What is the next number in this matchsticks series riddle?

John was visiting his friend Jacob. He found out that his friend's wife had just killed a burglar in self-defense.
John asks Jacob about what happened and he told that "His wife was watching television when suddenly the bell rang. She thought that it is her husband Jacob but she found the burglar who attacked her instantly and she got so frightened that she killed the burglar immediately with the knife.
John asked the police to arrest his friend's wife. Why?

It's pretty hard to give up.
If you remove a part of it, you will be left with a bit.
Even if you remove another part, the bit still remains.
Remove one more and it still remains.

What is it?

There is a barrel with no lid and some wine in it. 'This barrel of wine is more than half full,' said Curly. 'No it's not,' says Mo. 'It's less than half full.' Without any measuring implements and without removing any wine from the barrel, how can they easily determine who is correct?

There are 2 sand hourglasses.

The small one can measure 5 hours and the large one can measure 7 hours.

How can we measure 16 hours with 2 sand hourglasses running together ?

Which of the following words don't belong in the group and why?
CORSET, COSTER, SECTOR, ESCORT, COURTS

You have to fill the below given grid in a manner that every row and column contains the digits 1 to 6. Also, make sure that the squares that are connected with each other must contains the same digit.

Name a key which is hardest to turn.

2, 3, 5, 9, 17, _ What is the next number in the sequence?

Detective John was investigating a murder in China.
It was a difficult case, and John was completely stumped until he noticed a message sent to him by the killer cunningly hidden in a newspaper advertisement selling Car Licence Plates.
Detective John thought about it for a while, and when he had solved the puzzle, immediately arrested the guilty man.

Q1) How did John know the advert was a clue for him?

Q2) Solve the code and tell me who John arrested.

This is the newspaper advert (Car licence plates for sale) that Detective John saw.

Plates For Sale;

[W 05 NWO]
[H 13 HSR]
[O 05 EBM]
[D 08 UNE]
[U 10 HTY]
[N 04 BRE]
[N 16 TTE]
[I 26 LHC]
[T 10 AEE]
[I 26 CNA]
[X 22 VDA]