[general] Fwd: First IDN ccTLDs Available for Use

[Bashar <big at kuwaitnet dot net>]

JFYI

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	First IDN ccTLDs Available for Use
Date:	Thu, 6 May 2010 01:06:55 -0700
From:	Baher Esmat
To:	Arab ICANN

http://icann.org/

All,

For the first time in the history of the Internet, non-Latin characters are being used for top-level domains. The first IDN country-code top-level domains were inserted in the DNS root zone earlier today. The associated countries and their respective IDN ccTLDs are:

Egypt: مصر (Egypt)

Saudi Arabia: السعودية (AlSaudiah)

United Arab Emirates: امارات (Emarat)

This means that these IDN ccTLDs are available for use now and we will soon being seeing domain names ending in مصر, . السعودية, امارات

These are the first IDN ccTLDs to appear online as a result of the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process which was approved by the ICANN Board at its annual meeting in Seoul, South Korea on 30 October 2009. For more details see the announcement here http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-05may10-en.htm.

Best,

Baher