Brits Tried to Recruit Slaying Suspect, Says Friend

Britain's spy agency was not only aware of one of the suspects in this week's savage London murder, it tried to recruit him just six months ago, a friend tells the BBC. In an interview, Abu Nusaybah said the MI5 questioned Michael Adebolajo about a trip he made to Kenya and then offered him a job of some sort. Adebolajo turned it down, he told his friend. The BBC was unable to confirm the story, but Nusaybah is apparently someone in the know—he got picked for questioning immediately after the interview ended, reports AP.

In the interview, Nusaybah said Adebolajo came back from Kenya changed for the worse after being detained and brutalized by Kenya security forces. He wasn't "aggressive or anything like that," but he became "less talkative," says Nusaybah, who maintains that his friend went to Kenya only to study. "He wasn't his bubbly self." The Guardian, meanwhile, reports that there's been a sharp increase in attacks against Muslims across Britain—from a handful to 150—since Wednesday's murder. (More Woolwich stories.)