The race to 1 million Twitter followers appears to be heating up - more so as CNN acquires extraordinarily popular CNNbrk Twitter account, which already boasts of more than 947,000 followers, and is on the increase!

The acquisition has made news as CNN did not actually own the recently-gained account, which has been cultivated and maintained by James Cox. And, since the microblogging site's rules forbid the 'sale' of Twitter accounts, CNN has not disclosed the financial details of the takeover.

CNNbrk is presently in the top-notch place in the supposed race to one million followers; Ashton Kutcher is in second place with 917,000 followers, and Britney Spears at a close third with nearly 913,000 followers.

On Tuesday, the heat caught on as Kutcher - actress Demi Moore's husband and the well-known star of TV's "That '70s Show" - openly challenged CNN to a race to the
1-million-users mark, in a video posted to Qik. com; and CNN accepted the challenge on the "Larry King Show."

In case Kutcher hits the coveted mark, there are quite a few promises to be kept - while he has announced a donation of 10,000 mosquito bed nets to charity for World Malaria Day; game publisher Electronic Arts would put Kutcher's 1-millionth follower in a forthcoming EA game and give the person a copy of every game it brings out this year!