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    Dear BC Members,<br>
    <br>
    Please find below an ICANN announcement released today:<br>
    <br>
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      <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
      <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><a
            moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-12apr12-en.htm">http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-12apr12-en.htm</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
      <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>
      <h1><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">TAS
          Temporarily Offline<br>
        </span><span class="date-display-single"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"
            lang="EN-US">12 April 2012</span></span><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
      <p><span
          style="font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"
          lang="EN-US">ICANN constantly monitors the performance of the
          TLD Application System (TAS). Recently, we received a report
          of unusual behavior with the operation of the TAS system. We
          then identified a technical issue with the TAS system
          software.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
      <p><span
          style="font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"
          lang="EN-US">ICANN is taking the most conservative approach
          possible to protect all applicants and allow adequate time to
          resolve the issue. Therefore, TAS will be shut down until
          Tuesday at 23:59 UTC - unless otherwise notified before that
          time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
      <p><span
          style="font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"
          lang="EN-US">In order to ensure all applicants have sufficient
          time to complete their applications during the disruption, the
          application window will remain open until 23:59 UTC on Friday,
          20 April 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
      <p><span
          style="font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"
          lang="EN-US">We apologize for any inconvenience this has
          caused. If you have any questions, please contact the gTLD
          Customer Service Center (CSC) via the CSC portal.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
      <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family:
          &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;" lang="EN-US"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>
      <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">Kind Regards,

Benedetta Rossi
BC Secretariat
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://community.icann.org/display/gnsobc/Home">https://community.icann.org/display/gnsobc/Home</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.bizconst.org">www.bizconst.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:bc-secretariat@icann.org">bc-secretariat@icann.org</a>
</pre>
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