[news release] Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited (HKIRC) today announced the official launch of the full Chinese .香港 Internationalised Country Code Top Level Domain (.香港 domain name). HKIRC has received positive response during the half-month soft launch period, with about 20,000 .香港 domain names activated

ICANN has announced they believe they will garner support from the internet community and be in a position to launch the new generic Top Level Domains on 20 June at the beginning of their 41st public meeting to be held in Singapore. “We’ve had other timelines before, but not one that the community and the Board feels is so achievable as this one,” said Peter Dengate Thrush, Chairman of the Board of Directors. “Most of the hard issues are on the table or behind us.” Dengate Thrush made the comments in a video interview following ICANN’s 40th public meeting in San Francisco

Erick Iriarte, General Manager of the Latin American and Caribbean ccTLDs Organization (LACTLD) has announced his resignation to further his political ambitions in the upcoming Peruvian election. Iriarte is a candidate for the Peruvian Congress and will be missed at both regional and international meetings such as ICANN, being a very popular figure. During the last three years under Iriarte’s leadership, he was fundamental to LACTLD in strengthen its role in the regional and global arena, introducing a relevant number of workshops for the benefit of LACTLD membership.

Vint Cerf,one of the “Fathers of the Internet” will give the keynote speech at the the North American Regional At-Large Organization (NARALO) Showcase during ICANN’s 40th Meeting to be held in San Francisco.

The Africa Top Level Domains (AfTLD) organisation has announced it will be seeking to apply for the .AFRICA gTLD. AfTLD will be seeking a mandate to apply for and operate the new gTLD from the African Union and ICANN when it begins taking applications for new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs). “We are not just interested in .AFRICA only, but we want to also take on .AFRIQUE, which is the French version of .AFRICA

AfTLD announced recently that they are planning to apply for the .africa TLD .Moreover,Vika Mpisane,AfTLD’s Chairman and General Manager of .ZA, also announced that they are not planning only to apply for .africa,but they are also interested in .afrique . AfTLD plans to apply for .afrique because over 50 percent of Africa speaks French . Here is the press release : “Africa Top Level Domains (AfTLD) organisation has today announced its decision to seek a mandate from the African Union (AU) Commission and to apply to ICANN to manage the .africa registry.

The Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation and Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Verhagen officially opened the website de25jaarvan.nl to celebrate 25 years of the .NL (Netherlands) ccTLD at a launch ceremony in The Hague in February.

A screen shot of Data Storage Corporation’s website, featuring its newly renamed products (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Data protection and business continuity solutions provider Data Storage Corporation ( www.dscorp.net ) announced on Wednesday it has appointed Richard Rebetti to chief operating officer.  The move comes a few months after the company named Larry Putterman to its board of directors . Rebetti has more than 20 years of operational management and merger and acquisition experience at technology and telecommunications organizations, including one year with DSC.  As COO, he will be responsible for managing the company’s day-to-day operations, as well as overseeing its marketing and information systems functions

The announcement this week from ICANN that Employ Media, operators of the .JOBS gTLD, are in breach of their Registry Agreement has been quickly rebuked by the registry. In an announcement, Employ Media say they “view the substance of this notice to be a surprising reversal of position and contradictory to prior decisions issued by its Board of Directors. Further, we find the claims contained in the Notice to be utterly without merit.

Web Hosting News – NEW YORK, NY and ANDOVER, MA – Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) and NaviSite, Inc. (NASDAQ: NAVI) today announced that they have entered into an agreement under which Time Warner Cable will acquire NaviSite, a premier provider of enterprise-class hosting, managed application, messaging and cloud services, for $5.50 per share in cash, or a total equity value of approximately $230 million