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By CASSANDRA VINOGRAD and RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press


      LONDON (AP) - A British judge denied Julian Assange bail on
Tuesday after the WikiLeaks founder told a London court he would
fight efforts to extradite him to Sweden to face a sex-crimes
investigation.


      The secret-spilling websites' finances came under increasing
pressure as both Visa and Mastercard cut off funding methods, but a
WikiLeaks spokesman insisted details from classified U.S.
diplomatic cables would keep flowing - regardless of what happened
to the group's founder.


      "This will not change our operation," Kristinn Hrafnsson told
The Associated Press. As if to underline the point, WikiLeaks
released a cache of a dozen new diplomatic cables, its first
publication in more than 24 hours.


      Assange appeared Tuesday afternoon at the City of Westminster
Magistrates' Court in London after turning himself in to Scotland
Yard earlier in the day. He showed no reaction as Judge Howard
Riddle denied him bail and sent him into U.K. custody.


      Assange and his lawyers claim the Swedish accusations from two
women stem from a "dispute over consensual but unprotected sex"
dating back to August, and have claimed the case has taken on
political overtones. Swedish officials have rejected those claims.


      Assange faces rape and sexual molestation allegations in one
case and sexual molestation and unlawful coercion in the other. He
denies the allegations.

      Riddle asked the 39-year-old Australian whether he understood
that he could consent to be extradited to Sweden. Assange, dressed
in a navy blue suit, cleared his throat and said: "I understand
that and I do not consent."


      The decision to fight the extradition could be difficult.
Extradition experts say that European arrest warrants like the one
issued by Sweden can be tough to beat, barring mental or physical
incapacity. Even if the warrant was defeated on a technicality,
Sweden could simply issue a new one.


      Assange's website, meanwhile, came under increasing financial
pressure Tuesday - with both Visa and MasterCard saying they would
block payments to the controversial website.


      In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, Visa Inc. said
it was taking steps "to suspend Visa payment acceptance on
WikiLeaks' website pending further investigation into the nature of
its business and whether it contravenes Visa operating rules."


      MasterCard sent a similar statement, saying it would suspend
payments "until the situation is resolved."


      The move chokes off two important funding avenues for WikiLeaks,
a loosely knit group of activists who rely on individual donations
to fund their operations.


      PayPal Inc., a popular online payment service, has already cut
its links to the website, while Swiss authorities closed Assange's
new Swiss bank account on Monday, freezing tens of thousands of
euros, according to his lawyers.


      WikiLeaks is still soliciting donations through bank transfers
to affiliates in Iceland and Germany, as well as by mail to an
address at University of Melbourne in Australia.


      Swedish lawyer Bjorn Hurtig said it was difficult to say how
long the extradition process in Britain would take - anywhere from
a week to two months. He said if Assange was extradited to Sweden,
he wouldn't be kept in detention after he's been questioned,
"because it's been for the sake of the questioning that he's been
detained."


      Beginning in July, WikiLeaks angered the U.S. government by
releasing tens of thousands of secret U.S. military documents on
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That was followed last week by
the ongoing release of what WikiLeaks says will eventually be a
quarter-million cables from U.S. diplomatic posts around the world.
The group provided those documents to five major newspapers, which
have been working with WikiLeaks to edit the cables for
publication.


      The U.S. government launched a criminal investigation, saying
the group has jeopardized U.S. national security and diplomatic
efforts around the world.


      U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, visiting with Afghan
President Hamid Karzai and U.S. troops in Afghanistan, was pleased
by news of Assange's arrest.


      "That sounds like good news to me," he said Tuesday.


      Yet WikiLeaks has also seen an online army of supporters come to
its aid, sending donations, fighting off computer attacks and
setting up over 500 mirror sites around the world to make sure that
the secret documents are published regardless of what happens to
Assange.


      Hrafnsson also said the group had no plans at the moment to
release the key to a heavily encrypted version of some of its most
important documents - an "insurance" file that has been
distributed to supporters in case of an emergency.


      Hrafnsson said that will only come into play if "grave
matters" involving WikiLeaks staff occur - but did not elaborate
on what those would be.

Gallery

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Science

Crime, Law and Justice

A British judge denied Julian Assange bail on
Tuesday after the WikiLeaks founder told a London court he would
fight efforts to extradite him to Sweden to face a sex-crimes
investigation.

Judge denies WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange bail

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