A public worker rides a bicycle in front of an Ikea shop on March 6 in Shanghai, China. Chinese authorities say they have destroyed nearly two tons of chocolate cake imported by Sweden's Ikea for violating food quality standards.

LONDON — Furniture chain Ikea has removed chocolate cake from store restaurants in 23 countries after authorities in China identified high levels of bacteria commonly found in human and animal feces in one batch of the treat.

However, none of the contaminated batch had been shipped to stores in the U.S. and the food in question — an almond, chocolate and butterscotch cake — had not been sold as a take-home product.

"This is not a product recall," Ikea spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said. "There’s no risk that anyone has a contaminated cake at home in their freezer."

The contamination came to light earlier this week when the Shanghai quarantine bureau revealed it had destroyed 4,100 pounds of imported Ikea chocolate cake that was found to contain excessive levels of coliform bacteria.

The food, from a supplier based in Sweden, was destroyed in November and December, but Ikea’s head office only found out about it Monday.

As a precaution, Ikea announced it had removed the cake from sale in 23 countries. Magnusson said there was no health risk. "None of the [affected] cakes made it to our restaurants," she said.

Some forms of coliform bacteria are commonly found in the environment and Ikea said the type found in Shanghai did not pose a health risk. However, it said its own quality controls required no coliform be present at all.

This latest food scare came just days after Ikea's trademark meatballs were removed from sale in Europe after horse meat was found in some batches - part of a wider scandal over mislabeled meat there. The tainted batches were traced to a Sweden-based supplier. Meatballs sold in Ikea’s US stores contain only beef and pork from animals raised in the U.S. and Canada.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

Horse meat in the US? Unlikely, but tests are rare

'Fraud on a massive scale': Europe's horse meat scandal keeps on growing

'Criminal conspiracy' blamed for European horse-in-burger scandal

Studio Total via EPA

A Swedish advertising agency parachuted the 879 teddy bears over a residential area in Minsk, Belarus, on July 4, 2012.

A Belarusian border guard was sentenced to two years in prison Monday for failing to report a border crossing by a Swedish plane that parachuted hundreds of teddy bears into the country carrying pro-democracy protest messages.

The sentence was announced by the Belarusian Supreme Court, which said the unnamed officer would be sent to a maximum-security facility, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

The Associated Press and Charter 97, an independent news service opposed to the government of dictator Alexander Lukashenko, also reported the announcement.

The strife over the stuffies eventually escalated into a diplomatic war between Belarus, a former Soviet republic of about 10 million, and Sweden. Each nation expelled the other's ambassador after the parachute drop on July 4, which is also Belarus' Independence Day. Sweden has long been open about its desire to see democracy take root in Belarus.

Belarus didn't publicly acknowledge the airdrop until two weeks later, when Lukashenko criticized the military for allowing the plane to enter Belarusian airspace. He also fired the foreign minister and the generals in charge of air defense and the border patrol.

Authorities also arrested two civilians: a journalism student who put pictures of the teddy bears on his website and a property manager who offered an apartment to the plane's Swedish pilots, two of four pro-democracy advertising agents who dreamed up the stunt.  They told NBC News last year that they hoped the diplomatic spat would increase pressure on Lukashenko.

Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

Goodnight with George Galloway

George Galloway talks about the Julian Assange case during one of his regular video podcasts.

LONDON -- As U.S. Congressman Todd Akin fights for his political life over his "legitimate rape" comments, a high-profile British politician has ignited a storm on the other side of the Atlantic over the definition of rape.

George Galloway, a member of the U.K. parliament and former leader of the left-wing Respect Party, waded into the debate around the allegations faced by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

During a 31-minute podcast, Galloway discussed the claims made by two Swedish woman against Assange in graphic detail, claiming that his alleged behavior was at worst "bad manners" but "not rape."

The colorful Galloway -- who has been dubbed "Gorgeous George" by some U.K. tabloids  -- is no stranger to controversy. He grabbed headlines around the world after he shook hands with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1994 and praised him for his "strength, courage and indefatigability." He also appeared as a contestant on "Celebrity Big Brother" -- where he famously pretended to be a cat.

Ina / INA via AP, file

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein receives visiting MP George Galloway on Aug. 8, 2002, in Baghdad.

This week's "Goodnight with George Galloway" video podcast put him back in the spotlight.    

"Some people believe that when you go to bed with somebody, take off your clothes, and have sex with them and then fall asleep, you're already in the sex game with them," Galloway said, gesticulating emphatically. "It might be really bad manners not to have tapped her on the shoulder and said: 'Do you mind if I do it again?' It might be really sordid and bad sexual etiquette, but whatever else it is, it is not rape or you bankrupt the term rape of all meaning."

Cue gasps all around.

His comments provoked a furious response on Twitter and were blasted by women's groups and newspaper columnists.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, British broadcaster and journalist Christina Odone said that Galloway "should be punished at the ballot box" for his views. "When it comes to rape, misogyny is rife in politics," she added.

Assange in balcony appeal to Obama: Release leak suspect Bradley Manning

Scotsman columnist Emma Cowing wrote that Galloway's comments were "about men redefining serious crimes against women to suit a political agenda."

"Rape victims have a history of being ignored and accused of lying," she added. "They have a history of feeling terrified of speaking out in case they are not believed, or are ridiculed, or have to face their attacker and relive the crime. This is why so many rape victims never report their crimes and why so many find it difficult to speak out in court."

Telegraph assistant comment editor Tom Chivers wrote that "the situation Galloway has just described is absolutely, 100 per cent, no-ifs-or-buts definitely rape."

He added: "Listen, George: it is possible to think that WikiLeaks have done some good things without believing that Assange can do no wrong, or that all attempts to make him face trial are some sort of grand conspiracy."

Galloway is not the first British politician to get himself into hot water over the issue of rape.

A year ago, U.K. Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke kicked off a similar controversy when he differentiated date rape from "serious rape."  Calls for his resignation came in fast, but the storm settled after he clarified the comments.

'Both have acted like fools'
It remains to be seen if the same will be true in the U.S. for Rep. Todd Akin. 

An editorial in the left-leaning Guardian newspaper compared Akin and Galloway. "They have three things in common. Both are men. Both encourage rape deniers. And both have acted like fools."

NYT: Akin controversy may endanger GOP chances in the fall

The messages about rape from the highest echelons of political life come just after the 20th anniversary of legislation that made marital rape in the U.K. a crime. 

Victoria Derbyshire, the British radio host who took Clarke to task on his views a year ago made one point that resonates as the debate rages on both sides of the Atlantic this week.

"With respect," she told him in a flat tone, "rape is rape."

On Tuesday, the 58-year-old Galloway sought to clarify his comments and released a statement.

"No never means yes and non-consensual sex is rape. There's no doubt about it and that has always been my position," he said.

"Julian Assange, let's be clear, has always denied the allegations. And this has all the hallmarks of a set-up. I don't believe, from what we know, that the Director of Public Prosecutions would sanction a prosecution in Britain. What occurred is not rape as most people understand it."

More world stories from NBC News:

• Israelis fret over 'lynching' of Palestinian
• Video: Poaching surge threatens survival of rhinos
• Anti-tanning 'Facekinis' cause stir on China beach
• Reports: Kim Jong Un will travel to Iran
• Slideshow: Migration in the Americas
• Reports: Olympic sprinter drowned when migrant boat sank
• With wife's conviction, what is next for China's Bo Xilai?

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Thierry Roge / Reuters file

Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov answers reporters' questions in Brussels on Jan. 12, 2011.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko fired his foreign minister Monday, weeks after an imaginative pro-democracy protest that saw teddy bears dropped from the sky over Belarus brought the authoritarian regime some unwanted international attention.

Lukashenko's office, which announced the dismissal of Sergei Martynov, 59, who had held the post since 2003, did not provide any reasons for the decision. Lukashenko named 54-year-old Vladimir Makei, previously his chief-of-staff, as the country's new foreign minister.

More than 800 stuffed animals – each with an individual parachute – were dropped from a small planeby four advertising professionals from Sweden to raise awareness of human rights issues. The action was inspired by the arrest in February of Belarusian activist Paval Vinahradau, who was detained for staging a toy protest in Minsk.

The group told NBC News they hoped an ensuing diplomatic spat between Belarus and Sweden would increase pressure on Lukashenko.

The Belarusian president also fired the generals in charge of air defense and the border patrol after the protest, and police arrested two civilians — a blogger who posted pictures of the teddy bears on his website and a man who rented an apartment to one of the Swedes during his short stay in Minsk.

The move damaged already strained relations between Minsk, which expelled the Swedish ambassador on Aug. 3, and the European Union, which has long criticized Lukashenko's policies and has imposed travel bans and asset freezes on him and other senior officials.

Could teddy bears unsettle 'Europe's last dictator'?

The EU said in a statement on Monday that Makei was one of the targeted officials.

"Mr. Makei is currently subject to EU restrictive measures. In the context of the upcoming review of restrictive measures, in the autumn of this year, the EU will assess his situation," it said.

"The EU confirms its policy of critical engagement towards Belarus and reiterates its firm commitment to strengthening its engagement with the Belarusian people and civil society and to supporting the democratic aspirations of the Belarusian people."

A country of about 9.5 million, Belarus is one of the most repressive states in Europe.

In power since 1994, Lukashenko has tolerated little dissent and routinely locked up political opponents. In 2004, he amended the constitution's two-term presidential limit, a decision harshly criticized by Western powers, including the Bush administration which described him as the "last dictator in Europe" in charge of an "outpost of tyranny.”

The latest wave of EU sanctions was triggered by his government's crackdown on opposition after a December 2010 presidential election.

Lukashenko won a fourth term in office at the time but faced large public protests and allegations of vote-rigging afterward.

Reuters contributed to this report.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Wife of disgraced Chinese leader gets death sentence with reprieve
• Russian top clerics forgive Pussy Riot, ask for mercy
• With wife's conviction, what is next for China's Bo Xilai?
• Assange in balcony appeal: Release Bradley Manning
• Czech police accuse man of plotting Norway-like copycat terrorist attack
• Government minister among 32 killed as Sudanese helicopter crashes into mountain
• Video: Chaos follows Syrian airstrikes
• Tropical Storm Helene slams Mexico; Hurricane Gordon heads for Azores

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Kerim Okten / EPA

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange addresses the media and supporters while British policemen stand outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Sunday.

Updated at 10:14 a.m. ET: LONDON -- From a second-floor window of his refuge at the Ecuadorean embassy, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Sunday called on President Obama to release Bradley Manning, the United States intelligence analyst accused of leaking masses of confidential information.

In his  first public appearance in two months, the former hacker thanked his supporters gathered outside the London embassy and appealed to the U.S. not to prosecute WikiLeaks staff and supporters.

"I call on President Obama to do the right thing - renounce the witch-hunt against Wikileaks," he said in a provocative address in which he appeared to invoke the support of dozens of Latin American countries.

The U.S. administration’s “war on whistleblowers must end,” he said.

Ecuador on Thursday granted political asylum to the former computer hacker who incensed the United States and its allies by using his WikiLeaks website to leak hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic and military cables in 2010.

Assange paid tribute to Manning, who is the suspected source of those leaks and faces 22 criminal charges which, if he is convicted, could land him in jail for life.

"If Bradley Manning did as he is accused, he is a hero and one of the world's foremost political prisoners," Assange said.

Investigators have determined that Manning allegedly unlawfully downloaded tens of thousands of documents onto his own computer and passed them to an unauthorized person, but have not been able to make a link between those files and Assange.

Assange spoke from a balcony at the embassy because Britain has made it clear it will arrest him the moment he steps out of the property.

The west London embassy is in a building shared with other tenants and has no vehicular access except via the street, meaning Assange could not even appear in the entrance hall without risking immediate arrest.

UK refuses WikiLeaks' Assange safe passage to Ecuador

With a police helicopter hovering overhead and protestors using megaphones, the international legal row over Assange's future has become a spectacle in what is an upscale area of London, just a few meters away from department store, Harrods.

The former hacker is wanted in Sweden for questioning regarding allegations of rape and sexual assault and Britain has said he will not be granted safe passage out of his Ecuadorean embassy refuge, which enjoys diplomatic status.

Baltasar Garzon, a Spanish jurist and prominent human rights investigator who heads Assange's legal team, was also expected to speak in a separate address outside the building ahead of Assange's appearance.

A group of about 20 Assange supporters, many of whom have slept on sheets of cardboard outside the building since Wednesday, have decorated barriers with messages of support for Assange.

Army is pressed on why it kept trusting Manning

Assange's attempt to avoid extradition has provoked a diplomatic tussle between Britain and Ecuador, which said London had threatened to raid its embassy and cast the dispute as an arrogant European power treating a Latin American nation like a colony. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Russian top clerics forgive Pussy Riot, ask for mercy
• Tropical Storm Helene slams Mexico; Hurricane Gordon heads for Azores
• Video: Chaos follows Syrian airstrikes
• Could teddy bears unsettle 'Europe's last dictator'?
• Report: 211 die during drugs trials in India

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Teddy bears parachute over a residential area in Minsk, Belarus on July 4, 2012.

An imaginative pro-democracy protest that saw teddy bears dropped from the sky over Belarus has not softened the stance of President Alexander Lukashenko - but it has brought the authoritarian regime some unwanted international attention.

More than 800 stuffed animals – each with an individual parachute – were dropped from a small plane by four advertising professionals from Sweden in order to raise awareness of human rights issues. It was inspired by the arrest in February of Belarusian activist Paval Vinahradau, who was detained for staging a toy protest in Minsk.

The group told NBC News they hoped an ensuing diplomatic spat between Belarus and Stockholm would increase pressure on Lukashenko.

“We’re not really happy, or satisfied, or content, or proud, or anything until we have achieved something real, be that [Lukashenko] changes his policy … or someone changes it for him,” said Per Cromwell, chief executive of Studio Total, a four-person Swedish advertising firm.

 “I guess it’s not over yet.”

The project was one year in the making, Cromwell said, and the goal was to raise awareness about the human rights abuses taking place in the former Soviet republic, where Lukashenko has been in power since the mid-1990s.

In 2004, Lukashenko amended the constitution's two-term presidential limit, a decision harshly criticized by Western powers, including the United States Bush administration which described him as the "last dictator in Europe" in charge of an "outpost of tyranny.”

A country of about 9.5 million, Belarus remains one of the most repressive states in Europe, Yulia Gorbunova, a Human Rights Watch researcher based in Moscow, told NBC News.

Teddy bears parachute over a residential area in Minsk, Belarus on July 4, 2012.

“It has a complete disregard for basically all fundamental freedoms -- freedom of assembly and association, freedom of speech, freedom from torture and degrading treatment -- virtually no independent media... no independent judicial system,” she added.

The government is so repressive, Gorbunova said, that the opposition and the civil society have no opportunity to grow.

This is the same country where last year, a one-armed man was among the 400 people arrested for taking part in a clapping protest.

Cromwell said Studio Total’s intention was to highlight the absurdity of life under Lukashenko, while showing support for the daunting struggle of a shattered opposition that is closely monitored by the KGB, the country’s security agency.

“We’re doing what we can to make people laugh. It’s something that a dictator cannot survive,” he said.

Belarus arrests two in wake of teddy bear airdrop

“You can’t really win a fight against a teddy bear because if you don’t do anything you will look ridiculous, or if you start fighting back, you will look ridiculous,” Cromwell added.

On the day of the airdrop, July 4, Cromwell was driving the getaway car, parked halfway between the Lithuanian border, where the plane took off, and Minsk. If anything went awry, he was ready to pick up the pilot and co-pilot and drive to the Swedish embassy. His colleagues, Tomas Mazetti and Hannah Frey, were on the plane along with the teddy bears. Mazetti had learned to fly for the occasion, and he had only gotten his license a few weeks before the operation, Cromwell said.

It was a sunny day, and the flight path was a straight line from the Lithuanian border to Minsk, but Cromwell said they were afraid their plane might get shot down. In 1995, when a hot-air balloon accidentally crossed into Belarusian airspace, Lukashenko’s security officials fired a missile that killed the two Americans on board.

Air traffic controllers in a tower in Minsk contacted the plane, but Mazetti and Frey couldn’t understand what they were saying in Russian. After dropping their cargo and spending less than two hours in Belarus’ air space, the two flew the plane back across the border.

Belarus didn't publicly acknowledge the airdrop until later in the month, when Lukashenko criticized military authorities for allowing the plane to enter Belarusian air space.

He then fired the generals in charge of air defense and the border patrol, and police arrested two civilians — a blogger who posted pictures of the teddy bears on his website and a man who rented an apartment to Cromwell during his short stay in Minsk.

Last week, two journalists were also arrested for posing for photographs holding the air-dropped teddy bears.

On Aug. 3, the Swedish ambassador to Minsk was expelled in a move that the European Union said worsened the tension already present between the bloc and Belarus.

"Everyone around the table [was] absolutely clear that this was not just a situation merely between Sweden and Belarus. It's a situation that ... affects the EU's relations with Belarus," Olof Skoog, a Swedish diplomat who chairs talks on foreign policy issues among EU states, said on Aug. 10, according to Reuters.

"There is going to be a very clear message to all Belarusian ambassadors around Europe in the next few days expressing full solidarity with the Swedes on this," he added.

Since then, Cromwell said he and his colleagues have been receiving “Google-translated” messages from the KGB, in a tone that ranges from threatening to complaining, and Facebook friend requests from newly created bogus accounts.

Belarus, Sweden kick out ambassadors as teddy bear war heats up

Last week, the online onslaught culminated with a summons from the KGB, threatening the Swedes with fines or "correctional work for up to two years, or imprisonment for up to six months” if they don’t show up in Belarus in 10 days to assist the agency with "investigative actions" related to the group’s “illegal crossing.”

Responding to the invitation in an open letter to Lukashenko published on Aug. 14, Studio Total said it “[felt] bad for making people laugh at [Lukashenko] and [his] super-expensive air defense." The group also extended Lukashenko an invitation to Sweden.

“Our only demands is that you behave as politely as you can. (No threats of torture and the likes) and that you release all the political prisoners in Belarus," the letter read.

European Union sanctions against Belarus already include a visa ban and an asset freeze imposed on Lukashenko and his inner circle, an arms embargo and a ban on more than 30 Belarusian companies to conduct business in the trading zone.

“What this can achieve is to get the awareness and the attention, and to create some kind of momentum for the opposition,” said Cromwell. “But of course throwing teddy bears over a dictator does not create real long-term change.”

More world stories from NBC News:

• Police find severed human head, foot in park near Toronto
• Russian court sentences Pussy Riot rockers to 2 years in prison
• What's causing Afghan troops to turn on coalition forces?
• NZ skydiver hits ground after parachute fails
• I'd like a beer, 70-year-old says after icy 6-day ordeal in Alps
• Study: Japan nuclear disaster caused mutated butterflies

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Updated at 6:33 p.m. ET: LONDON -- Britain said it would not allow Julian Assange safe passage to leave the country Thursday, hours after the WikiLeaks founder was granted asylum by Ecuador amid an escalating diplomatic crisis.  

U.K. Foreign Minister William Hague said he was determined to see Assange extradited to Sweden to face sex assault claims but added there were no plans to storm Ecuador's London embassy, meaning the current standoff could last indefinitely.

"We will not allow Mr. Assange safe passage out of the United Kingdom nor is there any legal basis for us to do so," Hague said during a press conference. "The United Kingdom does not accept the principle of diplomatic asylum."

Britain earlier said it might revoke the diplomatic status of the embassy, where the Australian has been holed up since June 19 after he exhausted all appeals after a 17-month legal battle. 

Assange, who incensed American government officials by publishing thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables and Iraq and Afghan war dispatches in 2010, is wanted for questioning in Sweden over assault and rape claims, which he denies.

Ecuador: UK threatened to break WikiLeaks' Assange out of embassy

Hague insisted that the U.K.'s actions had anything to do with Assange's or WikiLeak's work.

Facundo Arrizabalaga / EPA

Police officers arrest a supporter of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday outside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

"It's important to understand that this is not about Mr. Assange's activities at WikiLeaks, or the attitude of the United States of America," he said.  "He is wanted in Sweden to answer allegations of serious sexual offenses."

Ricardo Patino, the Ecuadorean foreign minister, earlier told a news conference in Quito it was upholding international law by granting asylum. He expressed fury at Britain’s earlier threat to arrest Assange, saying it was a direct challenge to the Ecuador’s sovereignty.

Martin Alipaz / EPA file

A composite file photo of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, left, and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, right.

Patino said there was a risk Assange would be taken to the United States where he "would not have a fair trial, he could be judged by special or military courts, and it is not unlikely to believe he would be treated in a cruel and degrading way, that he would receive a life sentence or death penalty, with which his human rights would not be respected."

A version of Patino’s statement was posted online by Ecuador's foreign ministry (in Spanish).

Sweden immediately summoned Ecuador's ambassador in Stockholm. "We want to tell them that it's [unacceptable] that Ecuador is trying to stop the Swedish judicial process," foreign ministry spokesman Anders Jorle said.

Jorle also said Assange was wanted in Sweden to answer allegations of "serious sexual offenses." The extradition had nothing to do with the work of WikiLeaks or with a desire by U.S. authorities to try him for publishing diplomatic secrets, he added.

Assange's recognition as a political refugee by Ecuador's leftist government was a big symbolic victory for the ex-hacker, but it did little to answer the question: 'How will he ever leave the embassy?'

"We're at something of an impasse," extradition lawyer Rebecca Niblock said shortly after the news broke. "The U.K. government will arrest Julian Assange as soon as he sets foot outside theembassy but it's very hard as well to see the Ecuadorean government changing their position."

PhotoBlog: More images from the scene as protesters scuffle with London police

She said there was practically no precedent for the situation, invoking the case of a Hungarian cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, who camped out at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest from 1956 to 1971.  "One can't see Mr. Assange doing the same thing," she told BBC television. "One side will have to back down eventually."

Assange’s friend Vaughan Smith, whose country manor estate Assange stayed at while under house arrest, said Assange feels he is being "crucified."

“He genuinely believes that. I know him well. He's not a rapist. He stayed in my home with my family and none of us felt that there was anything improper about his behavior," Smith said, according to ITN.

Assange will give a statement in front of Ecuador's embassy in London on Sunday, a spokesman said on Thursday, although it was unclear if the WikiLeaks founder would risk arrest by appearing in person outside the building. 

"Julian Assange will give a live statement in front of the Ecuadorian embassy, Sunday, 2 p.m. (9 a.m. EDT)," WikiLeaks said in a message on Twitter. "It will be his first public appearance since March." 

WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson declined to elaborate and would not say if the appearance would be at an embassy window or on the pavement.

Outside the embassy on Thursday, protesters chanting slogans in support of Assange tussled with police.

A Reuters reporter saw at least three protesters being dragged away by police as the crowd shouted: "You are trying to start a war with Ecuador." About 20 officers were outside the embassy trying to push away the crowd of about 15 supporters.

'Colonial times are over'
London had warned Ecuador in writing earlier in the day that a 1987 British law permits it to revoke the diplomatic status of a building if the foreign power occupying it "ceases to use land for the purposes of its mission or exclusively for the purposes of a consular post."

 Quito bristled at the threat.

"We want to be very clear, we're not a British colony. The colonial times are over," Patino said in an angry statement after a meeting with President Rafael Correa.

Ecuador president: I've not yet decided on asylum for Assange

"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," he told reporters.

 Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

Ecuador, whose government is part of a left-leaning bloc of nations in South America, called for meetings of regional foreign ministers and the hemispheric Organization of American States to rally support in its complaint against Britain.

British officials have said they will arrest him the moment he steps foot outside the embassy, but until Thursday they had not previously suggested publicly that they might strip the embassy of its diplomatic inviolability.

NBC News partner ITV News's coverage of Assange: 'Not going near a police station soon'

In a statement, WikiLeaks accused Britain of trying to bully Ecuador into denying Assange asylum.

"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," it said Wednesday.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland refrained from commenting on Ecuador's decision to grant Assange asylum. "This is an issue between the Ecuadorans, the Brits, the Swedes," Nuland said.  She added, "with regard to this particular issue, it is an issue among the countries involved and we're not planning to interject ourselves."

NBC News' staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Report: 30 dead in Syrian air strike; strife spills into Lebanon
• I'd like a beer, 70-year-old says after icy 6-day ordeal in Alps
• Germany arrests 4 suspected of violating Iran embargo
• Study: Japan nuclear disaster caused mutated butterflies
• Restaurateur claims Games cost her business $140,000
• Video: Virtual tour of the next Olympic city

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook