GPM Group

Egypt’s communications minister Tarek Kamel earlier today announced the introduction of the first Arabic top level domain (TLD), in a step easing Internet access to millions of Arabic speakers around the world.

From midnight (2200 GMT), registration will begin for the .misr (the romanized Arabic name for the country of Egypt),  country code top-level domain (ccTLD).   Tarek Kamel made the annoucement earlier at the  fourth meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) held in Egypt’s  Sharm el-Sheikh Read Sea resort.

AFP Press release here

Afilias have just announced their RFP (Request for Proposals) for the reallocation of “Old Sunrise names”

“Afilias is accepting proposals from parties that wish to register one or more of the domain names subject to the Program (“Proposals”). Proposals shall be evaluated on the manner in which the applicant proposes to enhance the .INFO brand through its use of the domain name(s).”

Proposals are sort for around 1200 names and includes names like

America.info,
Aspen.info,
London.info,
Lottery.info,
Music.info,
Scotland.info and Tech.info.

Cost $250 per application.

Press release

List of .info domain names to be made available to the program.

The judges for the 2009 .info awards competition have selected the top 10 finalists allowing you to vote for your favourite .info site

The final 10 are

 
Cast your vote here (closed)

Press release here

The 2009 Afilias .INFO Awards are open to any .INFO site owner, in any country.

The call for entry opens on October 7, 2009 and runs through October 23, 2009. No submissions will be accepted after 11:59 p.m. October 23, 2009.

Details @ http://www.info-award.info/about

US$7500 – 1st Prize
US$5000 – 2nd Prize
US$3000 – 3rd Prize

Sedo has just completed it’s auction of  1 character .biz names rasing $369,195*. The highest price made was $66,001 for e.biz

$32,003 … 1.biz
$  5,801 … 2.biz
$  7,601 … 4.biz
$  7,601 … 5.biz
$  8,100 … 6.biz
$  7,877 … 7.biz
$  8,200 … 8.biz
$  7,901 … 9.biz
$10,099 … a.biz
$10,005 … b.biz
$  8,988 … c.biz
$26,110 … d.biz
$66,001 … e.biz
$  8,250 … f.biz
$  9,400 … g.biz
$  8,177 … h.biz
$  8,250 … j.biz
$  6,900 … k.biz
$  7,999 … l.biz
$15,611 … m.biz
$  8,001 … n.biz
$  7,878 … p.biz
$  8,855 … r.biz
$  8,211 … s.biz
$  7,602 … t.biz
$10,099 … u.biz
$  6,100 … v.biz
$13,500 … w.biz
$10,099 … x.biz
$  8,988 … y.biz
$  8,988 … z.biz

* These results were noted during the live auction so may contain errors. Also some of the domains sold may not have been paid for yet.

o.biz is to launch on the 31st October aiming to give small businesses and customers the opportunity to buy large quantities at deep discounts for restaurant, office, and hotel products.

Overstock.com Chairman and CEO Patrick Byrne said the .biz extension was chosen because “The .BIZ extension is appealing to growing, innovative businesses. Our goal is to have O.BIZ help small to medium-size businesses save money by leveraging the purchasing power of Overstock.com.”

Overstock’s o.biz press release here