Computerworld - over a month ago we got the first non-Latin scripted Top Level Domain, which were acquired by Arabic speaking countries: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt. ICANN has now also confirmed new top level domains in Chinese scripting, that will allow the registration of domain names entirely in symbolic language. So far, at least the ending (.cn) had to stand in Latin. Besides that whole domain name was already allowed in Chinese letters. New top level domains will be managed by China Internet Network Information Center, Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation and Taiwan Network Information Center.

The first domain name in Chinese characters is expected within the next three months. ICANN's Executive Director said that the new change will benefit one of every five people on the planet. This innovation certainly means a lot of work for Web applications developers and managers of various firewall filters, who will have to upgrade their white and black lists of domains. Domains, despite the presentation will be in different fonts, though still reachable thru Latin characters using punycode. You can check whether your browser already supports punycode on the ICANN's site.

The next countries in line for local domains are:  Tunisia, Qatar, Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in Arabic, Sri Lanka and the Tamil and Sinhalese in Thai Thailand…