Microsoft tracks DST, Summer Time and time zone changes around the world. As we learn of possible changes, we validate these with te local government to confirm the change. (I've seen some reports that were incorrectly reported by third parties.) In the case of Iraq, we had reports from customers and staff in the region, so we have followed the change closely and call them out to major, multinational customers impacted by the change.
At Microsoft (as noted at
http://blogs.msdn.com/mthree/archive/2008/03/27/iraq-dst-not-032708.aspx) product teams are moving to a semi-annual update cadence, following the Windows regular cadence for publishing newly legislated DST rules and time zone updates. The annual "Cumulative DST and Time Zone Updates" will be released in November/ December for the coming calendar year, and we'll also provide for a semi-annual update in the July/August timeframe when needed. In some cases we may not be able to accomodate a late-breaking change (as was teh case in Argentina over New Years.
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