Iraqi sovereignty won't extend online

[GreenPartyVoter]

AP) -- When an interim government takes over from the U.S.-led occupation next week, Iraq will regain its place among the world's sovereign nations -- except on the Internet.

More than 240 places have their own two-letter Internet country codes, from ".ac" for Ascension Island to ".zw" for Zimbabwe. There's even ".ps" for the Palestinian territories.

But the domain assigned to Iraq, ".iq," is stuck in a strange bureaucratic limbo -- the company that had administered it is under U.S. criminal indictment -- and could remain there for months.

As a result, if Iraq's government, national institutions or regular Iraqis want a Web site, they need to use international domains, such as ".com," ".org" or ".net", which are maintained in the United States.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/06/25/iraq.online.ap/index.html