The XO Directory

The Spanish government's domain names is being held to ransom over water supply by a cybersquatter. The Spanish prime minister announced the creation of four new ministries but they failed to register the internet addresses and some was bought by someone else. The root cause - inequality of water supply to the autonomous regions of Spain.

An unnamed blogger from Alicante, south-east Spain, has said he will only return the four domain names, which follow the same format as all government ministries, if his demands are met.

He is calling for Mr Zapatero to introduce a nationwide system of transferring water from the River Ebro, which runs from the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean, to all of those regions in Spain that suffer water shortages.

Earlier this month a deal was struck to exclusively supply drought-stricken Barcelona with water from the river, a move that angered other regions who said it gave special concessions to Catalonia.

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