WikiLeaks faced a fresh threat to its survival on Saturday as the online payment service PayPal cut off the account used for donations to the whistleblowing Web site.
WikiLeaks is already fighting to stay on the Internet. It switched its domain to Switzerland because its original Web address was shut down by a US provider, as it continues to release thousands of classified US diplomatic cables.
At the same time, Sweden has issued an amended international arrest warrant for WikiLeaks’ frontman Julian Assange, who is believed to be in Britain, and the Times newspaper reported he could be arrested next week.
In a new blow to the Web site, the US-based PayPal, which is owned by auctions group eBay, announced it would stop taking donations for WikiLeaks thus cutting off a key source of its income.
“PayPal has permanently restricted the account used by WikiLeaks due to a violation of the PayPal acceptable use policy, which states that our payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity,” it said in a statement.
WikiLeaks blamed “US government pressure” for the PayPal ban, in a message on its Twitter feed.
Assange broke cover on Friday to say in an online chat that he had increased security after receiving death threats.
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The Philippines yesterday criticized a “high-risk” maneuver by a Chinese vessel near the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in a rare incident involving warships from the two navies. The Scarborough Shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks in the contested South China Sea — has been a flash point between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012. Taiwan also claims the shoal. Monday’s encounter took place approximately 11.8 nautical miles (22km) southeast” of the Scarborough Shoal, the Philippine military said, during ongoing US-Philippine military exercises that Beijing has criticized as destabilizing. “The Chinese frigate BN 554 was
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