BBC News - Web domains to get major overhaul with custom names

Applications will soon open for new top-level domains in the biggest change to the system in over two decades.

Registering a new custom top-level domain will cost approximately $185,000 (£120,000)

From Thursday it will be possible to register almost any word as a web address suffix.

Familiar endings like .com and .org could potentially be joined by the likes of .pepsi, .virgin or .itv.

The proposals are controversial but Icann, the organisation which regulates domain names, says the change increases choice and competition.

In December, the US Federal Trade Commission wrote to Icann warning that the expansion of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) "has the potential to magnify both the abuse of the domain name system and the corresponding challenges we encounter in tracking down Internet fraudsters."

And in the US, the Association of National Advertisers, whose members include some of America's biggest companies, have also opposed the changes.

Not cheap

But Peter Dengate Thrush, a former chairman of Icann's board of directors, said the change was necessary.

"It's badly in need of overhaul," he told the BBC.

"No-one would design a domain name system now for several billion users just using a couple of names that we started the system with in 1985."

Mr Dengate Thrush is currently chairman of Top Level Domains Holdings, a company developing registry services for top level domains.

At a cost of $185,000 (£120,000) just to apply, obtaining one of the new names is a serious financial commitment.

"Probably you are closer to half a million dollars to get it off the ground," said Jonathan Robinson, a non-executive director of Afilias, a registry operator which manages extensions like .mobi and .info.

The cost has lead to concern among some non-profit organisations that they will have to spend considerable sums defending themselves from cyber squatters.

Last month, the Reuters agency reported that the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and 26 other international organisations wrote to Icann asking it to protect suffixes like .imf from cyber squatters.

Deadline approaching

In spite of the cost there has been significant interest in applying for the new general top-level domains before the deadline for applications closes in April, according to companies advising on registrations.

"We're already working on over 100 applications - we're expecting that to increase," said Stuart Durham of Melbourne IT DBS.

He said around 25% of those had been "from Fortune 500 companies", with the majority of interest from the retail and financial services sectors.

As well as brand names, Mr Durham said there is likely to be a lively interest in place names.

"A lot of the geographic extensions that are being discussed like .london or .nyc will have a very good solid business case," he said.

"We've recently had extensions like .cat for the Catalan community that's done very well as well."

However, Mr Dengate Thrush worried this could lead to some conflict issues with places like Wellington, capital of his native country New Zealand, which shares its name with other places around the world.

"I think there are about 20 or 30 other cities called Wellington." However, he believed the systems set in place by Icann will ensure these issues can be successfully negotiated.

Cyber squatting

Even those who support the change foresee some issues.

"I would say it's almost certainly a good thing," Afilia's Mr Robinson told the BBC.

However, he says "you open up a whole new second tier of real estate that could be cyber squatted".

But Mr Durham thinks that there's very little that could be done to eradicate malicious squatters and others seeking to exploit the system.

"Cockroaches would survive a nuclear attack," he said.

"Some cyber squatters and infringers would too."

The new domains could make using web addresses more complicated and confusing

BBC News - China export growth slows on weak demand from Europe

Growth in China's exports slowed in December because of sluggish demand from the US and Europe.

China's politically charged trade surplus shrank for the third year in a row in 2011

Exports rose by 13.4% from a year earlier, which was less than November's year-on-year rise of 13.8%.

Import growth during December also slowed, rising 11.8% compared with the previous year, considerably lower than the 22.1% growth in November.

The latest figures could fuel worries that the world's second largest economy is losing steam.

"Our forecast for gross domestic product is already the lowest in the market. This trade data basically confirms our view that the first quarter is going to be very tough," said Zhang Zhiwei, chief China economist at Nomura in Hong Kong.

China's Vice Commerce Minister Zhong Shan also commented on Monday that the country's foreign trade environment could be bleak in 2012, as demand declines.

BBC News - Iran's uranium enrichment is escalation, says US

The US has said Iran's enrichment of uranium at an underground site is "a further escalation" of its ongoing violation of UN resolutions.

Satellite images showed the Fordo site under construction in 2009

The warning comes after the UN's nuclear watchdog confirmed that Tehran had begun enriching uranium up to 20% at its northern Fordo plant.

Analysts say 20% enrichment is an important step towards making uranium weapons-grade, but Tehran says it is for purely peaceful purposes.

The UK and France condemned the move.

'Provocative act'

In Washington, state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Monday that enrichment works at Fordo, near the city of Qom, raised further doubts about Tehran's peaceful intentions.

"We call on Iran once again to suspend enrichment activities, co-operate fully with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and immediately comply with all (UN) Security Council and IAEA board of governors resolutions," she said.

In Paris, a statement by the foreign ministry said the Iranian move "leaves us with no other choice but to reinforce international sanctions and to adopt, with our European partners and all willing countries, measures of an intensity and severity without precedent".

British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the "provocative act which further undermines Iran's claims that its programme is entirely civilian in nature".

Earlier on Monday, a spokeswoman for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Gill Tudor, said the agency could "confirm that Iran has started the production of uranium enriched up to 20%".

She added that "all nuclear material in the facility remains under the agency's containment and surveillance".

Iran insists enriched uranium is needed to make isotopes to treat cancers.

The existence of the facility near Qom, in the north of the country, only came to light after it was identified by Western intelligence agencies in September 2009.

Tehran said it began the project in 2007, but the IAEA believes design work started in 2006.

BBC Iran correspondent James Reynolds says the facility has attracted plenty of attention and suspicion.

It is underground, heavily fortified and protected by the armed forces - making it a very difficult target for air strikes.

The US and Israel have refused to rule out attacks on Iranian facilities.

Atomic bomb joke

Earlier on Monday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei insisted Iran would not bow to pressure from the West.

"The Islamic establishment... knows firmly what it is doing and has chosen its path and will stay the course," he said in a speech broadcast on state television.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - who is currently on a visit to Venezuela - received a strong backing from President Hugo Chavez.

"They present us as aggressors," the Venezuelan leader said, referring to US government officials. "Iran hasn't invaded anyone. Who has dropped thousands and thousands of bombs... including atomic bombs?"

The Iranian and Venezuelan presidents also joked about having an atomic bomb at their disposal.

"That hill will open up and a big atomic bomb will come out," Mr Chavez said, laughing.

"The imperialist spokesmen say... Ahmadinejad and I are going into the Miraflores (presidential palace) basement now to set our sights on Washington and launch cannons and missiles... It's laughable."

Tensions have been high since the US imposed new sanctions on Iran's central bank and the European Union said it would place an embargo on Iran's oil exports.

EU foreign ministers are due to meet to approve the embargo later this month.

Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz - a key route from the Gulf through which 20% of the world's traded oil passes.

Defence Secretary Leon Panetta warned on Sunday that such a move would cross a "red line" and "we would take action and reopen the strait".

Adding to the strains, a court in Tehran on Monday sentenced to death an Iranian-American man accused of being a CIA spy.

Amir Mirzai Hekmati, 28, a former US marine, had been show on state television in December allegedly confessing to being part of a plot to infiltrate Iran's intelligence services for the CIA.

Our correspondent says Iran's judicial and political systems place huge emphasis on the importance of confessions, which are viewed with concern by human rights groups.

Mr Hekmati's family, who live in Arizona, say the charges against him are fabricated and that he was in Iran to visit his grandmothers. The US has demanded his release.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez lavished each other with praise

BBC News - New loans beat forecast, as authorities ease credit

China's lending and money supply grew at a faster pace than expected as the country relaxed its credit restrictions.

Analysts say China's central bank is shifting its policy towards growth

New loans worth 640.5bn yuan ($101bn; £65.6bn) were issued in December, up from 562.2bn yuan in November.

Last month, the central bank cut the amount of money banks have to hold in reserve for the first time since 2008.

Chinese authorities are seen to be spurring domestic growth amid fears of a slowdown in the US and Europe.

China had previously been struggling to tame high inflation and therefore the central bank had been tightening monetary policy.

However, analysts said the lending figures out on Sunday show a shift in policy towards easing to encourage lending.

"The policy easing signal is becoming clearer," said Wang Hu, from Guotai Junan Securities in Shanghai. "We think the central bank will continue to loosen credit in the coming months."

Beating estimates

Both lending and money supply growth beat analysts' expectations.

China's total cash in circulation and all deposits rose by 13.6% in December compared to the same month last year.

This is a higher rate of increase than November's money supply figure, which was up 12.7% on the year before.

Analysts had been expecting money supply to grow to 12.9%. New loans were expected to hit 580bn yuan in December.

"Fine tuning"

The central bank said in a statement on Sunday that it will leave the option to 'fine tune' measures open while maintaining a prudent monetary policy.

This echoed comments from Premier Wen Jiabao after a two-day financial policy meeting that authorities would leave room to adjust policy as needed.

Analysts said this suggests that China may be open to further easing of its credit restrictions, including another cut to bank reserve ratios in coming weeks.

BBC News - ANC at 100: Thousands attend celebration rally

South African President Jacob Zuma has addressed a rally to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the African National Congress.

Jacob Zuma spoke of "the building of a united democratic, non-racial and non-sexist society"

He said the occasion was a joyous celebration for all the people of South Africa, not just for the ANC and its members.

Tens of thousands of South Africans are attending the rally in Bloemfontein to mark the centenary.

Frail health has prevented Nelson Mandela from attending the events.

President Zuma paid tribute to all his predecessors as ANC leader, including the 93 year old, who led the party to power after the end of apartheid. Nelson Mandela has not attended any public engagements since the start of the 2010 World Cup.

The crowd responded with a huge cheer when Mr Mandela's name was read out.

Mr Zuma said the centenary was an emotional and yet very exciting and moving occasion.

The celebration was for "all the people of South Africa who with the support of the continent and the world destroyed colonial oppression and apartheid and are building a free, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa together," he said.

The president added that it had been a long road since 1652 when settlers first arrived in South Africa.

Looking back at the development of the ANC, Mr Zuma said it now stood for the democratic values of equality. He quoted the preamble to the ANC's freedom charter: "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people."

'Broad church'

Jacob Zuma paid tribute to the many people and organisations who worked together to bring about a non-racial South Africa.

He said the ANC was "a disciplined force of the left with a bias towards the poor," but was also a broad church that was home to all.

One of the biggest strengths of the movement was the fact that its supporters were "nationalists, Marxists, Africanists, workers, capitalists, women, men, youth, rural and urban, rich and poor," he said.

The president told the crowd that the ANC had achieved a 1942 resolution that by its centenary the movement should have one million members. The ANC now has 1,027,389 members, he announced, to cheers from the stadium.

In 2012 the ANC would be taking "urgent and practical steps" to revitalise its grass roots and once again place itself at the forefront of a progressive pace of change, he said.

Education and skills development would be at the centre of its transformation, said Mr Zuma. The party would seek to stamp out factionalism and "promote political discipline," he added.

Criticism

African and world leaders, as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and African-American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, are also in Bloemfontein for the celebrations.

They attended a gala dinner on Saturday night, and an interfaith service on Sunday at the Wesleyan Church in Mangaung, just outside Bloemfontein, where chiefs, church leaders and other prominent people gathered on 8 January 1912 to create the liberation movement.

A torch carrying the centenary flame, lit by Mr Zuma at midnight, was housed in a glass case at the front of the church.

The flame was brought to the stadium for the rally at Bloemfontein's Free State stadium.

Mr Zuma began Saturday's celebrations by leading the ritual slaughter of a black bull to remember, he said, "our ancestors, to remember our own gods in a traditional way".

The weekend of events in Bloemfontein began on Friday with a golf tournament. Andrew Mlangeni, who joined the party in 1951 and spent years in prison on Robben Island with Mr Mandela, took the opening shot.

The tournament was criticised by commentators as a sign of the ruling party's growing elitism - accusations dismissed by ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu who said the party embraced "all sporting codes".

The opposition has also criticised the amount of money being spent on the year-long ANC centenary celebrations - a total of $12m (£8m).

While the ANC is hailed as Africa's oldest and most famous liberation movement, its reputation is being tarnished by corruption scandals, political infighting and reports of officials leading flashy lifestyles - and many South Africans believe the party has not done enough to improve the lives of the poor.

President Zuma said the ANC was a "broad church" which was home to all

BBC News - Pace of US service sector growth quickens in December

The pace of the US service sector's growth picked up in December, according to a new report.

An independent report claims the US jobs market expanded sharply in December

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its services index rose to 52.6 last month from 52 in November. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.

The ISM survey of US services covers industries ranging from utilities and retailing, to healthcare and finance.

It comes on the same day a survey showed numbers of new private sector jobs in the US surged in December.

The ADP National Employment Report's December job tally rose by 325,000 - compared to 204,000 in November.

The figure, released on Thursday, was almost double the 178,000 estimated by economists.

It comes a day before an official government report is expected to show that the US economy added 150,000 public and private sector jobs last month.

Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at John Thomas Financial in New York, said the ADP report was "stunning".

He said: "This is another data point that shows our economy is healing.

"It fits in well with improvements we've seen in consumer sentiment, and obviously that's because there are more people getting paychecks, which is making everyone happier."

BBC News - Euro drops to 16-month low over bank concerns

The euro has dropped to its lowest rate against the dollar and pound in 16 months, as concerns continue over the health of Europe's banks.

Weaker demand for benchmark French 10-year bonds weighed on bank shares

The euro fell as low as $1.2780 against the dollar and was at an 11-year low versus the yen.

Against the pound, it fell to 82.52p, the lowest since September 2010.

Markets were unsettled after France's cost of borrowing rose and a Spanish minister suggested its banks may face a higher bad loan bill.

Bank stocks dropped, with shares in Italy's UniCredit at a 19-year low.

Luis de Guindos, Spain's economy minister, told the Financial Times that its banks may face up to 50bn euros ($64.2bn, £41.3bn) in new bad loans - higher than previous public estimates by the government.

On Thursday, Spain also unveiled more austerity measures - after outlining 8.9bn euros in new spending cuts and tax rises last week.

Spain said its social security deficit was worse than expected in 2011 and aims to recover 8.2bn euros that has been lost to tax fraud this year.

This is the latest in a wave of austerity measures, with a total of 16.5bn euros to be cut in 2012.

French bank stocks closed lower, with Societe Generale down 5.4% and BNP Paribas down 5.3%.

Germany's Deutsche Bank fell almost 6%, with Commerzbank down 4.5%.

Spain's Santander dropped 4.5%. Italy's UniCredit fell 17% before its shares were suspended for the second day in a row.

Italy and Spain - both passing painful spending cuts - will have to sell billions of debt in the coming months.

French debt sale

France sold 8bn euros of bonds at an auction, paying an interest rate of 3.29% to borrow for 10 years, up from 3.18% at the last sale in December.

Many investors fear that France is poised to lose its top credit rating, making it more expensive to borrow.

In December, France saw its AAA credit rating placed on negative outlook by rating agency Fitch.

Fitch said the change in outlook was prompted by the heightened risk of government liabilities arising from the eurozone's debt crisis.

At Thursday's sale, demand from investors for the benchmark 10-year bonds had fallen.

The bid-to-cover ratio was 1.64, almost half of the 3.05 it was in the December auction.

France introduced a 65bn-euro austerity plan in November.

The gap, or spread, on French bonds compared to comparable debt from Germany - Europe's largest economy - hit record highs last year.