A magnitude-7.8 earthquake stuck Ecuador on Saturday night, leaving 77 dead and over 500 more injured. The quake, the strongest in the country since 1979, left it in a national state of emergency.

Above is a picture of Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador, standing next to a young man wearing an “I’m With Stupid” shirt. Good prank. Believe it or not, this picture going viral has not been the worst part of Correa’s week. That would be the “Heil Hitler!” tweet he sent yesterday.

Today the New York Times published an incredible, and incredibly detailed, account of unrestrained favor-trading within the Obama administration. In a nut: The president’s cabinet, including the State Department under Hillary Clinton, suspended travel bans placed on certain Ecuadorian nationals who committed fraud (and worse) after those nationals’ family members pledged five- and six-figures sums to Democratic organizations.

A Swedish extreme adventure team racing through Ecuador's Amazon rainforest ran into an unexpected companion: a stray dog who followed Team Peak Performance through the final two days of a 10-day, 430-mile course of extreme pain and extreme suffering.

Back in June 2012, a tortoise died. That is, in and of itself, kind of newsworthy, given that giant tortoises have a lifespan of well over 100 years; the oldest one, the un-creatively named Jonathan, is still kicking at 182. But the death of Lonesome George was particularly sad, given that the old fellow was believed to be the last of his kind, a Pinta Island subspecies of Galapagos tortoise. He wasn't, by tortoise standards, all that old; according to PBS, George had barely broken 100 when he died in Galápagos National Park, and park officials said they'd investigate his cause of death. (They ultimately determined he'd probably perished from natural causes.) But now, two years later, a serious disagreement has broken out over what remains of George.

More than 81 people fell ill with the Guinea Pig's Revenge after eating salmonella-tainted 'pig meat at a Minneapolis Ecuadorian street fair.

In an interview with the Associated Press on Sunday, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa cast some doubts on Edward Snowden's reported plans to seek asylum in his country, saying the Ecuadorean consul in London made a “serious error” when it issued a letter of safe passage for Snowden.

On Sunday morning, Edward Snowden boarded an Aeroflot flight in Hong Kong, landing in Moscow more than 13 hours later. We think. The truth is, no one's quite sure where the NSA leaker is—Moscow? Havana? Quito? Reykjavik? (He's not on Aeroflot Flight 180, we know that much.) But we can reconstruct his movements—and speculate where he's headed.

U mad? Lawmakers are blasting Russia for allowing NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to land in Moscow. Snowden is rumored to be headed next to Ecuador, the South American country currently sheltering Wikileaks' Julian Assange. The US also just got around to revoking Snowden's passport.

Last month, a Queens man was grabbed off the street, thrown into an SUV, and then taken to a warehouse where he was burned with acid and beaten, while his kidnappers tried to get $3 million from the man's relatives in Ecuador in exchange for a safe release.

Ecuador will grant Julian Assange political asylum, the country's Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patino, announced this morning.

Julian Assange will be granted asylum in steamy Ecuador, reports the Guardian, citing an Ecuadorian official. Assange has been hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 19th, seeking asylum from president Rafael Correa in order to avoid an extradition order to Sweden where he faces a sex crimes investigation.

Eucador's Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve is well known for being home to one of the richest and most diverse concentrations of flora and fauna on the planet.

File this under "the medium is the message": At a teeny-bop concert in Ecuador, Miley Cyrus performed the world's most incongruous rendition of Nirvana anthem "Smells Like Teen Spirit." I say this as someone who once witnessed a violin-flute duo called Nerdvana at an Illinois summer camp talent show in the '90s.

An Ecuadorean judge yesterday ordered Chevron to pay—wait for it—$8.6 billion, for polluting the Amazon region. It's one of the biggest environmental judgments ever, if not the biggest. It comes after the case had dragged on for 17 years.

[Spanish bullfighter Julio Benitez, known as El Cordobes Hijo, falls during a bullfight at the Monumental Bullring during the annual fair in Quito, Ecuador. Benitez was not injured. Photo via AP.]

Digital superhero Julian Assange has struggled to find a place to live. Sweden denied him, then issued an arrest warrant for rape. But he's found a friend in Ecuador — the country offered Assange residency "without any conditions." How sweet!

An Internet dating site did a study about which country's women initiate contact with men—flirt, in other words—most often. The U.S. came in second to last. Where should you go if you want a saucy girl? Spain!

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa was physically assaulted by rioting police officers, who shoved him and threw a tear gas grenade. Why? A new law that would have reduced benefits and slowed salary increases. No wonder governments hate cutting spending.

So Hillary Clinton really did blow the administration's rollout when she told an Ecuadorian television interviewer that the administration would sue over Arizona's immigration law, which a Justice Department official has now confirmed. How "old Hillary Clinton" of her.