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Following on from ICANN's approval 6 months ago to start using non-Latin scripts for domain names, Egypst has introduced .misr (the Arabic name for Egypt). Depending on the browser and language packs installed, if a user mouses over a .misr link on a web page, they may see this in Arabic script. Will be interesting to see how this and forthcoming addtional non-Latin domain names impact on the language barrier aspect of the digital divide. Saudi Arabia and UAE have also set up their own new domain names - ".Al-Saudiah" and ".Emarat".

Six Months after the ICANN, approved the use of non-Latin domain names, Egypt launched "Misr" domain (the Arabic name for Egypt). A new perspective of Internet in the Arabic world.

The article looks at the growing global trend for net regulation. Our interest is where Australia, as a result of our drafted internet filtering system, fits in this global picture of regulation. Reporters Without Borders has drawn up lists which groups nations in terms of their level of regulation. Appropriately as a democracy Australia is not listed under "Enemies of the Internet" which names China, North Korea, Egypt and Cuba. Yet disconcertingly we are given the label of "Under Surveillance" which lists us alongside Turkey, Russia, South Korea and the UAE.

More evidence presented by Morozov on how the new media can serve the purposes of radical organizations. He is been arguing for a while that new media and new technologies (in this case the wikis) are not necessarily pro-western democratic tools.

Hilary Clinton, Secretary of State for the US has 'raised concerns' with Australian officials as part of the ongoing relationship between the countries on the plan to implement mandatory filtering. If the government succeeds, Australia will join the likes of Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Egypt, Iran and other countries often less than co-operative in foreign affairs.

It will be considered as a technical achievement in the history of the internet: the introduction of non-latin top level domain names. To date United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Russian Federation, and Egypt will now be able to view a complete domain name in arabic script. Western society probably failed to consider, until recently, the limiting effect of the internet's architecture for speakers of non-latin derived languages. In the same way technically disconnected rural communities form part of the digital divide, so to do inhabitants of countries that had no education in latin based languages. How does a browser support arabic script? The brower itself must support both the character sets of the language. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari all support arabic script.

The first domain names using the Cyrillic script are now available after Russia was assigned a new Cyrillic domain by ICANN. Ealier that month Arabic script was introduced in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. ICANN regards the new native-script domain names as a tool to make the web more global but critics fear that Russian authorities could be encouraged to follow China's example and introduce Internet censorship.