Internet freedom will not be curbed or controlled, the head of the U.N. telecommunications body, Hamadoun Toure, said as a meeting to review the 24-year-old telecom regulations kicked off Monday.

Such claims are "completely (unfounded)," Toure, secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union, told AFP.

The head of the U.N.'s telecommunication overseers sought Monday to quell worries about possible moves toward greater Internet controls during global talks in Dubai, but any attempts for increased Web regulations are likely to face stiff opposition from groups led by a major U.S. delegation.

The 11-day conference — seeking to update codes last reviewed when the Web was virtually unknown — highlights the fundamental shift from tightly managed telecommunications networks to the borderless sweep of the Internet.

It looks like a tough sell for the online daily deals sector.

After much excitement last year and a hyped public offering from Groupon, the main players are now focusing on saving money themselves as consumers show deal fatigue.

Samsung extended its lead as the top mobile phone maker in the U.S. market and Apple moved into second place, an industry tracker said Friday.

A survey by comScore showed that in the three-month period ending in October, South Korea's Samsung was the top manufacturer with 26.3 percent market share, up from 25.6 percent in the prior period.

Yahoo! said Friday it was ordered to pay $2.7 billion by a Mexican court in a lawsuit stemming from allegations of breach of contract and lost profits related to a yellow pages listing service.

The U.S. Internet giant said in a statement it "believes the plaintiffs' claims are without merit and will vigorously pursue all appeals."

Google has agreed to acquire Canadian start-up BufferBox, which manages self-service parcel lockers to help consumers avoid missed deliveries, the companies said Friday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

A Facebook page set up to monitor paedophiles has been removed after a judge in Northern Ireland ruled Friday that it risked infringing the human rights of a convicted sex offender.

The man, who cannot be identified, started legal proceedings against the social networking site after discovering his photograph and threatening comments had been posted on the page.

Google and Twitter announced Friday they have reactivated a voice-tweet program to allow Syrians affected by the shutdown of the Internet to get messages out.

The service allows people with a telephone connection to compose and send a tweet by speaking on their phones.

A maverick hoping to upset Japan's political scene has vowed to continue using Twitter throughout a general election, despite a strict ban on all forms of Internet campaigning.

Under Japanese election law, candidates and their supporters are not permitted to Tweet, use Facebook, update their websites or even send emails during the official campaign period, which begins on Tuesday ahead of the December 16 poll.

Hackers attacked and defaced the website of India's IT minister on Friday amid a growing campaign against a law governing online comments which has been condemned by free-speech advocates.

An amendment to India's Information Technology Act in 2009, which was championed by minister Kapil Sibal, makes it illegal to make "grossly offensive" comments online, a measure seen by critics as a draconian limit on free speech.