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| Egypt launches Arabic web domain | Egypt launches Arabic web domain |
| (about 8 hours later) | |
| Egypt will open the world's first Arabic language internet domain, its communications minister has said. | Egypt will open the world's first Arabic language internet domain, its communications minister has said. |
| Tarek Kamel said the new domain name would be ".masr" written in the Arabic alphabet. It translates as ".Egypt". | Tarek Kamel said the new domain name would be ".masr" written in the Arabic alphabet. It translates as ".Egypt". |
| "It is a great moment for us... The internet now speaks Arabic," Mr Kamel said. | |
| Last month, internet regulator Icann voted to allow non-Latin web addresses. Domain names can now be written in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts. | |
| Mr Kamel, who was speaking at the start of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) being held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, said a formal announcement would be made on Monday. | Mr Kamel, who was speaking at the start of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) being held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, said a formal announcement would be made on Monday. |
| Registration for addresses with the .masr ending would begin at midnight (2200 GMT), he said. | Registration for addresses with the .masr ending would begin at midnight (2200 GMT), he said. |
| 'Astonishing' | |
| He said the new domain would "offer new avenues for innovation, investment and growth" in the Arabic-speaking world. | He said the new domain would "offer new avenues for innovation, investment and growth" in the Arabic-speaking world. |
| Egypt currently has 15 million internet users out of a total population of 80 million. | Egypt currently has 15 million internet users out of a total population of 80 million. |
| But international rights groups have warned of heavy government censorship inside the country, with several bloggers and political dissidents being arrested for "security reasons". | |
| On Sunday the Reporters Without Borders group criticised the choice of Egypt as venue for the IGF, saying it was "astonishing" that a government openly hostile to internet users had been assigned its organisation. | |
| The forum, set up by the UN, is being attended by more than 1,000 participants including government ministers, businesspeople and net luminaries. |