafzai by the Taliban, in response to her championing the right of girls to education, took place in what (her home) country?
Answer: Pakistan

Question: The astronomical term 'quasi-stellar radio source' is more commonly expressed as what abbreviated word?
Answer: Quasar

Question: A hang is what sort of musical instrument?
Answer: Percussion

Question: The Chalara Fraxinea fungal disease afflicts?
Answer: Trees

Question: Fujitsu's 2012 'Floral Kiss', controversially designed for women including 'long fingernails-friendly opening' and daily horoscopes, is what sort of product?
Answer: Laptop computer

Question: Clawhammer is a playing style most often associated with which instrument?
Answer: Banjo

Question: Accounting for c.30% of total global tax revenues, what form of tax did France introduce in 1954, W Germany 1968, UK 1973 and China 1984?
Answer: Vat

Question: What make of aircraft is considered the first jet to fly?
Answer: Heinkel

Question: Giacomo Casanova (1725-98) is reported to have used what fruit as a contraceptive?
Answer: Lemon

Question: Broadly when was the Industrial Revolution?
Answer: 1750-1850

Question: What famous French film production/newsreel brand, established in 1896, was the first major movie corporation?
Answer: Pathé

Question: 'The Continental Army' became what in 1784?
Answer: The United States Army

Question: What country has the internet top level domain (TLD) suffix .za?
Answer: South Africa

Question: Who is the famous husband of the also famous Chinese singer Peng Liyuan?
Answer: Xi Jinping

Question: What term refers to the (typically prehistoric) method of attaching a sharp stone or bone, etc., to a stick or strap to make a tool or weapon?
Answer: Hafting

Question: 'The Law of the Instrument' referring to having just one 'tool' (i.e., approach or method) and so treating every situation the same is known popularly as 'Maslow's (what)'?
Answer: Hammer

Question: The Christian Saint Christopher is most commonly depicted carrying what across a swollen river?
Answer: Jesus Christ

Question: The beat of what aptly titled 1970s disco hit is suggested by the British Heart Foundation (and others) as an ideal CPR rhythm?
Answer: Stayin' Alive

Question: Name the autonomous region of NE Spain which periodically is subject to strong independence lobbying?
Answer: Catalonia

Question: Name the mountain village in SE France predicted to survive/offer escape from the world's ending on 21 Dec 2012?
Answer: Bugarach

Question: DNA evidence supports the idea that what people were the original colonizers of North America?
Answer: Asians

Question: Earliest human use of fire for cooking has been dated at how many years ago?
Answer: One million

Question: What is the common name for the chemical process by which glue, varnish, filler, etc., hardens when polymer chains become linked following UV radiation, mixing, heat, etc?
Answer: Curing

Question: The word sapien in homo sapien refers to being?
Answer: Wise

Question: QR, Aztec, Cyber, and Data Matrix are types of what?
Answer: Barcodes

Question: Which one of these characters is (at 2012) represented by the three tallest statues in the world?
Answer: Buddha

Question: The word trek was first used in?
Answer: Africa

Question: What colour/color is a palamino horse?
Answer: Gold with a white main/tail

Question: In 1515 the Court of Aldermen of the City of London established what trade as top (based on economic/political power) of an enduring list of livery companies?
Answer: Mercers

Question: In astronomy, the Ptolemaic system asserts that Earth is?
Answer: Universally Central

Question: Litmus, used in acidity testing, is extracted from?
Answer: Lichen