The News Quiz

1) This week has seen a variety of compensation settlements. Who, of the following, won the most, and who the least, and what were the amounts involved?

a) The anonymous hospital worker who developed a phobia of needles

b) Denis Murphy, who accepted an out-of court settlement from a hotel he alleged allowed him to drink-drive

c) Sam Mansell, an 11-year-old child left permanently brain-damaged after an obstetrician failed to manage his birth properly

d) Sam Yeboah, an employee of Hackney Council, in London, whose claims that he suffered racial discrimination were upheld by a tribunal

2) It's been a good week for all four of the following (see top row of pictures, above right). Why?

a) David Trimble

b) Richard Holbrook

c) British Airways customers

d) Brandy the dog

3) It's been a bad week for the following. Why?

a) The Willis family

b) Christopher Columbus

c) The emergency services of Los Angeles

d) Patch the dog

4) Which of these handbags (see bottom row of pictures, above) has been in the news, and why?

5) Which of the following supermarket chains is the odd one out? What has it got to do with Lord Neill?

a) Safeway

b) Somerfield

c) Tesco

d) Sainsbury

6) The work of which young fashion designer was Sir Paul McCartney praising when he said: "She really worked hard. She knows how to make really great clothes for great women"?

7) Which of the following groups is being targeted to reduce levels of crime, drug addiction and animal cruelty?

a) The unemployed

b) Ethnic minorities

c) Convicted criminals

d) The police force

8) Which of the following received a hero's welcome when England played Bulgaria at Wembley last Saturday?

a) Glenn Hoddle

b) Michael Owen

c) David Beckham

d) Alan Shearer

9) Who of the following said: "I have to be the best at everything. If my pals had 20 drinks, I had to have 21, and it became a competition"?

a) Paul Gascoigne

b) George Best

c) Paul Merson

d) Boris Yeltsin

10) How did Scrabble and Monopoly break out of the games cupboard?

Answers

1. Sam Mansell: pounds 3.3m; hospital worker: pounds 500,000; Sam Yeboah: pounds 380,000; Dennis Murphy: pounds 150,000.

2 a) Trimble was jointly awarded the Nobel peace prize (with John Hulme) for their part in the Northern Ireland peace process; b) The US envoy secured an 11th-hour deal to prevent Nato air strikes in Serbia; c) Go, BA's low-cost airline, cut its standard fares by up to 50 per cent to selected destinations in Europe; d) He spent a month trapped on a ledge, after falling 200ft down a cliff - but this week was spotted and saved by an RSPCA officer.

3 a) Their three-storey, pounds 750,000, Notting Hill home collapsed during work to counter subsidence; b) The Mayan tribe convicted Columbus of genocide; c) 2,000 gallons of water drenched their emergency telephone exchange when a sprinkler system was set off by a small fire; d) The collie-cross spent 36 hours trapped in a pocket of air in his owners' capsized cruiser in the Trent.

4 Talks are under way to decide if Lady Thatcher's handbag (far right) should be preserved in her personal archive.

5 Somerfield: the only one not on the list of bodies that sponsored Labour by more than pounds 5,000 in 1997. Lord Neill's Committee of Standards in Public Life has recommended that its pounds 20,000 sponsorship of this year's party conference will now have to be declared a donation.

6 Stella McCartney, his daughter.

7 The police: David Wilmot, Manchester chief constable, talked of "institutionalised racism"; officers are to undergo compulsory drug testing; a police dog died after its handler was allegedly told to kick it in training.

8 David Beckham

9 George Best

10 To celebrate Scrabble's 50th birthday, Wembley Stadium hosted the world's largest game (the Royal Navy beat the Army); the American makers of Monopoly challenged British property dealers to play for the title of "Britain's Top Tycoon" - with real money.