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

Authorities have seized Apple iPads from retailers in a city in northern China due to a dispute with a domestic company that says it owns the iPad name, an official said Monday. The Chinese company said it is asking for similar action in more than 20 other cities.

The dispute with Shenzhen Proview Technology threatens to complicate Apple's efforts to sell its popular tablet computer in China, its fastest-growing market.

Microsoft said on Monday it was investigating an attack by hackers on its Indian retail website, reportedly carried out by a Chinese group called the "Evil Shadow Team."

The team struck at www.microsoftstore.co.in late Sunday, stealing login IDs and passwords of people who had used the website for buying Microsoft products, the Times of India newspaper said.

Mobile phone giant Vodafone said on Monday it was considering an offer for Cable & Wireless Worldwide, the global telecoms company set up in the 1860s to run the British Empire’s communications network.

The news sent CWW's share price surging by almost a third in morning deals on the London stock market.

Iran has further restricted access to the Internet and blocked popular email services for the past few days, in a move a top lawmaker said could "cost the regime dearly," media reports said on Sunday.

Millions of Iranians have been unable to log onto their accounts on popular email websites such as Google's Gmail, Yahoo's Mail and Microsoft's Hotmail since Thursday without any official explanation, the Arman newspaper reported.