What does this rebus mean?

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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]

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?

What type of tree can I carry in my hand?

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?

John and Jacob are playing bets. John gives $10 to Jacob and Jacob deals four cards out of a normal 52-card deck which are chosen by him completely randomly. Jacob keeps them facing down takes the first card and shows it to John. John has a choice of either keeping it or looking at the second card. When the second card is shown to him, he again has the choice of keeping or looking at the third which is followed by the third card as well; only if he does not want the third card, he will have to keep the fourth card.

If the card that John is choosing is n, Jacob will give it to him. Then the cards will be shuffled and the game will be played repeatedly. Now you might think that it all depends on chance, but John has come up with a strategy that will help him turn the favor in his odds.

Can you deduce the strategy of John?

Find out a multi-digit number that if multiplied by the number 9 or any of its multiplications products (i.e. 18, 27, 36, 45,..) will result in the multiplication factor repeated (n) number of times.

If an earthquake is 1 point higher on the Richter Scale than another earthquake which is actually 10 times stronger, how much stronger would an earthquake be if it was just half a point higher on the Richter scale?

Which is heavier: a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?

A dying old man wants to divide his entire land between his only two sons. Since his only wish is to treat them as equal as both of them have been too good to him, he wants to divide his land equally between them. The problem is that the land is significantly irregular in shape and thus there is no choice of cutting them into two equal halves.

Can you help him divide the land in a manner that both of his sons will be happy?