Italy - The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, Italy in 133 B.C.
France - The French TGV is the fastest train in the world, with an average speed of 263.3 km/h from station to station. It reached a record 574.8 km/h on a test run in April 2007.
Russia - A quarter of Russia is covered by forest.
Germany - Germany is one of the major leaders of green energy technology, leading the way in wind and solar power as energy forms.
UAE - One of every four construction cranes in the world is in Dubai.
South Africa - There are eleven official names for South Africa, one in each of the official national languages.
Austria - The electricity supply from renewable energy amounts to almost 80% of total use in Austria.
USA - The USA has 30% of the world's airports.
UK - The English playwright and poet William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist of all time, born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire 1564.
Spain - Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga in 1881, he went on to become one of the World's most renowned artists and co-founder of the Cubist movement.
Singapore - The English language name Singapore comes from Malay Singapura, "Lion-city".
Hong Kong - Hong Kong has the world's greatest number of skyscrapers, with a total of 7,681.
Mexico - Mexico has over 200,000 indigenous different species, home to 10-12% of the world's biodiversity.
Canada - Canada is a Native American Indian word, meaning Big Village.
Australia - The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms.
India - India is the most populous democracy in the world.
Switzerland - The Red Cross was founded in Switzerland in 1863 and still has its institutional centre in the country.
Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia is home to the worlds largest oil corporation.
Finland - Finland is known as the 'land of the thousand lakes', but in fact there are a total of 187,888.
Belgium - 97% of Belgian households receive cable TV - the highest percentage in the world.
Egypt - Over 80 million people live in Egypt and the country has the fastest growing population in the Arab World.
Netherlands - The Netherlands is the largest exporter of flowers in the world.
Poland - Poles have won a total of 17 Nobel prizes including four Peace Prizes and five in Literature.
Denmark - There are 443 named islands in Denmark, 76 of which are inhabited.
Turkey - Istanbul is the only city in the world located on two continents.
China - China's population is roughly 1.3 billion. 200 million larger than India, the next largest country.
Brazil - Brazil is home to the WorldÃs largest football stadium, the Maracana holds up to 199,000 people.
