The controversial WikiLeaks founder is safe inside the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, Ecuador’s president said Saturday. President Rafael Correa said British police have withdrawn threats to force their way into the building where Julian Assange has remained since being granted asylum by the South American nation. “We consider this unfortunate incident over, after a grave diplomatic error by the British in which they said they would enter our embassy.” Assange is wanted in Sweden on allegations of sexual assault, and he fears that he would be extradited to the United States to face charges over his WikiLeaks activity. The United States has not issued any such charges and denies it has made any attempt to extradite Assange.

Meanwhile, in the photograph above, a London policeman has accidentally leaked an arrest plan for Assange, in what UK media have branded an "embarrassing slip-up" by London's Metropolitan Police.

The photo, captured by the Press Association news agency and published in several newspapers, shows a clipboard held by a uniformed officer Friday outside the Ecuadorian embassy where Assange has been holed up since June.

"Clearly legible in a zoomed-in view of the clipboard, on a sheet of paper headed "Restricted," are the words: "EQ Embassy brief - Summary of current position re. Assange. Action required - Assange to be arrested under all circumstances."'

The paper also suggests possible ways in which Assange could be removed from the building, such as in a "diplomatic bag or vehicle."

Police told CNN that the photo is not related to the Assange case. Must be some other "Assange" they want to arrest in a "diplomatic bag."

Via:

It was a warning meant to remind Ecuador that Britain's patience has limits. But as the stalemate over Julian Assange settled in Friday, it appeared London's veiled threat that it could storm Ecuador's embassy and drag Assange out has backfired — drawing supporters to the mission where the WikiLeaks founder is holed up and prompting angry denunciations from Ecuador and elsewhere.

Experts and ex-diplomats say Britain's Foreign Office, which warned Ecuador of a little known law that would allow it to side-step usual diplomatic protocols, messed up by issuing a threat it couldn't back up.

"It was a big mistake," said former British ambassador Oliver Miles. "It puts the British government in the position of asking for something illegitimate."

Extradition expert Julian Knowles said that said British officials could arrest Assange once the diplomatic and media ferment faded.

"I think they'll take the view that within a few days or weeks it will all blow over," he said.

The U.S. state department chimed in with this: "The United States is not a party to the 1954 OAS Convention on Diplomatic Asylum and does not recognize the concept of diplomatic asylum as a matter of international law."

This will no doubt come as a shock to Chinese human rights campaigner Chen Guangcheng, who fled to the US embassy in Beijing after evading house arrest and beatings in May.