WikiLeaks founder’s Internet link severed by a “state party”

WikiLeaks said Monday that its founder Julian Assange’s Internet link was severed by a “state party” and that “appropriate contingency plans” had been activated. The announcement came hours after the site published three cryptic tweets. The messages referenced Ecuador, Secretary of State John Kerry and the United Kingdom’s Foreign Commonwealth Office. Each tweet was matched with a string of numbers.

They set off rumors that Assange had died. In October, he began releasing an alleged trove of 50,000 emails stolen from the gmail account of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who accused the Russians of backing him. WikiLeaks quoted Clinton in one of the hacked mails from 2010 as proposing to have Assange killed by a drone strike. Also this month, he cancelled a London balcony address from the Ecuadoran embassy where he has lived in asylum for some years over “security concerns.”