Paul Twomey has been in Dubai for the ICANN regional meeting last week, in part telling participants internet users in the Middle East may be able to petition to have TLDs specific to the Middle East, such as .arab, by the end of 2008. The article notes that if things go according to plan, those domain names may even be in Arabic. However Paul Twomey said problems may occur if there are IDN TLDs such as cyber-squatting, typo-squatting and domaining.
To read the full article in The Gulf News, see www.gulfnews.com/technology/internet/10203231.html.