Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

WikiLeaks back online

Updated at 6:06 am on 4 December 2010

WikiLeaks is back online with using a Swiss web address after a series of mass cyber attacks.

The website was shut down by its domain name service provider which said the attacks were threatening its operation.

A new address - wikileaks.ch - was put online six hours after the original site wikileaks.org was killed.

The ABC reports an internet trace of the new domain name suggests that the site itself is still hosted in Sweden and in France.

Experts say it is likely that Wikileaks has done deals with lots of web hosting companies

The BBC reports there is also a published list of mirror sites.

In France, Industry Minister Eric Besson has called for a ban of Wikileaks on French servers.

One of the mirror sites, Wikileaks.ch, is currently hosted on servers in France.

Wikileaks says its website has been under attack since it began publishing more than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables.

British media reported on Thursday that Scotland Yard could arrest the site's founder, Julian Assange.

Prosecutors in Sweden want to question Mr Assange over accusations sex offences involving two women during a visit to Stockholm in August.

Mr Assange, 39, denies the allegations.

The Independent newspaper reports police know Mr Assange's whereabouts in England and are expected to arrest him in coming days.

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