Google on Wednesday assured users of its smartphone wallets that the mobile-age technology thwarts thieves better than old-school cash or credit cards.

"Mobile payments are going to become more common in the coming years, and we will learn much more as we continue to develop Google Wallet," Google payments vice president Osama Bedier said in a blog post.

Hackers have targeted the public websites of the operators of the Nasdaq and Bats stock exchanges over the past two days with cyber-attacks that disrupted the sites but had no impact on trading.

The Nasdaq.com website was briefly inaccessible at times on Tuesday although it was back online and functioning normally late in the day.

Alibaba's move to buy out Yahoo!'s stake in the Chinese Internet titan has tripped on the California firm's determination to sidestep taxes, a Dow Jones-owned technology news website reported on Tuesday.

AllThingsD.com cited unnamed sources as saying discussions have hit an impasse centered on structuring the deal in a way that would let Yahoo! save more than $4 billion in US taxes on the deal.

A new application was launched on Tuesday which displays the power outage times in Lebanon.

Samer Hamandi, the application’s creator announced the release of a new version of his free android mobile application “Beirut Electricity Cut Off" that now supports all areas in Lebanon.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy joined the micro-blogging website Twitter on Wednesday shortly before he was due to appear on television to announce the official start of his election campaign.

"Good day to you all, I'm very happy today to launch my Twitter account. Thank you to all of those who would like to follow me," he said, in his first message, under the official Twitter handle @NicolasSarkozy.

Many Iranian web users say their access to foreign email services such as Gmail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail appears to have been restored after a four day outage.

Elaheh Ansari and Reza Estiar are among dozens of Internet users who told The Associated Press that their access was back on Monday.

U.S. and European regulators gave the green light Monday to Internet giant Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

In a related decision, the Justice Department's antitrust division also approved the purchase by Apple, Microsoft and Research In Motion (RIM) of patents from Nortel Networks and the acquisition by Apple of Novell patents.

"Angry Birds", the most-downloaded mobile app of 2011, was catapulted to the world of Facebook on Tuesday in a bid by its Finnish maker Rovio to get one billion people playing the addictive game.

Fans were able to test the new Angry Birds Facebook app online Tuesday morning ahead of its official global launch in Jakarta, the world's most Facebook-connected city.

As the web and mobile industry in the Middle East undergoes a period of unprecedented growth and expansion, so do the opportunities available to entrepreneurs and digital professionals in the Arab region, according to ArabNet.

With the annual ArabNet Digital Summit drawing closer, the team is calling upon aspiring entrepreneurs and digital professionals in the region to showcase their talent, connect with their peers, and bring their visions to life through a series of competitions and activities designed to bring talent and funding together.

A Lebanese website for craftsmen was recently launched to help citizens search for appropriate construction work professionals.

M3allem.com (www.m3allem.com) is a new concept that aims to link between a two-sided existing demand: the possibility to have a complete and reliable resource of construction work professionals and the necessity for each and every craftsman to be online - at a time