Julian Assange Protest Photos 16 August 2012

AP

British police officers stand guard outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in central London, Thursday, Aug. 16, 2012 after Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino announced that he had granted political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He's won asylum in Ecuador, but Julian Assange is no closer to getting there. The dramatic decision by the Latin American nation to identify the WikiLeaks founder as a political refugee is a symbolic boost for the embattled ex-hacker, but legal experts say that does little to help him avoid extradition to Sweden and does much to drag Britain and Ecuador into a contentious international faceoff. AP

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Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino speaks during a news conference in Quito August 16, 2012. Ecuador has granted political asylum to WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, Patino said on Thursday, a day after the British government threatened to storm the Ecuadorean embassy in London to arrest Assange. Britain has said it is determined to extradite the former computer hacker, who enraged Washington in 2010 when his WikiLeaks website published secret U.S. diplomatic cables, to Sweden where he has been accused of rape and sexual assault. Reuters