National Post

Julian Assange granted asylum by Ecuador after U.K. threatens to storm embassy to make arrest
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been granted asylum, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said on Thursday, a day after the U.K. government threatened to storm the country’s London embassy to arrest Assange.

The U.K. says it remains determined to extradite Assange to Sweden, where he has been accused of rape and sexual assault. The charges came after the Australian computer hacker angered Washington and its allies in 2010 when Wikileaks published secret U.S. diplomatic cables.

“Ecuador has decided to grant political asylum to Julian Assange following the request sent to the President,” Patino told a news conference in Quito Thursday.(Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)