A controversial new global treaty on telecom regulations was signed on Friday by 89 International Telecommunication Union member states amid U.S. objections to potential regulation of the Internet.

"I say to the 89 states that signed today the treaty, thank you," said Mohamed al-Ghanim, chairman of the World Conference on International Telecommunication (WICT-12), organised by the ITU in Dubai.

The New York Times is getting into the business of selling bite-sized digital books based on its reporters' work, giving it entree into a growing market for inexpensive "e-singles" that can be read in a couple of hours.

The Times' first mini book will go on sale Monday. It's an 18,000-word piece about skiers caught in an avalanche by Times reporter John Branch. The story, called "Snow Fall," expands on an upcoming piece in Monday's newspaper.

Google Maps have found their way back to the iPhone.

The world's most popular online mapping system returned late Wednesday with the release of the Google Maps' iPhone app. The release comes nearly three months after Apple Inc. replaced Google Maps as the device's built-in navigation system and inserted its own maps into the latest version of its mobile operating system.

The man who led the inquiry into Britain's phone-hacking scandal has warned that bloggers and tweeters should be subject to the same laws as traditional media outlets to prevent a decline in standards of journalism.

Senior judge Brian Leveson said court judgments and civil rulings such as name suppressions must be enforced for Internet users just as they do for major newspapers, magazines and journals.

A U.N. conference weighing possible Internet rules shifted into high-stakes showdowns on Thursday after advancing a proposal for greater government oversight. The proposal was a blow to U.S.-led efforts to keep new regulations from touching the Net.

The move frames the ideological divide at the 193-nation gathering in Dubai, which is scheduled to wrap up Friday with its first revisions of global telecom rules since 1988 — years before the dawn of the Internet age.

Google says it has reached an agreement over copyright issues with a group of French-language Belgian newspapers, ending a six-year dispute.

In a joint statement Thursday, Google and groups representing the papers and authors announced they had reached agreements to end legal proceedings and instead build business partnerships.

The United States expanded its e-diplomacy efforts Wednesday with the launch of a video game aimed at helping young people get a better understanding of American language and culture.

The game "Trace Effects," allows players to follow a university student named Trace, from the year 2045, who has accidentally traveled back in time to the present.

Pope Benedict XVI blessed his new Internet flock on Wednesday with his first Twitter message in eight languages to the million-plus followers already signed up to receive the holy tweets.

"Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart," read the tweet, which the 85-year-old pope sent from a tablet at the end of his weekly general audience.

Pastors with hundreds of thousands of virtual followers, sermons live-tweeted, a Bible mobile app downloaded by millions and now the Pope on Twitter -- Christianity is taking a social media leap of faith.

Catholics and Protestants are quietly embracing the digital age in a bid to shake off an out-of-touch, stuffy image and gain more followers, culminating with Benedict XVI's arrival on Twitter -- and his much-anticipated first tweet Wednesday.

U.S. teachers have flooded school-centric charity website DonorsChoose.org to snap up Chrome notebook computers Google made available to classrooms for just $99 each.

DonorsChoose said Tuesday that it was no longer taking Chromebook requests from instructors since the allotted supply was exhausted due to the "tremendous response" to the offer.