1. Who became the first bowler in history of cricket to claim a hat-trick on his debut in one-day cricket?
Taijul Islam. (Bangladesh).
He achieved this feat during the ODI match against Zimbabwe.
The 22-year-old left-armer bowled Tinashe Panyangara off the last ball of the 27th over and then trapped John Nyumbu leg-before and bowled Tendai Chatara off successive deliveries at the start of his next over to take a split hat-trick.
2. Former chief Minister of Maharashtra and veteran Congressman, passed away on December 2, 2014?
A.R.Antulay.
He was the former union minister for Minority Affairs and a Member of Parliament in the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He was forced to resign from Chief Minister post after being convicted by the Bombay High Court on charges that he had extorted money for a trust fund he managed. Mr. Antulay was the first and only Muslim Chief Minister of Maharashtra during the years 1980 to 1982.
3. Who won the Player of the series Award in the 5 ODI cricket matches played between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh held in Bangladesh in 2014?
Mushfiqur Rahim (Bangladesh)
Series - Bangladesh won the 5-match series 5-0.
4. Who has been appointed as the new Director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on December 2, 2014?
Anil Kumar Sinha.
He is a Bihar Cadre Indian Police Service officer of the 1979 batch. He has been appointed for two years. He has earlier served as DIG and IG in Special Protection Group, New Delhi, and Additional Secretary in Central Vigilance Commission.
5. Who scored a record 23rd hat-trick in La Liga and his 200th goal in the Spanish top flight as Real Madrid equalled the Spanish record of 18 consecutive wins in all competition?
Cristiano Ronaldo.
6. Who scored the 100th goal of the Indian Super League?
Romeo Fernandes.
He scored that goal against North East United FC .He plays for FC Goa in ISL.
7. About 16,500 people were evacuated from the German city of Dortmund while experts deactivated a 1.8-tonne bomb from World War II that was found during construction work. What is the name of that bomb?
The HC 4000 bomb.
The HC 4000 bomb, which was found on November 26, was three metres long, 80 centimetres wide and packed with 1.5-tonnes of explosives.
8. Veteran Hindi film and television actor who graced Bollywood for four decades with endearing roles in classic domestic comedies, passed away on December 2, 2014?
Deven Verma.
He has also produced and directed some films including Besharam. He has won Filmfare Best Comedian Award for “Chori Mera Kaam”, “Chor Ke Ghar Chor “and “Angoor”.
9. Which two wheeler company has signed American golf legend Tiger Woods as its brand ambassador in a four-year deal for Rs 250 crore?
The Hero MotoCorp.
10. Name the rocket carrying asteroid probe which was successfully launched by Japan on December 3, 2014?
Hayabusa 2.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully launched the rocket carrying asteroid probe Hayabusa 2 from the Tanegashima Space Center in south-western Japan. Hayabusa 2 will travel 300 million kilometres to the 1999 JU3 asteroid. It is expected to arrive at the asteroid in 2018 and return with samples in late 2020.
Hayabusa was an unmanned spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis.
11. Sri Lanka batsman who became the fourth batsman to complete 13000 One-Day Internationals (ODI) runs.
Kumar Sangakkara.
12. Legal luminary and former judge of the Supreme Court who was known for his passionate commitment to human rights, passed away on December 4, 2014?
Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer.
Iyer was the law minister in India’s first Communist government in Kerala. He was appointed a Supreme Court judge in 1973 and served for a period of a little over seven years, during which he delivered several landmark judgements. In 1999, he was awarded the second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan. “Wandering in Many Worlds” is his autobiography.
13. Parliaments of which countries recently called for the recognition of Palestine State?
France and Ireland.
14. Who has been nominated as the new U.S. defense secretary, replacing Chuck Hagel, who resigned last week?
Ashton Carter.
He is also a physicist, and a former Harvard University professor of Science and International Affairs. He was nominated by President Barack Obama, and confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 93–5, to replace Chuck Hagel as the US Secretary of Defense.
15. Video of which pop song becomes the first video to be viewed more than 1 billion times on YouTube, the world's largest video sharing site?
“Gangnam Style”.
The record breaking pop song “Gangnam Style” released in 2012 has crossed 2,147,483,647 views and YouTube was forced to upgrade its counter to 64-bit integer code. The blockbuster song is composed and sung by the famous South Korean entertainer, Psy, (real name: Park Jae-sang). Psy has also earned two other Guinness World Records achievements; most watched video online, and most "liked" video online.
16. Which footballer has received the ‘World’s Top Goalscorer 2013’ award by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS)?
Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo scored 15 goals for Real Madrid in the Champions League and 10 for Portugal during 2013 – more than any other player on international level. Overall, he scored 69 goals in all competitions for club and country.
17. On November 30, 2014, the Simon Wiesenthal Center reported that a senior Nazi figure who centrally involved in the implementation of the Holocaust had died in Syria around 2010, or four years earlier. Who is that Nazi figure?
Alois Brunner.
Brunner was an Austrian officer who worked as Adolf Eichmann's assistant. (Adolf Eichmann was a German Nazi lieutenant colonel and one of the major organisers of the Holocaust. Eichmann referred to Brunner as his "best man." Brunner is held responsible for sending at least 140,000 European Jews to the gas chambers. He was commander of the Drancy internment camp outside Paris from June 1943 to August 1944, from which nearly 24,000 people were deported. He was condemned to death in absentia in France in 1954 for crimes against humanity. In 1961 and in 1980, Brunner lost, respectively, an eye and the fingers of his left hand, as a result of letter bombs sent to him by the Israeli Mossad.
18. Who was named 'Asian of the Year (2014)' for being development-focused leader of India by editors of Singapore's leading daily, The Straits Times?
Narendra Modi.
19. Name the spacecraft successfully test fired by NASA on December 5, 2014 which is designed to carry astronauts to an asteroid and eventually to Mars in the 2030s?
Orion.
20. Retired senior leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC) who has been expelled from the party in December 2014?
Zhou Yongkang.
Zhou was the first Politburo Standing Committee member to be expelled from the party since the fall of the Gang of Four in 1980 at the conclusion of the Cultural Revolution. Zhou was charged with abuse of power, bribery, and intentionally leaking state secrets.
“The Gang of Four” was a political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The gang's leading figure was Mao Zedong's last wife Jiang Qing. The other members were Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen.
21. Which documentary film was given the top award for best feature by the International Documentary Association in December 2014?
"CitizenFour."
Citizenfour is a 2014 documentary film directed by Laura Poitras concerning Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal.
22. Real Madrid and Portugal forward who has won the BBC's 2014 Overseas Sports Personality award?
Cristiano Ronaldo.
Sebastian Vettel (Germany, F1) won the BBC's 2013 Overseas Sports Personality award.
23. Name the floral masterpiece by Vincent van Gogh which has sold in New York for $61.8m (£38.7m)?
“Still Life, Vase with Daisies, and Poppies.”
Van Gogh's painting was created at the French home of his doctor just months before his death in 1890 and was one of the few works he sold during his lifetime.
24. India's communication satellite which was successfully launched by the Ariane-5 launch vehicle VA221 of Arianespace from Kourou, French Guiana on December 7, 2014?
GSAT-16.
25. Azerbaijani investigative journalist who was arrested in December 2014 on charges of incitement to suicide, a charge widely criticized by human rights organizations as bogus?
Ismayilova.
On 5 December 2014, Ismayilova was arrested. She was sentenced to two months of pre-trial detention on the charge of Article 125 of the Criminal Code, accused of inciting her former colleague Tural Mustafayev to suicide. If convicted, she faces a prison sentence of three to seven years.
26. Who won the Player of the Series award in the ODI cricket series between Sri Lanka and England held in Sri Lanka in 2014?
Tillakaratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka).
Series - Sri Lanka won the 7-match series 5-2.
27. The Pakistan all-rounder who has been suspended from bowling in December 2014 after the International Cricket Council ruled his action was illegal?
Mohammad Hafeez.
28. Name the second most intense tropical cyclone in 2014 which hit the Philippines in early December?
Typhoon Hagupit.
Typhoon Hagupit, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Ruby.
29. Who has been appointed as the next chief of Intelligence Bureau (IB)?
Dineshwar Sharma .
Sharma, who hails from Bihar, will succeed Syed Asif Ibrahim whose tenure ends on December 31, 2014.
30. Name the nature documentary which aired on Discovery Channel on December 7, 2014 in which a man tried (and failed) to get a green anaconda to eat him?
Eaten Alive.
The special focused on an expedition by wildlife author and conservationist Paul Rosolie to locate a green anaconda named "Chumana", which he believed to be the world's longest, in a remote location of the Amazon rainforest. The special was to feature Rosolie being "eaten" by an anaconda, protected by a suit designed specifically for this purpose. Eaten Alive was widely criticized for not containing the content that was originally promised by Discovery Channel whilst promoting the special; while it did feature Rosolie attempting to feed himself to an anaconda, the snake did attack, but did not swallow Rosolie as the title of the special implied, and the stunt itself was called off due to safety concerns.
31. Name the spacecraft of NASA which is nearing the end of its nine-year voyage to Pluto, with just over 100 million miles (160 million kilometers) to go before reaching there in July 20145?
New Horizons spacecraft.
32. Name the Dutch actress and adventurer who has arrived at the South Pole after a 2,500 km journey across the ice of Antarctica in a red Massey tractor?
Manon Ossevoort.
33. Man of the Match winners of three Test Cricket matches between India and Australia (Border Gavaskar Trophy) held in Australia in December 2014:
First Test cricket match between India and Australia held in Adelaide from December 9-13, 2014:
Man of the Match: Nathan Lyon (Australia). He took 5 wickets each in both innings.
Result: Australia won by 48 runs.
Second Test cricket match between India and Australia held in Brisbane from December 17-20, 2014:
Man of the Match: Steven Smith (Australia). He scored 133 runs in first innings.
Result: Australia won by 4 wickets.
Third Test cricket match between India and Australia held in Melbourne from December 26-30, 2014:
Man of the Match: Ryan Harris (Australia). He scored 74 runs in first innings and took 4 wickets.
Result: Australia won by 4 wickets.
34. Indian-American who has been sworn in as the US Ambassador to India by Secretary of State John Kerry?
Richard Rahul Verma.
Verma is the first ever Indian-American to be the top US diplomat in New Delhi.
35. Palestinian minister who died on December 10, 2014following clashes with Israeli troops during a West Bank demonstration?
Ziad Abu Ein.
36. West Bengal Transport Minister Madan Mitra was arrested by CBI on December 12, 2014 in connection with Saradha chit fund scam?
Madan Mitra .
37. Which picture of Australian photographer Peter Lik has been sold for 6.5 million dollars setting a new world record?
“Phantom”.
The photograph shows a shaft of light cutting through a monochromatic Arizona landscape and the price it has been sold for is reportedly the most ever paid for a photograph.
38. Bengaluru-based Software engineer who was arrested on December 13, 2014, accused of being the key voice of the global jihadi group ISIS on Twitter?
Mehdi Masroor Biswas.
Biswas had been broadcasting the group's terror missions and luring recruits to fight in the Syrian and other Middle East theatres.
39. Prime minister of Haiti who resigned in December 2014 after violent anti-government protests over delayed elections?
Laurent Lamothe.
40. Which tennis team won the inaugural International Premier Tennis League (ITPL)-2014 defeating Singapore Slammers in the final?
Indian Aces.
The International Premier Tennis League is a team tennis league founded in 2013, that launched in November 2014, with teams in four Asian cities: Dubai, Manila, New Delhi and Singapore.
41. Who has been voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2014?
Lewis Hamilton.
42. Who is Miss World 2014?
Rolene Strauss (South Africa).
Miss World 2014, the 64th edition of the Miss World pageant was held on 14 December 2014 at the ExCeL London in London, UK. Megan Young of the Philippines crowned her successor Rolene Strauss of South Africa at the end of the event. 121 contestants competed for the crown. This is the second time that South Africa has won the title outright and the third time they have held the title. For the first time, the event was streamed to mobile devices, tablets and game consoles via the official Miss World app and YouTube.
43. On 16 December 2014, seven gunmen affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) conducted a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in the north western Pakistani city killing 145 people, including 132 schoolchildren, ranging between eight and eighteen years of age. The school is situated at?
Peshawar.
2014 Peshawar school massacre was the deadliest terrorist attack ever to occur in Pakistan, surpassing the 2007 Karachi bombing. It was the worst attack on children anywhere in the world since the Beslan mass killing by Chechen Islamist rebels in 2004.
44. Five-time chess world champion who won his maiden London Classic title (2014) after defeating British Grandmaster Michael Adams in the fifth and final round?
Viswanathan Anand.
45. Which country won the 2014 Men's Hockey Champions Trophy?
Germany.
The 2014 Men's Hockey Champions Trophy was the 35th edition of the Hockey Champions Trophy for men. It was held between 6–14 December 2014 in Bhubaneswar, India. From this year on the tournament began to be held biannually due to the introduction of the Hockey World League, returning to its original format changed in 1980.
Germany won the tournament for the tenth time after defeating Pakistan 2–0 in the final. Australia won the third place match by defeating India 2–1.
46. Senior IAS officer who was appointed as Joint Secretary in Prime Minister's Office on December 10, 2014?
Anurag Jain.
47. Name the book written by Pranab Mukherjee, President of India?
“The Dramatic Decade: The Indira Gandhi Years.”
The book seeks to throw more light on the topsy-turvy decade of the 1970s, which saw emergency being imposed and the beginning of coalition politics in the country.
48. Who has been appointed as new Director General of CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) on December 22, 2014?
Prakash Mishra.
49. Who have been named Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2014?
The Ebola fighters.
50. Which country won the Blind Cricket World Cup (BCWC)-2014 defeating Pakistan in the final?
India.
MORE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS WILL BE ADDED SOON!