The News Quiz

1. It has been a good week for the following. Why?

a) John Glenn

b) John Prescott

c) John Thaw

d) Tom Cruise

2. Who of the following said: "When I am recognised in public, nine times out of 10 it's a black person who recognises me"?

a) Doreen Lawrence

b) Mark Morrison

c) Tom Jones

3. Which BBC2 programme was derided because it "insulted viewers' intelligence", and by whom?

4. Why must aggressive tacklers now watch their step on the football pitch?

5. What government proposal "will send a shiver down everybody's spine" according to Nick Hardwick, director of the Refugee Council?

6. It has been a bad week for the following. Why?

a) Tom Cruise

b) Railtrack

c) Samantha Fox

d) Beryl Bainbridge

7. Who of the following were accused of "blurring the distinction between military and civilian targets" and using 13 different methods of torture (see pictures, above)?

a) The IRA

b) The USA

c) The Serbian police

d) The ANC

8. What do Otze, the Ice Man whose 5,000-year-old corpse was discovered six years ago, Tony Benn and Paul McCartney have in common?

9. According to this week's World in Action, which professionals feel safer walking in the street than they do at work?

a) Nurses

b) Teachers

c) Rugby players

10. What do Sir Elton John, Stephen Fry and Robbie Williams have in common?

11. Jenny Pitman, champion horse trainer said: "It wasn't a battle, it was no contest, I was always going to win." With whom, or with what, was she battling?

12. An 11-year-old schoolchild from Scotland was found in possession of heroin. What was the name of the school?

13. Which renowned British institution is set to close today (see pictures, left)?

a) The Planetarium

b) Greenwich Observatory

c) The Science Museum

d) The British Library

14. Coventry City may get pounds 6.7m for the sale of which player to Newcastle United?

15. The headmaster of Cheadle Hulme School left his wife for a colleague. What was her job?

Answers

1. John Glenn, 77, and America's first astronaut, joined the space shuttle Discovery for his second space sojourn, some 26 years after the first flight; John Prescott's successful campaign to reduce CO2 emissions well below the agreed level of last year's Kyoto climate agreement enabled Britain to sell "carbon credits" worth pounds 1bn; John Thaw won "most popular actor" in the National Television Awards; Tom Cruise won a pounds 200,000 libel case against the Express on Sunday for allegations about his marriage to Nicole Kidman (he pledged the money to charity).

2. Tom Jones.

3. Delia Smith's How to Cook; Gary Rhodes.

4. Bradford City's Gordon Watson won an unprecedented negligence action in the High Court after a "devastating tackle" by Huddersfield Town's Kevin Gray left him with a double fracture. The award was novel as Mr Watson was able to return to the game.

5. Electronically tagging asylum-seekers.

6. Cruise was refused membership at his local Blockbuster video store because he could not officially identify himself; it was decided that Railtrack will be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter following the death of train driver Alan Griffiths three years ago; the former Page Three girl was arrested for drink-driving; for the fourth time, Ms Bainbridge failed to win the Booker Prize.

7. The ANC, following a report by Desmond Tutu's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

8. They are all vegetarians - Otze had his hair analysed and was revealed to be a herbivore.

9. Nurses.

10. They all performed at Prince Charles's 50th-birthday celebration

11. Cancer.

12. Craigton Primary School.

13. Greenwich Observatory.

14. Dion Dublin.

15. She is director of pastoral systems, and as such is responsible for the moral guidance of the school's pupils.