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Ecuador grants Assange asylum
Ecuador yesterday granted political asylum to WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange after the government threatened to storm the Ecuadorean embassy in London to arrest the former hacker. Assange has been holed up inside Ecuador’s embassy in Knightsbridge for eight weeks since he lost a legal battle to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is accused of rape and sexual assault. Assange fears he will ultimately be sent to the United States which is furious that his website leaked hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic and military cables. Ecuador’s decision is likely to deepen the political dispute with Britain. The Foreign Office said it was “disappointed” with Ecuador’s behaviour.