Egypt applies for first Arabic domain name

(AP) -- Egypt's technology minister says the country has applied to register an all-Arabic domain name.

Information Technology Minister Tarek Kamel said Monday that the measure will make the Internet accessible to the millions in the region unable to access an Internet dominated by Latin characters.

He said at a U.N. sponsored Internet conference that his government had filed an application to register the domain ".masr", written entirely in Arabic. The name means ".Egypt".

The application came on the first day that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, an Internet oversight agency, opened the door for registering non-Latin script domains.

ICANN chief executive Rod Beckstrom said so far six countries submitted applications for domains in three languages.

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