How can you make number one disappear by adding something to it?

Today is a very icy and cold morning in Newcastle. Mr Shearer, an office bus driver arrived to pick up the employees from the last stop. Shearer suddenly remembers that he needs to pick a newly joined 4miles to the north. Mr Shearer lost his direction compass, a few minutes later Shearer is able to figure that he is moving in the correct direction i.e. north. How did Shearer know that he is moving in the correct direction?

What 4-letter word can be written forward, backward or upside down, and can still be read from left to right?

I am the largest in my family of fifty.
The youngest of our family lives separately from the rest of the family and so do I.
I am regarded as harsh and tough.
I am so large, you cut me in two equal halves,
each half would still be larger than the second largest member of the family.
Who am I?

Replace the letters of words with a number so that the below equation holds true

BASE +
BALL
---------
GAMES
----------

You are trapped into a death trap by the famous jigsaw killer. As usual, a screen flashes in front of you and explains you the trap game. There are 100 pearls kept in a bowl in front of you and an empty bowl. Among the 100 pearls, 50 are white and 50 are black. You can divide them as you like into the two bowls. Once you are done, you will pull a lever, which will turn the room pitch black. The bowls will move and shuffle around. In the dark, you have to pick up one pearl from any bowl. Once you do that, the room will flood with lights again. If the peral you have in your hand is white, you will be allowed to live, but if the pearl you picked is black, the room will be filled with poisonous gas and you will die. How will divide the pearls to increase your chances of survival?

A word I know,
Six letters contain,
Subtract just one,
And twelve is what remains.

John is on an island and there are three crates of fruit that have washed up in front of him. One crate contains only apples. One crate contains only oranges. The other crate contains both apples and oranges.

Each crate is labelled. One reads 'apples', one reads 'oranges', and one reads 'apples and oranges'. He know that NONE of the crates have been labeled correctly - they are all wrong.

If he can only take out and look at just one of the pieces of fruit from just one of the crates, how can he label all of the crates correctly?

In the Chess Board picture below white army is arranged. You need to add a black army on the board such that no piece is under any threat.
Note: Army comprised of 1 king, 1 queen, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, and 8 pawns.

I look flat, but I am deep. Hidden realms I shelter. Lives I take, but the food I offer. At times I am beautiful. I can be calm, angry, and turbulent. I have no heart but offer pleasure as well as death. No man can own me, yet I encompass what all men must have. What am I?