Question: What animal name is given to the type of investment fund which buys large distressed debts especially of war/chaos-torn countries, aiming later to demand and sue for extortionate interest payments?
Answer: Vulture

Question: What small ex-Soviet nation between Turkey and Iran was World Team Chess Champion in 2011 and subsequently made the game compulsory in primary school education?
Answer: Armenia

Question: What is the common name for the round skullcap worn by Jewish males?
Answer: Kippa

Question: What sort of well is named after a former French province, where Carthusian monks first drilled them in the 12th century?
Answer: Artesian

Question: In Cable Street East London, 1936, thousands of ordinary people famously stopped a march by what uniformly nicknamed organization?
Answer: The Blackshirts

Question: Name the focus of the UK Leveson inquiry?
Answer: Press standards

Question: What is conventionally regarded to be the opposite of Utopia?
Answer: Dystopia

Question: Name the humanitarian and ex-special envoy to the Archbishop of Canterbury, held hostage in Lebanon from 1987-1991?
Answer: Terry Waite

Question: In medicine, the word styptic refers to something that stops what?
Answer: Bleeding

Question: In his seminally optimistic 1734 poem, An Essay on Man, Alexander Pope wrote the famous line, "Hope springs eternal in the (what)"?
Answer: Human breast

Question: A rising or resurgence of the hydrosphere is more commonly known as what?
Answer: Spring

Question: The term 'flotsam and jetsam' technically and originally refers to what?
Answer: Marine wreckage

Question: Gum Olibanum, from the tree Boswellia sacra?
Answer: Frankincense

Question: White marking on horse's lower leg?
Answer: Stocking

Question: ... may be willing, but flesh weak?
Answer: Spirit

Question: Powdered wool or cloth in certain wallpapers?
Answer: Flock

Question: Widely used title of high authority, in English was orginally 'hlafweard', meaning bread-keeper?
Answer: Lord

Question: Alternative name for the plant Sweet Cicely, from its Latin name?
Answer: Myrrh

Question: Dwarf heather vaccinium yielding acid fruit?
Answer: Cranberry

Question: A side in a contract or dispute?
Answer: Party

Question: Originally, in English, a student residence, preserved in Gray's and Lincoln's?
Answer: Inn

Question: Conducted mission of preaching and healing, with reported miracles, in Palestine, c.28-30AD?
Answer: Jesus Christ

Question: ...thought, an old term for a wishbone?
Answer: Merry

Question: ... Anise, used for aniseed flavouring typically in Asian cooking?
Answer: Star

Question: From Latin, 'a spark', showy?
Answer: Tinsel

Question: Originally Old English 'haligdaeg', meaning 'holy day'?
Answer: Holiday

Question: Beast of burden, Equus asinus?
Answer: Donkey

Question: Pre-digital video or TV screen 'noise' due to no/poor signal?
Answer: Snow

Question: Verb tense neither future nor past?
Answer: Present

Question: Milk/cream, sugar, beaten eggs, and liquor drink?
Answer: Eggnog

Question: Name given to Christ when prophesied by Isaiah?
Answer: Emmanuel

Question: Roger 'Race' Bannon, Hadji, and a dog called Bandit are leading characters in what 1960s TV cartoon, now media franchise?
Answer: Jonny Quest

Question: Mammoths became largely extinct on Earth roughly how many years ago?
Answer: 5,000-20,000

Question: The rivers Brahmaputra, Ganges, Meghna and Krishna flow into the Bay of (What)?
Answer: Bengal

Question: What soft gray alkaline earth metal is the fifth most abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust?
Answer: Calcium

Question: What feature in clothing such as trousers and skirts has variations called box, fluted, accordion, knife and honeycombe?
Answer: Pleats

Question: Wildfowl such as ducks, geese, swans, etc., have a nail on which part of the body?
Answer: Beak

Question: What medical/scientific term refers to an abnormal sac of liquid on a plant or animal, derived from Greek kustis, meaning bladder?
Answer: Cyst

Question: The 'God particle' is more technically called what, after two (English and Indian) physicists?
Answer: Higgs boson

Question: What Italian-originating word means vivacity or vigour/vigor, and is also an infant toy brand?
Answer: Brio

Question: In medicine and biological science, what is the opposite and usual alternative to 'in vitro'?
Answer: In vivo

Question: The 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran overthrew a?
Answer: Shah

Question: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938) was first president and is regarded as founder of which republic?
Answer: Turkey

Question: The Hindustani Indian instrument the dilruba, meaning 'robber of the heart', is used by a?
Answer: Musician

Question: Eiswein is wine made from grapes that have been what on the vine? Frozen; Sun-dried; Salted; or Pressed?
Answer: Frozen

Question: What is the singular term for one piece of data?
Answer: Datum

Question: Using conventional tunings, what is the lowest note a symphonic orchestra can produce by bowing a stringed instrument?
Answer: E

Question: Name the Ukrainian/Russian American engineer who was first to viably manufacture and sell helicopters?
Answer: Igor Sikorsky

Question: In physics, what is the opposite of Tension?
Answer: Compression

Question: Mythological Norse 'hall of the slain'?
Answer: Valhalla

Question: Biblical hairshirt worn with ashes?
Answer: Sackcloth

Question: Sound, hearing, and non-electric musical instruments from the Greeks?
Answer: Acoustic

Question: South Asia Muslim ruler's title, variously distorted?
Answer: Nawab

Question: Lord of the Flies is a devil?
Answer: Beelzebub

Question: Stephen King's rabid eponymous St Bernard?
Answer: Cujo

Question: Call of the Wild (novel and movie)?
Answer: Buck

Question: Hagrid's 'cowardly' boarhound, of Harry Potter fame?
Answer: Fang

Question: US Army WWI most decorated war dog, and highest ranking?
Answer: Sergeant Stubby

Question: HMV (His Master's Voice) early logo?
Answer: Nipper

Question: Milo's dog, The Phantom Tollbooth's 'watchdog'?
Answer: Tock

Question: Mrs Pumphrey's pekingese James Herriot's vet stories?
Answer: Tricki Woo

Question: Paul McCartney, and supposedly inspiration for a Beatles song/song title?
Answer: Martha

Question: Agatha Christie's novel Dumb Witness?
Answer: Bob

Question: Farmer Maggot's (three) guard dogs in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings?
Answer: Fang, Grip, Wolf

Question: Playboy Russia covergirl Maria Kozhevnikova, boxer Nikolai Valuyev, and tennis player Marat Safin shared what honour in December 2011?
Answer: Election to Russian Parliament

Question: What William S Burroughs 1961 book popularised the rock music term 'heavy metal', and provided the names for at least two rock bands of the 1970s?
Answer: The Soft Machine

Question: What main religion celebrates festivals including Nuakhai, Yatra (or Zatra/Jatra), Pongal, Holi and Shigmo?
Answer: Hindu

Question: Which country experienced the Velvet Revolution in Nov-Dec 1989?
Answer: Czechoslovakia

Question: According to the UK General Teaching Council how many of the 28,000 newly qualified teachers in 2010 had a computer-related degree?
Answer: 3

Question: What ancient Sanskrit word loosely meaning 'region' commonly now refers to people (and culture, products, etc) of Indian sub-continent origins?
Answer: Desi

Question: The Showa period of Japan coincided with what Emperor's reign?
Answer: Hirohito

Question: What fashionable Mediterranean resort hosted the G20 international economics conference at the height of the Greek Euro membership crisis?
Answer: Cannes

Question: Which politician (as at 2011) has the second-highest average for a No6 cricket test batsman (over 61 runs) and in a competition bowled faster than Dennis Lillee and Andy Roberts?
Answer: Imran Khan

Question: What element is also known as hydrargyrum?
Answer: Mercury