What has hands, but can’t clap?

If nine thousand, nine hundred nine dollars is written as $9,909,
how should twelve thousand, twelve hundred twelve dollars be written?

Begin with a word, five letters to my name,
Remove the first and last but I am the same
Take out my middle and still, I remain.
What word am I?

In The 1st month of this year(the year 2013), I noticed that the date 13-1-13 (13 January 2013) is special.

This date is special as:

Date * Month = Year.

Can you figure out which year of this century has a maximum number of such dates?

It has a long neck, A name of a bird, Feeds on cargo of ships, It's not alive,

What is it?

Can you make a fire with just a single stick?

A time long back, there lived a king who ruled the great kingdom of Trojan House. As a part of the renovation of the kingdom to meet future security needs, he asked his chief architect to lay down a new play in a manner that all of his 10 castles are connected through five straight walls and each wall must connect four castles together. He also asked the architect that at least one of his castles should be protected with walls. The architect could not come up with any solution that served all of King's choices, but he suggested the best plan that you can see in the picture below. Can you find a better solution to serve the king's demand?

John gave half of the apples he had plus one more to Jacob. He gave half of the remaining ones plus one more to James. Now, John was left with just one apple.

Can you find out how many did he have in the beginning?

What occurs twice in a week, once in a year but never in a day?

I am the one who remains awake when you sleep. But I need to rest when you awake. Who Am I?