Rebekah Brooks has been married twice. She was born Rebekah Wade in 1968, and married Ross Kemp, the actor who played Grant Mitchell in Eastenders, in Las Vegas in 2002. They divorced in 2009 but had separated earlier; there seemed to be problems in the... (read more)

The earliest use of music for astronauts was in 1965, when those on the Gemini VI mission were woken up by the song 'Hello Dolly' in the mornings, sent from the Nasa base. The tradition of wake up music still continues; in fact lately the public have... (read more)

I don't know if you mean the strange new fashion in China, where some students are taking photos of themselves pretending to jump of bridges or similar. They... (read more)

The London Olympic Games will start on 27 July 2012. The ceremony starts when the Queen is met at the entrance to the Olympic stadium by the President of the International... (read more)

Maurice Sendak was a very famous children's writer and illustrator. He produced almost 100 books, but he will probably be best remembered as the... (read more)

Padel tennis was invented by Enrique Corcuera in Mexico in 1974 (or 1969 according... (read more)

If this was happening, it would be done by installing a program called a keylogger.This can certainly be done and is very hard to detect - it's not actually illegal to use... (read more)

Alan Turing was found dead on 8 June 1954, having apparently died the day before. By his bed there was an apple, partly eaten, which contained... (read more)

There are several business bank accounts you can open for free, though some of them have restrictions. For example, you can get free business banking at Barclays for up to two years. Most of the other high street banks offer between 6 and 18 months -... (read more)

Vidal Sassoon, who has died aged 84, was perhaps the world's most famous hairdresser and hair stylist. (read more)

This comes from an older expression 'fourteen nights', which gradually got worn down to 'fortnight'. Until about the end of the 18th century there was a similar expression 'a sennight'. This came from the phrase 'seven nights' or in other words a week.... (read more)

Alan Turing is mainly remembered for inventing the Turing Machine. With this device, symbols are moved around on a strip of tape according to specific rules. It had an infinite memory capacity,... (read more)

According to a report commissioned by insurance providers, so far the safest US city in 2012 is Mesa, Arizona. There have been other similar reports... (read more)

Rafael Nadal was a favourite to win last year, having two Wimbledon titles already, but last year he was beaten by Novak Djokovic. At the moment the odds are quite close between the two, though Nadal is still the favourite at 2 to 1 (Djokovic is at 3... (read more)

Most of the checks you do for a £50 note are the same as for others, though people are more likely to check these out of fears that they could be forged. With any note, the paper is a bit different from ordinary paper and difficult to fake. It's a bit... (read more)

The largest economy, not only in the European Union but in the whole of Europe, is Germany. It is the fourth largest economy in the world (or the fifth if measured on PPP... (read more)

Myanmar, or Burma, is a safe country in so far as it has a low crime rate, and you should not expect big problems such as attacks on visitors. There has been unrest in the past and, as the same dictatorship is still in power, this could happen again,... (read more)

Skin cancer is usually divided into melanoma and non... (read more)

Yes, the Republic of Malta is certainly a country, though a very small one (about 120 square miles). It is quite near southern Italy, about 50 miles away from Sicily, and is about 175 miles away from Tunisia in North Africa. It has been an independent... (read more)

Menorca, or Minorca, is sometimes called the Jewel of the Balearics. It is thought to be one of the loveliest of these Mediterranean islands, and is small enough to be quite fully explored by car during a holiday. (read more)