First Arabic domain name
Egypt 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 the fourth meeting of the UN sponsored Internet Governance Forum held in Sharm el-Sheikh last week that his government had filed an application to register the domain “.masr”, meaning “.Egypt”. written entirely in Arabic. 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.
Niger floods victims
Egypt has extended relief assistance to those affected by the flood that hit northern Niger##s Agadez region. The Egyptian embassy in Niamey handed over the assistance to the head of the humanitarian aid department at the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Humanitarian Action in Niger, to be sent directly to the affected region.
Telecom Egypt Cyprus
Telecom Egypt (TE) and Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CYTA) have signed an agreement to extend Telecom Egypt’s TEN Cable System to Cyprus, a TE official recently said. As part of this cooperation, CYTA will purchase a fiber-pair on TEN, capable of transporting a terabit of telecommunications capacity from Cyprus to Egypt and Europe. TE will in turn transport CYTA traffic to locations in Europe and Asia. The cable system is being installed with underwater branching units, which enable TEN to extend to other Mediterranean countries in the future, including Greece.
Diesel to Bangladesh
Egypt-based Middle East Oil Refineries (MIDOR) has agreed to supply state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) with 60,000 tons of diesel for consumption during January-June period of next year, Reuters has reported. The deal aims to diversify sources of fuel as demand rises sharply, BPC said. MIDOR had approved Bangladesh’s proposal to sell diesel at a premium of USD3.90 per barrel, which is lower than the rates offered by Gulf refineries.
Women enslavement
Last Sunday saw the convention of a seminar on women trafficking and the human rights of women at the Institute of Social and Criminal Studies in Cairo. The conference focused on “Women enslavement in modern age, its reasons, and sexual abuse of women in the Egyptian community”, and tackled governmental efforts to combat early marriage and protect women against trafficking.
Merit for Kamel
President of Finland Tarja Halonen has bestowed the “White Flower” Merit of the First Class on Abdel-Moneim Kamel, Head of the Cairo Opera House. The step came in appreciation of Dr Kamel’s efforts over the past years to secure fruitful relations between the Egyptian Opera troupes and their Finnish counterparts.
Fur passage
A ginger-and-white kitten which found its way into a container in Port Said has survived a two-week journey to England. The kitten was near death when it was discovered as the MV Maersk Batam docked in the port of Felixstowe. “He was very happy to see us,” the dockworker who found him said. Dockers named him Pharaoh and gave him water and a meat sandwich, which he wolfed down. Pharaoh will have to spend time in quarantine before he can be given a new home.