Sir Alfred Milner, now back in South Africa, made it clear that he would accept and forward any petitions addressed to the British government.

A majority of the community board, 29 of the 49 members, signed a petition addressed to Ms. Fields asking her to reconsider the decision.

Avaaz launched a petition addressed to Barack Obama demanding release of Rajab.

On the other hand, petitions addressed either directly to Louis or to his ministers exploited the traditional imagery and language of monarchy.

The petition, addressed to Pope Francis, states:

When the sultan contacted the public for Friday prayer or other occasions, people would hand in petitions addressed to him.

The petition specifically addresses the use of AES for high-stakes testing and says nothing about other possible uses.

The paper also opened an unprecedented petition on its Web site addressed to the country's rulers, asking them to take action to curb extremist religious discourse.

Skeptics have long pointed to a lack of hard evidence that petitions addressed to a supernatural being can actually affect the course of worldly events.

In recent years the Petitions Committee has developed the possibility of inviting petitioners to attend committee meetings, where appropriate, to have their petition addressed.