WikiLeaks founder's chat foiled by heavy traffic

LONDON: An online question-and-answer session with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been crippled by heavy traffic but it's not immediately clear if The Guardian newspaper website is under a denial-of-service attack.

The Guardian said on one of its Twitter feeds that readers should be patient because the website is under heavy visitor loads.

Assange has not made a public appearance in nearly a month, although he has spoken to journalists over the Internet.

The 39-year-old Australian is wanted in Sweden for questioning on allegations of sexual misconduct.

Swedish authorities have issued a Europe-wide warrant for his arrest, while WikiLeaks has been forced to switch to a Swiss domain name after its American domain name provider withdrew service. Its sites have also been hit by denial-of-service attacks.