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Julian Assange extradition: Ecuador 'willing to co-operate' with Britain
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/aug/17/julian-assange-extradition-ecuador-embassy
Ecuador is still willing to negotiate with the British government over the fate of Julian Assange, despite the Foreign Office's "threat" to arrest the WikiLeaks founder inside its embassy and the "intimidating" police presence in and around the building, according to a senior Ecuadorean diplomatic source.
The South American country's decision to grant political asylum to the 41-year-old Australian, who faces allegations of sexual assault in Sweden, has provoked a bitter political row between Quito and London.
The source complained that the UK government's written warning that it could use the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987 to arrest Assange inside the embassy had been accompanied by a large increase in the number of police officers at the Knightsbridge building.
The police presence, it added, had risen from two or three to around 50, with officers on the embassy's fire escape and at every window. This was described as "an absolutely intimidating and unprecedented use of police" designed to show the British government's desire to "go in with a strong hand".
