US President Barack Obama has signed a secret order allowing the CIA and other American agencies to support rebels seeking to overthrow the Assad regime, a US government source told Reuters.

Ecuador granted political asylum to Julian Assange on Thursday, ratcheting up tension in a standoff with Britain which has warned it could revoke the diplomatic status of Quito's embassy in London to allow the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder. - The high-profile Australian former hacker has been holed up inside the red-brick embassy in central London for eight weeks since he lost a legal battle to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over rape allegations. Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said he feared for the safety and rights of Assange which is why he said his country had decided to grant him asylum. Outside the embassy near London's famed Harrods department store, supporters made the announcement over a loudspeaker to cheers and clapping from protesters who had gathered outside the building in support of Assange. Protesters shouted: "The people united will never be defeated!", bearing Ecuador flags and holding posters showing Assange's head that read "no extradition".

Before the decision was announced, Britain [had] said it could use a little-known piece of legislation to strip Ecuador's embassy of its diplomatic status so that Assange could be detained.

El País: Garzón: “Reino Unido debe dar un salvoconducto a Assange”
Common Dreams: Ecuador Grants Assange Asylum; UK Threatens to Storm Embassy

The Australian: Assange to appeal if Britain blocks exit - WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange will appeal to the International Court of Justice if Britain blocks his exit to Ecuador, renowned Spanish rights lawyer Baltasar Garzón says. Garzón, who is helping Assange's defence, told Spanish newspaper El País that Britain had a legal obligation to allow his client to leave the country once Ecuador granted him diplomatic asylum. "What the United Kingdom must do is apply the diplomatic obligations of the Refugee Convention and let him leave, giving him safe conduct," the former judge said.

Ecuador has lashed back at Britain for threatening to raid the Ecuadorian embassy in London, which is now under police siege, if the South American country grants asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Ecuadorian Foreign Affairs Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters in the capital Quito that his country "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." Patino who was speaking after holding talks on the matter with Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa attacked London saying “we are not a British colony.” "The move announced in the official British statement, if it happens, would be interpreted by Ecuador as an unfriendly, hostile and intolerable act, as well as an attack on our sovereignty, which would force us to respond in the strongest diplomatic way," Patino added. Assange, who should be awaiting extradition to Sweden after a British court ruling against him, has taken refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy since June 19 and has applied for political asylum in the country. [Photo]

At a press conference late on Wednesday, Ecuador's foreign minister Ricardo Patiño released details of a letter delivered through a British embassy official in Quito, the capital of the South American country. The letter read: "You need to be aware that there is a legal base in the UK, the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987, that would allow us to take actions in order to arrest Mr Assange in the current premises of the embassy." [It added:] "We need to reiterate that we consider the continued use of the diplomatic premises in this way incompatible with the Vienna convention and unsustainable and we have made clear the serious implications that this has for our diplomatic relations." (ref)

Sydney Morning Herald: UK police descend on Assange's embassy refuge
Reuters: Britain warns Ecuador it could enter embassy to get Assange
The Guardian: Julian Assange "can be arrested" in Ecuador embassy, UK warns
WIKILEAKS: Statement on UK threat to storm Ecuadorian embassy and arrest Julian Assange

DCI-Palestine has launched a new report: Bound, Blindfolded and Convicted: Children held in military detention. The report is the culmination of four year’s work by DCI, with the support of the European Union, focusing on verifying reports of ill-treatment and torture of children in the Israeli military detention system. The findings of the report are based on 311 sworn affidavits taken from children between January 2008 and January 2012. The report also includes:

■ An interview with a lawyer who represents children in the military courts;
■ An interview with the director of the YMCA rehabilitation programme;
■ An interview with an Israeli soldier, courtesy of Breaking the Silence;
■ A Psychological opinion into the effects of military detention on children; and
■ 25 case studies taken from child-detainees.

The report found that there is a systematic pattern of ill-treatment, and in some cases torture, of children held in the military detention system, with the majority of the abuse occurring during the first 48 hours. The testimonies reveal that most children are arrested from villages located close to friction points, namely settlements built in violation of international law, and roads used by the Israeli army or settlers. The report includes 10 recommendations, which if implemented, would reduce the level of ill-treatment, but no one should be under any illusion that the treatment documented in the report can be eliminated so long as the friction points remain and Palestinian children are treated as second-class individuals. (The full report is available online, and hard copies are available on request.)

Dr Mark Hutchinson, ARC Research Fellow, School of Medical Sciences, The University of Adelaide: An international team of scientists involving the University of Adelaide and University of Colorado Boulder has proven that addiction to morphine and heroin can be blocked, while at the same time increasing pain relief. The team has discovered the key mechanism in the body's immune system that amplifies addiction to opioid drugs. The results of their work are published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience. Visit the University of Adelaide's news site for more information go here.

Just 10 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday, tying the lowest mark in the 38 years the poll has been conducted. - That number was previously reached this past February, but bounced back a bit in subsequent months. Eighty-three percent of Americans disapprove of Congress, the poll shows. Gallup says Congress' approval rating is down among all political groups and is nearly the same among Democrats, Republicans and independents. Approval of Congress hasn't topped 20 percent since June 2011, according to Gallup.

An email hacked from Stratfor that discusses the use of the TrapWire surveillance system has been decrypted, revealing insider claims that the widespread spy program was adopted by the White House, Scotland Yard, Canadian authorities and others. - When WikiLeaks published a trove of correspondence last week reported to be from the servers of Strategic Forecasting, or Stratfor, included in the data dump was at least one email that initially appeared as pure gibberish. The communiqué, sent from Stratfor Vice President of Intelligence Fred Burton to seven other staffers within the private firm, has now been decoded, however, and its content suggests that the TrapWire surveillance program was put into the hands of the most elite and powerful governments and law enforcement agencies in the entire world. The email, dated September 23, 2010, includes a string of correspondence between Burton and more than half-a-dozen colleagues exchanging information for a full day about how Stratfor is distributing feeds from its TrapWire system and with whom. Although encoded, the emails are encrypted in Base64 format, which can easily be decoded online. A decoded copy has also been uploaded to the Web by hacktivists aligned with Anonymous.

AWIP: WikiLeaks Email: US Spying on ‘Everyone’ Using Cameras

Thursday 16th August, 3:00am UTC: In a communication this morning to the government of Ecuador, the UK threatened to forcefully enter the Ecuadorian embassy in London and arrest Julian Assange. The UK claims the power to do so under the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987. This claim is without basis.

By midnight, two hours prior to the time of this announcement, the embassy had been surrounded by police, in a menacing show of force. Any transgression against the sanctity of the embassy is a unilateral and shameful act, and a violation of the Vienna Convention, which protects embassies worldwide. This threat is designed to preempt Ecuador’s imminent decision on whether it will grant Julian Assange political asylum, and to bully Ecuador into a decision that is agreeable to the United Kingdom and its allies. WikiLeaks condemns in the strongest possible terms the UK’s resort to intimidation.

A threat of this nature is a hostile and extreme act, which is not proportionate to the circumstances, and an unprecedented assault on the rights of asylum seekers worldwide. We draw attention to the fact that the United Nations General Assembly has unanimously declared in Resolution 2312 (1967) that

"the grant of asylum. . . is a peaceful and humanitarian act and that, as such, it cannot be regarded as unfriendly by any other State."

Pursuant to this resolution, a decision to grant asylum cannot be construed by another State as an unfriendly act. Neither can there be diplomatic consequences for granting asylum. We remind the public that these extraordinary actions are being taken to detain a man who has not been charged with any crime in any country. WikiLeaks joins the Government of Ecuador in urging the UK to resolve this situation according to peaceful norms of conduct. We further urge the UK government to show restraint, and to consider the dire ramifications of any violation of the elementary norms of international law. We ask that the UK respect Ecuador’s sovereign right to deliver a decision of its own making on Julian Assange’s asylum bid.

Noting that Ecuador has called for emergency summits of OAS and UNASUR in response to this development, WikiLeaks asks those bodies to support Ecuador’s rights in this matter, and to oppose any attempts to coerce a decision. We note with interest that this development coincides with the UK Secretary of State William Hague’s assumption of executive responsibilities during the vacation of the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Mr Hague’s department, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, has overseen the negotiations to date with Ecuador in the matter of Mr Assange’s asylum bid. If Mr Hague has, as would be expected, approved this decision, WikiLeaks calls for his immediate resignation.

Declaración sobre la amenaza del Reino Unido de asaltar la embajada ecuatoriana para arrestar a Julian Assange - jueves 16 de agosto 2012 - 03:00 UTC

Australian Documentary on Julian Assange’s situation
Friends of WikiLeaks Support Network
Justice for Assange