Swiss authorities stripped WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of a key fundraising tool Monday -- his new bank account -- and the secret-spilling web site fended off more suspected computer attacks as it maneuvered to stay online.

Scotland Yard was now considering the Swedish arrest warrant for Assange, who is staying at an undisclosed location in Britain, the BBC reported. It didn't cite its source and the U.K. police force declined to comment. WikiLeaks tweeted that UK has received the warrant and "may issue it shortly."

In contrast to official moves against the group, an unlikely band of computer-savvy advocates were riding to its rescue, determined to ensure free information via the Internet. These geek-warriors described their efforts as new form of guerrilla combat, where sophisticated online protests were replacing traditional street marches.

"It's the start of the information war, it really looks like that," said Pascal Gloor, vice president of the Swiss Pirate Party, whose Swiss Web address, wikileaks.ch, has been serving as a mainstay for WikiLeaks traffic.

Wikileaks struggled to stay online Friday as corporations and governments moved to cut its access to the Internet, a potentially crippling blow for an organization dedicated to releasing secret information via the web.

The American company that hosted the website wikileaks.org stopped late Thursday after cyber attacks threatened the rest of its network. WikiLeaks responded by moving to a Swiss domain name, wikileaks.ch -- and calling on activists for support. Two companies host the Swiss domain name, one of which is in France. The other is in Sweden.

On Friday, the French government moved to ban WikiLeaks from French servers.

Industry Minister Eric Besson says it's "unacceptable" for French servers to host the site, which "violates the secret of diplomatic relations and puts people protected by diplomatic secret in danger."

In Friday's letter to the CGIET -- a government body that is part of the Finance Ministry involved in information technology among other industries -- Besson asked what legal steps could be taken to ban WikiLeaks from French servers.

He added that French servers who have hosted the site must first be made to understand the "consequences of their acts and secondly be made to take responsibility for them," suggesting possible legal fallout.

Stocks fell Tuesday morning after North Korea and South Korea exchanged artillery fire near their disputed sea border, killing at least two South Korean marines. Treasury prices and the dollar rose as investors sought safe places to park money.

A weak reading on existing home sales for October also dragged stocks lower. Shares were also falling in Europe on concerns that a bailout of Ireland may not be enough to contain Europe's debt crisis. Borrowing costs for Portugal and Spain rose, leading Spain to trim the size of a debt sale.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 135, or 1.2 percent, to 11,042 in morning trading.

The Standard & Poor's 500 lost 11, or 0.9 percent, to 1,186. The Nasdaq composite index fell 33, or 1.3 percent, to 2,499.

Hewlett-Packard Co. was the only one of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones industrial average to rise. Shares gained 1.4 percent after the technology company beat Wall Street's expectations for revenue and income thanks to strong corporate spending.

Energy shares led the decline as the price of crude oil fell. Exxon Mobil Corp. was the biggest loser in the Dow, falling 2.6 percent. Chevron Corp. was not far behind with a loss of 2.5 percent. Crude oil fell 88 cents to $80.85.

Shares of Netflix Inc. rose 1 percent after the movie rental company announced a new pricing structure aimed at weaning customers off of DVDs. The company announced a cheap plan that offers movies and TV shows only through online streaming.

In economic news, sales of previously owned houses dipped 2.2 percent in October, according to the National Association of Realtors. That puts sales at a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.43 million units. Economists had expected a rate of 4.5 million.

India's Supreme Court ordered Vodafone to deposit 25 billion rupees ($554 million) within three weeks on its contested $2.5 billion tax bill, a company spokesman said Monday.

The British telecoms company said it also would arrange a guarantee with an Indian bank for the remaining 85 billion rupees ($1.9 billion) within eight weeks, as ordered by the court.

The Supreme Court has not yet delivered a verdict in the case, which is being closely watched by foreign companies fearful that it could set a precedent that might make them liable for retroactive changes under Indian tax law. The next hearing is set for Feb. 24.

The tax relates to Vodafone's acquisition of the Indian telecom assets of Hong Kong's Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd.

Vodafone, whose joint venture with India's Essar group is one of India's largest mobile operators, maintains that it does not owe tax on the $11 billion transaction because it took place between two foreign entities.

In May 2007, Vodafone International Holdings BV — a Dutch subsidiary of the British telecom giant — acquired a 67 percent stake in CGP Investments Ltd., a Cayman Islands company which held the Indian telecom assets of Hutchison.

The Dutch government has stepped in to try to resolve the case out of court under the terms of a government-to-government tax treaty, Vodafone said, after earlier efforts by British officials to lobby New Delhi.

A strong sense of pessimism shrouded the start of an economic summit of rich and emerging economies Thursday, with President Barack Obama and fellow world leaders arriving in Seoul sharply divided over currency and trade policies.

The Group of 20 summit, held for the first time in Asia, has become the centerpiece of international efforts to revive the global economy and prevent future financial meltdowns.

Failure in Seoul could have severe consequences. The risk is that countries would try to keep their currencies artificially low to give their exporters a competitive edge in global markets. That could lead to a destructive trade war. Countries might throw up barriers to imports — a repeat of policies that worsened the Great Depression.

Hopes had been high that the Group of 20 — encompassing rich nations such as Germany and the U.S. as well as growing giants such as China and Brazil — could be the world forum for hashing out an economic way forward from financial crisis.

But agreement appeared elusive as the summit began, divided between those such as United States that want to get China to allow its currency rise and those irate over U.S. Federal Reserve plans to pump $600 billion of new money into the sluggish American economy, effectively devaluing the dollar.

For much of the last decade, New Delhi sold itself as "India Rising." Barack Obama's trip here delivered a new message: India has risen.

During his three day visit that ended Tuesday, the U.S. president delivered nearly everything on India's wish list, affirming the country's growing importance.

He endorsed India's role in nearby Afghanistan, even though such a statement was sure to annoy India's regional rival Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the Afghan war. He chided Pakistan for not cracking down heavily enough on anti-India militant groups operating there. He lifted export controls, allowing India to buy high-tech weaponry from the U.S., and he gave spirited support to Indian industry, maintaining it wasn't stealing American jobs, but helping create new ones.

Most importantly for India, he backed its bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, a mostly symbolic move that affirmed its place as a new global power.

"In Asia and around the world, India is not simply emerging; India has already emerged," Obama told the Indian parliament Monday night.

Indian commentators saw the statement as a milestone in the nation's global image; No longer was it seen as an economic basket case, a potential dictatorship or an unstable collection of warring ethnic groups.