Ecuador Grants Asylum to Assange, Defying Britain

On Wednesday, Mr. Patiño, the foreign minister, said that the British authorities had threatened to barge into the country’s embassy in London if officials did not hand over Mr. Assange. “Today we have received from the United Kingdom an explicit threat in writing that they could assault our embassy in London if Ecuador does not hand over Julian Assange,” Mr. Patiño said at a news conference in Quito, adding defiantly, “We are not a British colony.”       

Mr. Assange arrived at the embassy on June 19, seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over accusations that he sexually assaulted two women.       
The embassy is in a modest apartment in a redbrick block just behind the Harrods department store in the upscale Knightsbridge neighborhood.       

Mr. Assange, said Jérémie Zimmerman, a friend who has spoken with him recently, has found the narrowing of his horizons hard. “It is quite difficult not to be able to get out in the street for all this time,” he said. “He lived for so many years free, without even a home to limit him. And now he is isolated.”       
The WikiLeaks founder sleeps on an air mattress in a small office that has been converted to a bedroom, according to accounts of those who have visited him. He has access to a computer and continues to oversee WikiLeaks, his lieutenants have said. Reporters outside the building have seen food being delivered from nearby restaurants.       

]thebestcaribbeansite.com/smf/index.php?topic=10597.0

His presence is a challenge for employees of the embassy. One British government official, citing a conversation with a member of the embassy staff, said that the situation was surreal.       
Mr. Assange, who previously lived a nomadic existence staying in the homes of friends, has developed a reputation as a unique houseguest.       
Daniel Domscheit-Berg, who ran WikiLeaks with Mr. Assange until the two had a falling-out in 2010, accused Mr. Assange in a memoir of staying for several months, uninvited, and of abusing his cat.       
In an interview with The New York Times in early 2011, Mr. Domscheit-Berg added that Mr. Assange had refused to flush the toilet during his entire stay. Mr. Assange has countered that Mr. Domscheit-Berg, and others who have given personal accounts along these lines, are motivated by malice.