The world's biggest watch event opens in Basel, Switzerland, this week on the back of a bumper year thanks to Asian demand for luxury timepieces.

Whether this hunger will extend to the expected star of the show -- a $5 million diamond-laden model by Hublot -- is unclear but with 1,815 exhibitors from 41 countries, high-range watch devotees can expect to see something they like.

The Tajikistan government ordered Internet providers on Saturday to block Facebook, along with several independent media sites, a spokeswoman for the country's web-provider association told Agence France Presse.

"Internet providers received a spoken order from government agents to block the sites," said Parvina Ibodova, president of the association.

Tech-savvy TED-goers watched in wonder as flying robots darted through tossed hoops, worked together in swarms and even formed a band to play trademark "James Bond" film theme music.

A video of University of Pennsylvania professor Vijay Kumar showing off palm-sized "agile aerial robots" from the college lab logged more than 200,000 views online at ted.com by the time the prestigious gathering ended on Friday.

Passengers in the Channel Tunnel linking Britain and continental Europe will soon be able to use their mobile phones in the undersea rail link, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The Daily Telegraph said a French technology group had sorted out a way of connecting the tunnel with mobile phone networks.

President Barack Obama called Saturday for the development of new technologies to help tackle America's energy problems and the scrapping of a $4-billion-dollar tax break for oil companies.

"We've got to develop new technology that will help us use new forms of energy," Obama said in his radio and Internet address.

The Stuxnet computer virus sabotage of Iran's nuclear program was a "good idea" but it lent legitimacy to the use of malicious software as a weapon, according to a former CIA director.

"We have entered into a new phase of conflict in which we use a cyber weapon to create physical destruction," retired general Michael Hayden said in an interview with the CBS television show "60 Minutes" to be aired on Sunday.

More American adults now own smartphones than basic mobile phones, according to a survey released on Thursday.

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project survey found that smartphone penetration has increased significantly among nearly every major demographic group in the United States.

U.S. President Barack Obama switched his Facebook page on Thursday to the social network's new "timeline" format and poked fun at the controversy over his birthplace.

The first entry on Obama's revamped Facebook page lists his birthdate -- August 4, 1961 -- and provides a link to a coffee mug that features a picture of his Hawaiian birth certificate.

FBI director Robert Mueller warned a gathering of Internet security specialists on Thursday that the threat of cyber-attacks rivals terrorism as a national security concern.

The only way to combat cyber assaults is for police, intelligence agencies and private companies to join forces, Mueller said during a presentation at an annual RSA Conference in San Francisco.

People around the world share their deep secrets with Frank Warren and he, in turn, reveals them to all.

Confessions drawn, pasted or written on postcards flow relentlessly into his mailbox and Warren provides as many as possible with time in the spotlight at his website,PostSecret.com.