Government plans to roll out e-petitions across the UK could offer people a real say in the democratic process, a conference has heard. The legislation to make e-petitions compulsory for all councils in the UK comes into force in April 2010. It could result in a national e-petition scheme and force Westminster to take more notice of people power, thinks...

The Netherlands-based file-sharing website Mininova has removed all torrents that enabled users to download copyright-protected material. The move follows a ruling in a Netherlands district court three months ago ordering the firm to remove links to illegal content. The court said that Mininova’s notice and take down policy was insufficient to...

Why do hammerhead sharks have such a famously strange-shaped head? One hypothesis is that having eyes on either side of such a wide ‘hammer’ allows the sharks to see better. But even this idea divides scientific opinion, as researchers argue over whether the hammerhead design makes it more or less difficult to see. The mystery may now be...

The threat of Chile being thrown out of the 2010 World Cup looks over after domestic club Rangers backed down in their legal battle against relegation. Chile had been warned by Fifa that their World Cup place was in jeopardy after Rangers turned to the Chilean courts to try and avoid the drop. Fifa does not approve of civil or government intervention...

Sure, everyone knows that Oprah, Shaq and Ashton Kutcher are huge on Twitter. They’re famous — they should be huge on Twitter. But Heather Armstrong? John Dickerson? Adventure Girl? These people can stroll unmolested through a paparazzi convention, and yet each has more than 1.2 million Twitter followers — enough to rank them in the...

Joe Wilkins knew there was only one way to give his supercharged, alcohol-injected Hemi-engined hot rod more power: Put a jet engine in the trunk. “It started as a hobby and turned into a monster,” said Joe Wilkins, the motor madman behind what might be the wildest 1939 Ford ever built. He’s an inventor and defense department contractor,...

Golfer Tiger Woods was taken to a Florida hospital after suffering facial injuries in a car crash early Friday, police said. The one-car accident occurred about 2:25 a.m. near Woods’ home in Windermere, a suburb of Orlando, according to an incident report from the Florida Highway Patrol. A statement from Woods’ publicist and Health Central...

OSLO–Promises of greenhouse gas curbs by China and the United States brighten prospects for next month’s U.N. climate summit but leave big tangles over cash, rich nations’ emissions cuts, and how to tie down a legal treaty. “This is clearly some progress on the Copenhagen road,” Frank Jotzo, deputy director of the Australian...

ComScore on Wednesday released October viewing statistics for online video. And although there weren’t any surprises at the top, the figures did provide some interesting insight into how users are consuming video on the Web. According to the research firm, more than 167 million U.S.-based Web users watched video online during October. All told,...

Come early December, Oracle will meet with European Commission regulators to urge their approval of its merger with Sun Microsystems. “Two people with knowledge of the matter” tell Reuters that “Oracle has asked for a hearing which has been fixed for December 10.” Should make for an interesting meeting given Oracle’s refusal...