He's been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for a several months now, and his self-imposed exile is apparently making him ill. Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, has some serious problems with his lungs and he's blaming it on the British climate.

Speaking to state TV from Quito, the capital of Ecuador, the country's Embassador to Britain, Ana Alban said Assange is 'living in a space of 50 square metres, without much sun and poor circulation'. 'He's not sick', she says but 'he has a chronic lung condition that could lead to complications'. And she believes the cold winter could make that worse.

Assange caused outrage when his website, Wikileaks, released a cascade of thousands of pieces of classified information about the US military online for the world to see and report. As a result the Obama administration wants him to answer charges in relation to making those top secret details public.

It's not just that though: police in Sweden want to talk to Assange too, over allegations of rape and sexual assault. Charges which Assange denies from afar, but which he doesn't want to go and answer there in case he gets sent to the US for what he fears might be harsher punishment. In August the government of Ecuador granted the Australian asylum.

What Assange is now calling home in Central London is just a stone's throw away from world famous Harrods department. But no Christmas shopping for him there or anywhere because if he steps foot outside, British police will arrest him.