5 January 2012 Last updated at 20:06 ET

Quiz of the week's news

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It's the Magazine's 7 days, 7 questions quiz - an opportunity to prove to yourself and others that you are a news oracle. Failing that, you can always claim to have had better things to do during the past week than swot up on current affairs.

1.) Multiple Choice Question

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch joined Twitter and immediately began following four other tweeters, including which Briton?

1. Lord Sugar
   
2. Piers Morgan
   
3. Louise Mensch
   

2.) Multiple Choice Question

The prime minister of which country agreed to take a 36% pay cut this week to calm public anger about his high salary?

1. Canada
   
2. Singapore
   
3. Italy
   

3.) Multiple Choice Question

A new crab species has been discovered and nicknamed "The Hoff", after Baywatch actor David Hasselhoff. Why?

1. Red midriff
   
2. Found near LA
   
3. Hairy chest
   

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See the resemblance?

4.) Missing Word Question

Loch Ness is giant ' * '

1. spirit level
   
2. puddle
   
3. tourist trap
   

5.) Multiple Choice Question

Diet guru Pierre Dukan has been criticised in France for proposals to encourage youngsters to lose weight. Which one of the following was among them?

1. Compulsory 1km run daily
   
2. Chocolate banned in school
   
3. Extra exam marks for thinner pupils
   

6.) Multiple Choice Question

"A complete mystery." What does quantum physicist Stephen Hawking say still baffles him?

1. Religion
   
2. String theory
   
3. Women
   

7.) Multiple Choice Question

Speaking of Stephen Hawking, on Sunday he shares a birthday with the musician, David Bowie. What is the age gap?

1. They're the same age
   
2. Hawking five years younger
   
3. Hawking five years older
   
4. Hawking 10 years older
   

Answers

1. It's Lord Sugar, although he appears to have unfollowed him days later. Another of Murdoch's first follows was Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
2. It's Singapore. Lee Hsien Loong reduced his salary and those of his ministers, as advised by a government-appointed committee. But he will still earn 2.2m Singapore dollars (£1.1m).
3. It's the hairy chest. They are a type of yeti crab and will be given a formal scientific name in due course.
4. It's spirit level. Scientists have discovered that the surface of the lake rises and falls by 1.5mm, as the whole of Scotland bends with the passing of the tides.
5. It's extra exam marks. In a new book, Dukan proposes higher marks in the Baccalaureat, taken at age 17, for those who maintain an acceptable Body Mass Index (BMI).
6. It's women. In an interview with New Scientist magazine, the former Cambridge University professor was asked what he thinks about most. "Women. They are a complete mystery," he replied.
7. Stephen Hawking is five years older. Born on 8 January 1942, he is turning 70 while Bowie will be 65. They share a birthday with Elvis Presley (1935) and North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong-un, who was born in either 1983 or 1984.

Your Score

0 - 2 : Absolute Beginners

3 - 5 : Under Pressure

6 - 7 : Starman

The world news quiz is published every week on a Friday.

A list of previous quizzes can be found on the International Magazine homepage (scroll down).