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Another small Pacific island, Niue, also shares a similar relationship with New Zealand - it is internally self-governing but relies on Wellington for defence and most foreign affairs.

All he wanted in exchange was the right to control the .nu suffix that Niue was assigned for its web addresses.

“Nu” means now in Swedish, Danish and Dutch, and thousands of Scandinavians registered websites with that suffix, creating a steady business for Niue’s business partner, Bill Semich.

Niue, an oval-shaped coral island of about 100 square miles of area, about the size of Lincoln, Neb., felt it had been cheated out of a reliable stream of cash that would have helped it reduce its reliance on tourism and foreign aid.

It had also rented out its international dialing code, until Niue’s deeply Christian residents started being awakened at midnight by wayward phone sex calls from Japan.