Q 01/05

Which country became independent on 9 August 1965 when Malaysia's parliament voted unanimously to expel it?

A) Singapore

B) Brunei

C) Sri Lanka

D) Bangladesh

Answer · why

A) Singapore

Singapore was voted out of Malaysia 126 to 0, making it one of the few states to gain independence against its own wishes. Lee Kuan Yew became its fir...

Q 02/05

Which neutral country, the first state ever to join the United Nations by referendum, became a full member only in 2002?

A) Norway

B) Switzerland

C) Ireland

D) Liechtenstein

Answer · why

B) Switzerland

Switzerland joined the Council of Europe in 1964 but waited until 2002 to become a full UN member, despite hosting the organisation's European headqua...

Q 03/05

Under a 1903 lease, the US pays which country about $4,000 a year for Guantánamo Bay, in cheques it refuses to cash?

A) Panama

B) Mexico

C) Cuba

D) Haiti

Answer · why

C) Cuba

Cuba has accepted only one payment since the 1959 revolution, and Fidel Castro said even that cheque was deposited by mistake. The rent was fixed at $...

Q 04/05

Which country lost its whole coast to Chile in the War of the Pacific yet still maintains a 5,000-strong navy?

A) Peru

B) Paraguay

C) Ecuador

D) Bolivia

Answer · why

D) Bolivia

Bolivia has been landlocked since the war and the 1904 peace treaty, but it patrols Lake Titicaca and thousands of miles of rivers to keep a maritime ...

Q 05/05

Which country dismantled all six of its own nuclear bombs in the early 1990s, then signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty?

A) South Africa

B) Ukraine

C) Brazil

D) Argentina

Answer · why

A) South Africa

South Africa scrapped its arsenal, with a seventh bomb still under construction, before the handover to a majority-elected government. It acceded to t...