| ANKARA | Capital whose country bridges Europe and Asia |
| ONELANE | Like some country bridges |
| SPAIN | Country bridge across island (5) |
| NORTHKOREA | Communist country bridge player's declared vocation (5,5) |
| ALANJACKSON | Singer whose "Country Boy" hit #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs Chart in 2009: 2 wds. |
| ASTOR | Family whose country residence used to be Cliveden in Berkshire (5) |
| LIBYANS | North Africans whose country used to have a solid green flag |
| AFGHANI | Someone whose country was taken over by the Taliban (7) |
| OSLO | Nordic capital whose winter nights glow with "julelys" and festive cheer, and where children still chorus of "fjalls", frost and of Santa steering his caribou, for yet another year (4) |
| BISMARCK | State capital whose site was visited by Lewis and Clark |
| KYOTO | Former world capital whose name means "capital city" |
| LIMA | Peruvian capital whose name was given to a variety of butter bean and the codeword following Kilo (4) |
| KALAMATA | Messinian capital whose local delicacies include figs, honey-sesame bars, raisins, wild herbs and, most notably, its eponymous aubergine-coloured almond-shaped olives (8) |
| TUNIS | World capital whose name can be formed by removing letters from the end of its country's name |
| APIA | Capital whose Parliament house is called Fale Fono |
| SOFIA | European capital whose name is Greek for "wisdom" |
| ROME | Italian capital whose ancient ruins have been studied by archaeologists |
| BOISE | State capital whose name means 'wooded' |
| DOHA | Capital whose name means "big tree" in Arabic |
| OTTAWA | Capital whose name comes from an Algonquin word for "to trade" |
