Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, has been offered asylum indefinitely in the Ecuadorian embassy in London:

CARACAS, Venezuela — The government of Ecuador is prepared to allow Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, to remain in its embassy in London indefinitely under a type of humanitarian protection, a government official said in Quito on Wednesday night. Mr. Assange has been holed up in the embassy for two months seeking asylum.

Amid an escalating confrontation with Britain over Mr. Assange, Ecuadorean officials said they would announce the decision of the country’s president, Rafael Correa, on Thursday. The official said that the British government had made it clear it would not allow Mr. Assange to leave the country to travel to Ecuador, so even with a grant of asylum or similar protection, he would probably remain stuck in the embassy.

From Ecuador to Let Julian Assange Stay in Its London Embassy, by  William Neuman and Maggie Ayala at NYTimes.com

We’re not sure – not having reviewed the Wikileaks document set – that we’ve reached an opinion of the damage done by Mr. Assange; on the one hand, we believe the adage that, in political matters, “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” But governments do have legitimate needs,  particularly in the short term, to keep confidences, and especially to protect sources and methods. But we have a sense that the rules are being bent in Mr. Assange’s case: the sudden appearance of accusations of sex crimes committed in Sweden, and now reports that Britain threatened Ecuador with essentially using force to invade its embassy, effectively discarding several centuries of diplomatic law and custom. Those diplomatic practices are part of what allows us to keep lines of communication, direct and indirect, between nations, and have the potential of keeping open the possibility of non-violent resolution even when at the edge of the abyss.

Earlier Wednesday, Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, 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.”

Also from Ecuador to Let Julian Assange Stay in Its London Embassy, by  William Neuman and Maggie Ayala at NYTimes.com