What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?

Find the next number in the following series:
6, 14, 26, 98, __?

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?

Replace the (?) with the correct mathematical signs to make the expression equal to 59.

18 ? 12 ? 4 ? 5 = 59

There was once a troop of 5 elves. The 5 elves were very dedicated on finding the magical treasure of 1000 coins. However, being elves, they were super geniuses, very greedy and they did not hesitate in taking lives of other elves. The 5 elves were named Aye, Bee, Cee, Dee and Ee, ranked from high to low respectively, from Aye to Ee. One fine day, their efforts brought results and they found 1000 coins. Now they had to split it in between them as per their ranks. The lowest ranked elf has to make the proposal. If the proposal is accepted by majority, it is agreed, or the suggesting elf is killed.

What proposal should elf Ee make ?

One day, all the courtiers from Akbar's court were gathered in the assembly hall when one of them told the Emperor that all his valuables had been stolen by a thief the previous night.
This shocked the Emperor to his core as the place where that courter stayed was the most secured in the kingdom. The Emperor thought that it is not at all possible for an outsider to enter into the courtier's house and steal the valuables. Only another courtier could commit this crime. He quickly called Birbal to identify the thief.
Birbal thought for a while and successfully solved the mystery by identifying the thief in just one statement.
What did Birbal say?

Dr Doom invited a group of puzzle fanatics to a party which was oriented toward having puzzle-oriented games. At night, he introduced the guests to a 'unique riddle'. A prize was offered to the one who solved it first.

The guests included six people named Tom Paul, Fox Obama, Jeremy Reener, Alex Murphy, Prim Pastor, and Ellen Page. The winner of the 'unique riddle' contest was to be announced after the dinner. So Dr. Doom stood up and started the announcement:

'Okay now everybody!'
'The winner of�'
'The Hardest Riddle Ever Event'

But before he could complete it, the light went out and his voice was not heard without the mic by anyone. But they already knew who the winner was. Can you deduce the name of the winner?

I go up and I go down.
I go up towards the beautiful sky and down toward the green ground.
I am present tense.
I am past tense too
Children love me.

Who Am I?

Can you make four (4) nines (9) equal 100?

A boy and a girl are sitting on the porch.
"I'm a boy," says the child with black hair.
"I'm a girl," says the child with red hair.
If at least one of them is lying, who is which?