A. American, cynic, American newspaper columnist, satirist, and novelist. Most famous for his Devil's Dictionary - and vanishing mysteriously. Q. Biography A. Ambrose Gwinett Bierce was born
00:00 Mon 11th Feb 2002 A. Oh yes - and this one's going to be even bigger than the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge in Japan, which is the world's largest. Q. Where and what A. After decades of debate, the Italian government is
00:00 Mon 04th Feb 2002 A. There are 1,652 steps to the top of this magnificent Paris structure; 704 of them can be walked by visitors. I expect you'd like some more facts and figures Q. Rather! A. Very well. The
00:00 Mon 04th Feb 2002 A. Grace Horsley Darling was a Victorian heroine of the highest order. Born in 1815 at Bamburgh, daughter of lighthouse-keeper William Darling, she helped him rescue the survivors of the
00:00 Mon 04th Feb 2002 A. The International Red Cross - in the news again after demanding to see Al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners held in Cuba - started more than 135 years ago, inspired by Henry Dunant, a Swiss
00:00 Mon 28th Jan 2002 A. Yes. Stanley Unwin, a peculiarly English phenomenon, has died aged 90. During his 45-year career on radio, TV and film, he made talking nonsense into an art form. His skill was to turn everyday
00:00 Mon 28th Jan 2002 A. No. To translate, it's not goodbye to Sir Jimmy Young's radio programme - not for a while yet, any way. The veteran broadcaster will end his Radio 2 programme at the end of this year, after
00:00 Mon 21st Jan 2002 A. Yes - amusing, isn't it Monica Jones, mistress and muse of the late Philip Larkin, has left 1 million to St Paul's Cathedral, Durham Cathedral and Hexham Abbey. Larkin, on reading the Bible,
00:00 Mon 21st Jan 2002A. Men suspected of being members of the Taliban or Al-Qaeda are being flown to the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Q. A US base in Cuba I thought America and Cuba were deadly enemies A.
00:00 Mon 21st Jan 2002 A. Good question. The frontrunner to succeed the Most Rev George Carey, at the start of the race, is Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester. In fact, the bookmaker William Hill is giving odds of
00:00 Mon 14th Jan 2002 A. Colchester, Essex, is the country's oldest recorded town. Q. How so A. In 77AD, Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer, described the Isle of Anglesey as being 'about 200 miles from Camulodunum, a
00:00 Mon 14th Jan 2002 A. The answer to Birchy's question is simple: Pleasure, pure pleasure. It opened in 1889 and became even more famous in the early 1990s when it was featured in the opening title sequence of the TV
00:00 Mon 14th Jan 2002 A. Sorry. No. The picturesque station at Carnworth had hoped to run the Hogwarts Express from the Harry Potter film, but film-makers Warner Brothers are blocking the idea. Q. Why Carnworth A.
00:00 Mon 07th Jan 2002 A. Well, she can certainly afford it. Dame Shirley Porter, the former leader of Westminster Council, has been ordered to pay a surcharge of 27 million for the home-for-votes corruption scandal.
00:00 Mon 07th Jan 2002 A. One. Andrew Bonar Law, born near Rexton, New Brunswick, Canada. Q. Not a high-flier A. Popular enough, but virtually forgotten now. Q. Early life A. Andrew Bonar Law was born in 1858,
00:00 Mon 07th Jan 2002 A. Well, he high-tech boom is slowing down, so I suppose it's only right that the big cheese's salary shouldn't rocket. Q. How much, then A. Apple's sales fell 33% in its fiscal year ending in
00:00 Mon 31st Dec 2001 A. Yes. Most amusing. You are referring, of course, to the second woman - apart from the Queen - to be put on a banknote, First came Florence Nightingale (click here for a feature on her) on a
00:00 Mon 31st Dec 2001 A. Civil unrest has broken out after appalling financial problems. The South American country is batting against a four-year recession, 18.3% unemployment and a national debt of 100 billion. The
00:00 Mon 31st Dec 2001 A. The Tynwald, on the Isle of Man. It celebrated its millennium in 1979. The annual outdoor sittings of Tynwald - on St John's Day, 5 July - date to the Viking settlements that began in the 8th
00:00 Mon 24th Dec 2001 A. Yes. The Leaning Tower of Pisa has re-opened to the public after being closed for 11 years for a 20 million rescue operation to stop it from toppling over. The tower's seven bells rang as Paolo
00:00 Mon 24th Dec 2001