No big decisions in non-English domain talks
Weeklong talks in India about the creation of online domain names entirely in languages other than English led to greater understanding but no major decisions, the chief executive of the Internet's key oversight agency said Friday. At issue is a proposed "fast-track" mechanism for specific countries to get non-English suffixes -- the ".com" part of Internet addresses. For example, many Internet users in China would like to see a Chinese-character equivalent of the ".cn" suffix.Under one scenario, each country would be entitled to one non-English suffix while work continues on resolving broader challenges, such as how to make sure a domain in one language isn't inadvertently offensive in another.
Paul Twomey, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the U.S. group tasked with overseeing domain name issues, said a working group may make recommendations by ICANN's next major meeting in Paris in June.
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