WikiLeaks registers domain in Switzerland, After US blackout

Wikileaks, an international publishing service for whistle-blowers, registered its domain name in Switzerland on Friday, hours after the United States shut down its official website.

Within hours of an American provider of internet domain names withdrawing its service to WikiLeaks website after a barrage of attacks by hackers that threatened to destabilize its entire system, the website registered its domain name in Switzerland, the New York Times reported.

The website is now available in the new domain name wikileaks.ch, the report claimed.

American domain name provider EveryDNS, terminating WikiLeaks domain name at around 4 am Central European time on Friday, said in a statement: ?The services were terminated for violation of the provision which states that a ?member shall not interfere with another member?s use and enjoyment of the service or another entity?s use and enjoyment of similar services.??

It said wikileaks.org ?has become the target of multiple distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks.? Such attacks usually involve bombarding a Web site with attacks, preventing legitimate users from access and designed to make a targeted Web site unavailable.

?These attacks have, and future attacks would, threaten the stability of the EveryDNS.net infrastructure, which enables access to almost 500,000 other Web sites,? the statement said.

WikiLeaks official Twitter account had on Friday confirmed the termination of its service by the American provider.

?WikiLeaks,org domain killed by US after claimed mass attacks KEEP US STRONG,? posted Wikileaks.

Wikileaks also posted links on the micro-blogging site, asking for donations and support. ?At one cable per hour, it will take WikiLeaks 28.6 years to release them all. Speed us up!?

Earlier, a tweet on Thursday read: ?WikiLeaks is the first global Samizdat movement. The truth will surface even in the face of total annihilation.?

?We are currently under a mass distributed denial of service attack,? Wikileaks had said in a tweet on Nov 28.

Defying disapproval of the White House, WikiLeaks on last Sunday had released nearly 250,000 diplomatic cables from U.S. embassies across the world from the past three years uncloaking the backroom bargains of world leaders and insight into their fears as well as the concerns of USA.

As with last time, diplomatically distressing details come to light in installments as journalists, from media houses to whom WIkiLeaks dumped the cables on to, drudge through the piles of confidential data.

A little over a month ago, the whistle-blower website had released the largest classified military leak in history in the form of the Iraq warlogs that told the grim stories of civilian deaths and torture of prisoners by the Iraqi forces during the war and occupation of the country as the US chose to turn a blind eye.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Police Organisation or INTERPOL on Dec 1 said it has issued look out notice for arrest of WikiLeaks’ owner Julian Assange on suspicion of rape charges on the basis of the Swedish Government’s arrest warrant.

The INTERPOL in its website posted a request asking its member’ countries help to arrest the 39-year-old Australian after a specific request from the Swedish Government.

There has been public ‘Red Notice’ on behalf of Sweden, INTERPOL said.

The Sweden’s International Public Prosecution Office, Gothenburg, released the arrest warrant on Nov 18, saying Julian Assange has been wanted for alleged suspected rape, molestation and unlawful coercion.