Mixed Bag!!!

1) Some 700 years ago, in medieval Europe, a bell rang every evening at a fixed hour, and townspeople were required by law to cover or extinguish their hearth fires. It was the "cover fire" bell, or, as the French called it, "coverfeu" (from their verb meaning "to cover" and their word for "fire") from which we get this English word. By the time the word appeared in English the authorities no longer regulated hearth fires, but an evening bell continued to be rung for various purposes — whether to signal the close of day, an evening burial, or enforcement of some other evening regulation. This "bell ringing at evening" became the first English sense of the word in question. 

What's the good word?

 

 

2)Born in London in 1959, he was educated at Eton, Oxford, and Caltech. He published his first scientific paper at the age of 15, and had received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Caltech by the age of 20. His early scientific work was mainly in high-energy physics, quantum field theory, and cosmology, and included several now-classic results. Having started to use computers in 1973, he rapidly became a leader in the emerging field of scientific computing, and in 1979 he began the construction of SMP--the first modern computer algebra system--which he released commercially in 1981.

 

Who?

 

3)The FIFA Congress, at its meeting in Sydney on 29 and 30 May 2008, decided to 

• fully support the objectives of "__ " as laid down at the above Congress, 
• request the Presidents of FIFA and UEFA to continue to explore for Europe, together with the world of sport - football's protagonists, but also the international Olympic Committee and the international federations - all possible means within the limits of the law to ensure that these crucial sporting objectives be achieved,
• give the FIFA President the mandate to, if necessary, take similar steps on the other continents in cooperation with the relevant Confederation.

What did FIFA decide?

 

 

4)This land is your land – the last three verses were deleted from the version that's played in the radio stations. Add those verses and the whole tenor of the song changes..

Zembla, Zenda, Xanadu
All your dreams may come true
Fairy Lands are fearsome too
As I wander far from view
Read and bring me home to you

message to whom, saying what?

 

5)The Maoists in Nepal recently announced their intention to put to end a 200-year-old tradition because of its colonial origins and also because it seemed to compromise loyalty to the nation. This caused a furore in Central Nepal, the poorest region of the country. What tradition?