Forwards I am heavy, backward I am not. What am I?

Birbal was jester, counsellor, and fool to the great Moghul emperor, Akbar.
The villagers loved to talk of Birbal's wisdom and cleverness,
and the emperor loved to try to outsmart him.
One day Akbar (emperor) drew a line across the floor.
"Birbal," he ordered, "you must make this line shorter, but you cannot erase any bit of it."
Everyone present thought the emperor had finally outsmarted Birbal.
It was clearly an impossible task.
Yet within moments the emperor and everyone else present had to agree that Birbal had made the line shorter without erasing any of it.
How could this be?

Solve the following series:
AZ, GT, MN, __, YB

In a kingdom, King George did not allow any citizen to visit the world outside. Also, only a person with proper paperwork was allowed to enter or he was sent back. A wooden bridge was what connected the kingdom to the world. The king had appointed a sharpshooter who would check the every five minutes on the bridge to check. After checking, he would go back to his hut and return exactly after five minutes again. The bridge took 9 minutes to cross.

A merchant was able to escape the kingdom without harming the shooter. How?

What does below Rebus say?

XLR8

Count the number of lines in the image below ?

Christina has four daughters, and each of her daughters has a brother. How many children does Christina have?

I taste better than I can smell. Who am I?

Mr Red Lives in the red house.
Mr Green Lives in the greenhouse.
Mr Yellow Lives in the yellow house.

Who lives in the Whitehouse?

I am the beginning of the end, and the end of time and space. I am essential to creation, and I surround every place. What am I?