Since April 2009, DNS BE has blocked almost 200,000 .BE-domain names upon the advice of ICANN. When using the whois, the status ‘blocked’ was shown for these names. … more

Telnic have announced that as of 15 June registrants of .TEL domain names will be able to register their domain in any of sixteen languages. … more

The .YU country code Top Level Domain slid into darkness on Tuesday when it stopped functioning at midday local time. … more

The sex.com sale, or non-sale, is back in the news with a couple of stories about it. In one, Reuters is reporting “a lender which claims it is owed millions by the Sex.com [registrant] is asking a U.S. bankruptcy court to dismiss an involuntary bankruptcy case against the company, so it can resume a foreclosure auction, according to new court documents.” … more

With the by-line that “delay is a fact of life at ICANN” and that “dates are subject to change”, Minds + Machines have published a new timeline for the introduction of new generic Top Level Domains. The timeline follows a post-Nairobi webinar from ICANN board member Bruce Tonkin. … more

One has to wonder where people get the ideas for new generic Top Level Domains. The latest (seemingly not thought through) idea for a new gTLD to be made public is .MLS. What does “MLS” stand for I hear you ask? At least I did. … more

The GNSO Council is seeking comments regarding the commencement of a policy development process on the topic of vertical integration¹ between registries and registrars. The public comment period ends on 18 April 2010. … more

In order to provide additional time for candidates to apply, ICANN’s 2010 Nominating Committee (NomCom) has extended the deadline for Statements of Interest until 15 April 2010 23:59 UTC. The 2010 NomCom is actively seeking qualified candidates for the following key positions within ICANN: … more

There were two six-figure domain name sales in Domain Name Journal’s list of reported sales in the week to March 14. The top seller was musicvideos.com, sold by Sedo for $250,000. … more

As part of the ongoing review of .nz policies, three policies are now being reviewed. The policies being reviewed are: Process on de-authorisation of a Registrar - Consultation, Transfer to another Registrar - Consultation and Roles and Responsibilities - Consultation. … more

On 19 February 2010, the Independent Review Panel issued its Declaration in the Independent Review filed by ICM Registry challenging ICANN’s denial of ICM’s application for the .XXX sTLD. … more

Guns.com was the top reported sale in the week to March 7 on Domain Name Journal’s weekly list of domain name sales, selling for $800,000. The sale was far bigger the second top sale, guagua.com, which sold for $100,000. … more

Following Google’s move to leave China, the registrar Go Daddy has announced it to is going to stop offering .CN domain name registration in testimony before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. … more

ICANN this week gave preliminary approval to four countries and two territories in five language scripts for additional internationalised domain names (IDNs) as part of its IDN Fast Track Process. … more

A global trade association for the adult entertainment industry has written to ICANN expressing their outrage at the prospect of a .XXX top level domain, saying the proposal is “not of the industry and that the proposal does not have the community’s support. … more