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London (CNN) — Three more people were arrested Saturday in connection with this week’s grisly killing of British soldier Lee Rigby, police said.

The men were being held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

Police did not detail how they were allegedly tied to the killing nor did they release their identities, saying only that the men — ages 21, 24 and 28 — were arrested by detectives from the Counter Terrorism Command and taken to a south London police station.

Police said a Taser was used on two of the men, who “did not require hospital treatment.”

Police also were carrying out search warrants at four residential addresses associated with the three men, the statement said.

Former jihadist calls attack ‘cowardly’

Family of Woolwich victim speaks

London attack suspect caught on video

The brutal slaying Wednesday of Rigby near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, a working-class neighborhood in southeast London, shocked people across the United Kingdom.

One of the two suspects arrested at the scene approached a man filming the scene in the Woolwich neighborhood and suggested that Rigby had been targeted only “because Muslims are dying daily” at the hands of British troops such as him.

“We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” he said in the video aired by CNN affiliate ITN.

Britain’s armed forces have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. All its combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Another man, 29, who was arrested Thursday on suspicion of conspiracy to murder in connection with the Woolwich investigation was released on bail, police said Saturday.

BBC arrest

British counterterrorism police arrested a man, who said he was a friend of a suspect in the Woolwich soldier killing, after he gave an interview to the BBC on Friday night, the British broadcaster said.

The man, Abu Nusaybah, was arrested on suspected terrorism offenses after telling on air how his friend had been approached by Britain’s domestic intelligence service, known as MI5, according to the broadcaster.

A BBC staffer, who did not want to be named, told CNN that police were inside the BBC Broadcasting House building in central London waiting for the interview to conclude before they made the arrest.

Friends, acquaintances and British media identified 28-year-old Michael Adebolajo, a British national of Nigerian descent, as the suspect seen in a gory video from the scene of the Woolwich killing.

Authorities have not identified that individual or the 22-year-old man seized with him at the scene by armed police. Both suspects were shot and remain in hospital.

Man who taped London suspect speaks out

Who are London terror suspects?

Friend of attack suspect speaks to CNN

A Scotland Yard spokesman told CNN the arrest at the BBC was not connected to the murder investigation in Woolwich.

The brutal killing has sparked concerns that anti-Muslim sentiment may flare up in communities angered by the killing of the soldier, Drummer Lee Rigby.

Members of a far-right group, the English Defence League, called for Muslims to leave Britain as they rallied in Newcastle, northern England, on Saturday. The protest march came only hours after a group that monitors anti-Muslim abuse told CNN of a big spike in reported incidents in the past two days.

‘Changed and withdrawn’

In the interview with BBC’s Newsnight, Nusaybah said MI5 had approached Adebolajo in the past year, asking if he wanted to work for them.

Adebolajo rejected the approach, according to his friend.

Abu Nusaybah said the contact from MI5 occurred last year after Adebolajo returned from a visit to Kenya during which he was detained by security forces.

Adebolajo told his friend that he was physically assaulted and sexually threatened during his detention.

CNN is working to independently verify the allegations made by Abu Nusaybah about his friend’s treatment in detention.

Abu Nusaybah went on to say that Adebolajo appeared changed and withdrawn after his return from Kenya.

The pair first met in 2002, he said. Abu Nusaybah had converted to Islam in late 2004 and Adebolajo followed suit about four months later, he said.

A security source told CNN that “we would never comment” on the kind of allegations made in the interview.

London’s Metropolitan Police Service said a 31-year-old man had been arrested in London Friday night on terrorism-related offenses, but following standard practice, would not give the arrested man’s name.

Officers from Counter Terrorism Command arrested the man under the Terrorism Act, on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. He was taken to a south London police station, where he remains in custody, a police statement said.

Search warrants were being executed at two homes in east London, police said.

Kenya arrest

Kenyan counterterrorism sources told CNN Saturday that Adebolajo traveled to Kenya in November 2010 and was arrested in the coastal town of Lamu for trying to cross illegally into Somalia.

Lamu is part of an area near the Somali border that has been the stage for attacks by armed gangs and suspected operatives from the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militant group.

After his arrest, Adebolajo was then taken by Kenyan authorities to a court in Mombasa in November 2010, the sources said.

No charges were filed against him, according to the Kenyan media.

It’s not clear whether Adebolajo may have traveled to the region on more than one occasion.

CNN understands that one line of inquiry being examined in the Woolwich terror investigation is that Adebolajo might have attempted — but failed — to travel to Somalia some time last year.

‘Al Muhajiroun connections’

A self-proclaimed former radical associate of Abu Nusaybah told CNN Terrorism Analyst Paul Cruickshank he had been a follower of the group Al-Muhajiroun, a British group of Islamic extremists virulently opposed to UK intervention in Iraq and openly supportive of al Qaeda.

The former associate — who spoke to CNN on condition of not being named — spent time with Nusaybah in Al-Muhajiroun study groups in Luton, a town north of London, in the years leading up to the July 7, 2005, attacks on London’s transit system, he said.

At the time, Adebolajo himself was a follower of the group and attended meetings in London, according to several Al-Muhajiroun insiders, before moving away from the group two or three years ago.

“Abu Nusaybah was very quiet, always smiling, and very religious,” said his former friend, who has now shed his radical views.

He said their circle of friends in Luton included Taimour Abdulwahab al Abdaly, who carried out a suicide bombing in Stockholm in December 2010 in which he was the only fatality.

He said Abu Nusaybah had connections to a grouping of Somali extremists in Luton.

It is understood that the two individuals suspected in the knife and cleaver attack were known to Britain’s domestic security service. They had featured in previous investigations into other individuals, but were not themselves under surveillance.

CNN’s Lonzo Cook, Neda Farshbaf, Victoria Eastwood, Bharati Naik, Dan Rivers, Jonathan Wald and Ed Payne contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/25/world/europe/uk-terror-arrest/index.html?eref=edition

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London (CNN) — Concern grew Saturday that the slaying of a British soldier by attackers who claimed they were acting to avenge the deaths of Muslims overseas has prompted a swell in anti-Muslim sentiment in Britain.

A group which monitors incidents of anti-Muslim abuse said Saturday morning it had seen a huge increase in the number of reported incidents in the past 48 hours.

Meanwhile Northumbria Police said its officers had arrested three people in northern England on suspicion of posting racist tweets Saturday, ahead of a planned protest march in Newcastle by the far-right English Defence League.

Another group, Newcastle Unites, will stage a counter demonstration at the same time.

“The policing operation will allow people the right to peaceful protest, protect the safety of everyone in the city and prevent serious disorder and damage,” a police statement said.

Members of the EDL clashed with police near the scene of the killing late Wednesday. A tweet from its official account proclaimed then that “it’s fair to say that finally the country is waking up!:-) NO SURRENDER!”

Politicians and community leaders have been trying to damp down tensions in the wake of the murder of the soldier, Drummer Lee Rigby, while police numbers have been boosted in vulnerable areas.

But despite those efforts, reports of anti-Muslim abuse have soared according to figures gathered by the Tell Mama project, which describes itself as “a public service for measuring and monitoring anti-Muslim attacks.”

Fiyaz Mughal, a coordinator of Tell Mama, told CNN Saturday morning that 162 incidents had been reported in the past 48 hours — compared with four to six incidents a day on average before the Woolwich attack.

The latest include street-based incidents like name calling, assaults and materials being thrown at individuals, Mughal said, as well as online incidents, where targeted hate is directed at individuals through the Internet and social media. Eight incidents of attacks against mosques across Britain are also included in the figure.

Mughal, also director of an interfaith national hate crime reporting project, Faith Matters, said he had observed that people are scared, particularly female Muslims who wear headscarves and have told Tell Mama that they are afraid to go out. “It’s quite endemic,” he said.

Tell Mama recorded 632 incidents of anti-Muslim abuse in the year from March 2012, it said, about three-quarters of which occurred online. More than half were directed at women.

Imams sign letter condemning attack

The apparent increase in abuse comes as Muslim leaders, as well as their Christian counterparts, seek to keep communities calm.

Shaykh Shams Adduha, founder and director of Ebrahim College, which teaches Islamic studies in London, is one of nearly 100 imams and Muslim groups to have signed a letter Friday condemning the “outrageous attack” on Rigby and offering their condolences to his family.

“We share the absolute horror felt by the rest of British society at the sick and barbaric crime that was committed in the name of our religion. We condemn this heinous atrocity in the strongest possible terms. It is a senseless act of pure depravity worthy of nothing but contempt,” it read.

Shams Adduha told CNN Saturday that the Muslim community had reacted promptly and was working hard to defuse tensions.

“First of all we’ve been very open in our condemnation and very open about the fact that there is no place … in Islam for this kind of act,” the imam said.

“At the same time we’ve been calling for calm, we’ve constantly been talking to our communities to make sure that their fears are allayed. But of course the reactions are happening — and they will happen.”

These types of attacks are also a reaction, he said, to problems and grievances among “angry young people out there in the world.”

With regards to the Woolwich attack, he said, Muslim leaders must make clear that what happened is “un-Islamic” and seek to educate young people so they are not susceptible to “fringe voices.”

Prime Minister David Cameron stressed Thursday that “the fault lies solely with sickening individuals who carried out this attack,” adding that “nothing in Islam … justifies this truly dreadful act.

Friends, acquaintances and British media identified 28-year-old Michael Adebolajo, a British national of Nigerian descent, as the suspect seen in a gory video from the scene of the Woolwich killing. He is said to be a Muslim convert.

He apparently approached a man filming the gory scene in the Woolwich neighborhood and suggested that Rigby had been targeted only “because Muslims are dying daily” at the hands of British troops like him.

“We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” he said in the video aired by CNN affiliate ITN.

Britain’s armed forces have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. All its combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

The identity of a second man, aged 22, seized at the scene by armed police has not been released. Both suspects were shot and remain in hospital.

A third man, aged 29, who was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder on Thursday is also still in custody.

Terror arrest after TV interview

British counter-terrorism police arrested a man who said he was a friend of Woolwich suspect Adebolajo after he gave an interview to the BBC Friday night, the British broadcaster said.

The man, Abu Nusaybah, was arrested on suspected terrorism offenses after telling on air how his friend had been approached by Britain’s domestic intelligence service, known as MI5, according to the broadcaster.

A BBC staffer, who did want to be named, told CNN that police were inside BBC Broadcasting House in central London waiting for the interview to conclude before they made the arrest.

In the interview with BBC’s “Newsnight” show, Nusaybah said MI5 had approached Adebolajo in the past year, asking if he wanted to work for them.

Adebolajo rejected the approach, according to his friend.

Abu Nusaybah said the contact from MI5 occurred last year after Adebolajo returned from a visit to Kenya during which he was detained by security forces.

Adebolajo told his friend that he was physically assaulted and sexually threatened during his detention.

CNN is working to independently verify the claims made by Abu Nusaybah about his friend’s treatment in detention.

Abu Nusaybah went on to say that Adebolajo appeared changed and withdrawn after his return from Kenya.

The pair first met in 2002, he said. Abu Nusaybah had converted to Islam in late 2004 and Adebolajo followed suit about four months later, he said.

A security source told CNN that “we would never comment” on the kind of allegations made in the interview.

London’s Metropolitan Police Service said a 31-year-old man had been arrested in London Friday night on terrorism-related offenses, but following standard practice would not give the arrested man’s name.

A Scotland Yard spokesman told CNN the arrest was not connected to the investigation in Woolwich into the murder of Rigby.

Officers from Counter Terrorism Command arrested the 31-year-old man under the Terrorism Act, on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. He was taken to a south London police station, where he remains in custody, a police statement said.

Search warrants were being executed at two homes in east London, police said.

Donations flood in

It is understood that the two individuals suspected of carrying out the knife and cleaver attack were known to Britain’s domestic security service. They had featured in previous investigations into other individuals, but were not themselves under surveillance.

CNN understands that one line of inquiry being examined in the Woolwich terror investigation is that suspect Adebolajo might have attempted — but failed — to travel to Somalia some time last year.

The brutal slaying of Rigby near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, a working-class neighborhood in southeast London, shocked people across the United Kingdom.

The 25-year-old, who was married and had a 2-year-old son, was a machine gunner who became a recruiter. He was also a ceremonial military drummer.

His family spoke Friday of their sorrow at losing a son, husband and brother who was dedicated to his job and devoted to his family.

Help for Heroes, a charity which helps injured military veterans and servicemen and women, said Saturday that nearly £600,000 in public donations had poured in since the news of Rigby’s murder — with more still coming in.

“The nation has rallied behind our Armed Forces in an extraordinary and wonderful display of support,” the charity said.

CNN’s Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported in London, while Erin McLaughlin reported in London and Lonzo Cook reported in Atlanta. CNN’s Neda Farshbaf, Bharati Naik, Dan Rivers, Jonathan Wald and Ed Payne contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/25/world/europe/uk-terror-arrest/index.html?eref=edition

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Jes Baker, who blogs under the name “The Militant Baker,” changed Abercrombie and Fitch’s logo to “Attractive Fat” to challenge CEO Mike Jeffries’ comments about marketing to “cool, good-looking people.” The company doesn’t carry above a size 10 or large for women.

“I was inspired by the opportunity to show that I am secure in my skin and to flaunt this by using the controversial platform that you created,” Baker wrote. Here, she poses with model John C. Shay.

Baker said Jeffries’ comments “created an incredible opportunity for social change” about body image in the fashion industry.

Baker said she was nervous about the shoot, but only because she had never modeled with another person or in a sexual manner.

“The only thing you’ve done through your comments (about thin being beautiful and only offering XL and XXL in your stores for men) is reinforce the unoriginal concept that fat women are social failures, valueless, and undesirable,” Baker wrote to Jeffries.

“Never in our culture do we see sexy photo shoots that pair short, fat, unconventional models with not short, not fat, professional models,” Baker wrote.

Baker said the shoot isn’t about larger sizes at Abercrombie, “it’s about teaching the world that everybody is equal in value.”

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(CNN) — Jes Baker is cutting retailer Abercrombie Fitch down to size.

Baker, who blogs under the name “The Militant Baker” and wears a size 22, changed the brand’s AF logo to “Attractive Fat” in a mock, black-and-white Abercrombie ad to challenge the line’s branding efforts.

The photos come as a provocative response to contentious comments Abercrombie CEO Mike Jeffries made in a 2006 Salon article about the multibillion-dollar brand’s target audience.

“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” Jeffries said. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”

The divisive remarks resurfaced earlier this month after a series of protests went viral, from Greg Karber’s video of himself giving homeless people Abercrombie clothing to a Change.org petition for larger sizes by a teenage eating disorder survivor.

Video mocks Abercrombie and Fitch CEO

The plus-size community particularly took umbrage to the CEO’s business model because the retailer currently does not offer clothes above size 10 or large for women.

“I challenge the separation of attractive and fat, and I assert that they are compatible regardless of what you believe,” Baker, 26, wrote in a public letter addressed to the CEO.

Jeffries has since apologized in a statement: “While I believe this 7-year-old, resurrected quote has been taken out of context, I sincerely regret that my choice of words was interpreted in a manner that has caused offense.”

Baker spoke to CNN about Jeffries’ comments and her motivations to address them. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

CNN: You start your letter with a preface that Jeffries’ opinion “isn’t shocking; millions share the same sentiment.” The comments are from 2006 — what motivated you to act on them?

Jes Baker: It really wasn’t upset or outrage at all. I’ve been an art major for the majority of my academic life, and so I am always trying to find opportunities to do something artistic.

I just thought we don’t see the juxtaposition of typical and atypical bodies in advertising specifically. Since I am a woman and I am fat and that’s what I have to work with, I wanted to show that contrast by finding a male model.

Really, it just came because I wanted to not be angry about it. I wanted to not say, “This is an outrage, I’ve never heard of this before,” but say, “OK, well, look at this. Look at how awesome this is.”

And, I think when you’re talking about really serious subjects, and this is kind of serious, it’s important to be a little bit cheeky and pull in a little bit of humor so that it’s approachable — and it worked.

CNN: In your letter, you credit Jeffries with creating “an incredible opportunity for social change.” What did you mean by that?

Baker: In the body-positive world, which is still a subculture, fashion for fat people — what they call “fatshion” — is a really big political statement. So is the concept of, for example, a fat person walking around wearing cut-off shorts and not apologizing for their body being so observable.

Being positive and having confidence is a huge deal. Through a very, very large company that deals with fashion and also deals with unrealistic body images, it’s a perfect opportunity. You’re bringing in fashion, you’re bringing in body consciousness in general, you’re bringing in kids who shop at the mall — it’s all these wonderful things combined in one opportunity.

CNN: Have you always been comfortable in your own body?

Baker: No, no, no. I think of all of us, to some certain extent, feel the same things. I was crippled from shame my entire life. Only in this last year have I been so dedicated to this journey of learning how to survive bad days and find wanted days. If anyone tells you they have 100% good days, they’re probably lying.

I have 26 years to undo and rewire and I’m still working on it, but it’s definitely a very conscious decision. And writing has really helped, as well.

CNN: The response has obviously been huge.

Baker: It’s wonderful. I’m sure there are negatives, but for every negative, there are 20 positives.

The most powerful part is saying there is a reality that you can exist in where you’re OK, and it doesn’t make you gullible or delusional, it makes you strong.

For a lot of people, it’s just a light bulb. I know I had one where I said “What? I don’t have to live in self-loathing for the rest of my life?”

People are entertaining the idea that maybe there is a piece of self-worth for them out there somewhere. And once it starts, it grows.

CNN: Let’s talk about the actual photo shoot. Were you nervous?

Baker: I had never met the model until that day. I credit the majority of this to the photographer, Liora, because she really made it come to life.

He was the most genuine, down-to-earth person. It was so much fun.

In the beginning, I was nervous, but mostly because I had never modeled with other people. I have done solo fashion modeling, but never with another person and never in a sexual manner — so it was a really interesting experiment.

CNN: Have you heard from Jeffries or Abercrombie Fitch?

Baker: No, I didn’t write this letter technically for them. I like to not invest a lot of my time in people who are dedicated to misunderstanding me. What I wanted to do is reach women who look and feel like me. We never see this pairing; we never see a fat woman in a positive light. I want to empower the individual woman.

When Mike Jeffries is gone, there’s going to be another company. It’s not about the extra-large shirts at Abercrombie; it’s about teaching the world that everybody is equal in value.

Follow Sarah LeTrent on Twitter and CNN Living on Facebook

What do you think of Baker’s spoof ads and Jeffries’ comments? Share your opinion in the comments section below.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/living/abercrombie-attractive-and-fat/index.html?eref=edition

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Editor’s note: Agnes Poirier is a French journalist and political analyst who contributes regularly to newspapers, magazines and TV in the UK, U.S., France, Italy. Follow @AgnesCPoirier on Twitter.

Paris (CNN) — The gesture couldn’t have been more dramatic, nor the setting more grand: 78-year-old French writer and historian Dominique Venner chose the altar of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris to shoot himself in front of about 1,500 horrified visitors. Just before pulling the trigger, he had meticulously laid a letter on the altar for the police.

Venner, a former paratrooper and member of the Secret Army Organization (OAS), a group opposed to Algeria’s independence and which waged a war of terror against Charles de Gaulle and his government in the early 1960s, was a theorist of the French Extreme Right.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the Extreme-Right National Front party, provoked controversy when immediately took to Twitter to salute Venner’s “political gesture,” concluding that he had tried “to wake France up.”

“Venner’s models were ancient Greece and ancient Rome, he was a pagan and an anti-Christian but chose a highly symbolic place of western civilization to kill himself, ” commented Christophe Forcari in the French daily newspaper Libération.

Issues beyond same-sex rights for French

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Will France approve same-sex marriage?

Same-sex marriage battle in France

Read more: Man kills himself at Notre Dame Cathedral

Lately, Venner’s anger had focused on the same-sex marriage bill which became law last Saturday, and the abrogation of which, he thought, the French should seek in mass street protests. He dreamt, in fact, of a reactionary insurrection, a “French Spring.”

In a last post on his blog, he backed the anti-same-sex marriage march planned for this Sunday. He wrote that demonstrators were “right to shout their impatience and anger” and that laws could be overturned if the people shouted loudly enough. A xenophobe, he loathed multicultural France and called for radical and symbolic acts to “reawaken the memory of our origins.”

By committing suicide in such a fashion, Venner certainly hoped to show the way to like-minded radical militants; he recently wrote: “sometimes words are not enough, they need to be substantiated by acts.”

The four-month-long campaign on the same-sex marriage bill, during which supporters and protesters fought each other, sometimes violently, with hundreds of arrests, certainly antagonized the country in unexpected ways.

If a majority of the French people backed equality of treatment and therefore civil union for all, with its strings of fiscal advantages, they did however split on the second part of the bill, and the question of adoption rights and access to IVF for gays and lesbians.

Read more: Hollande signs same-sex marriage bill

In France, unlike in Britain for example, adoption and IVF for gay couples — alongside automatic joint parenting rights — was still illegal until last Saturday and remains controversial, simply because it touches on the highly sensitive question of family and what family is made of.

Surveys have showed that the divide is both political and generational: The Left is, for the most part, in favour of the same-sex marriage law while the hard Right, and leaders of the French Catholics, Muslims and Jews oppose it. The young, the educated and women are the main supporters of Hollande’s law.

The National Assembly was the theater where such French uneasiness played out: The bill required 172 hours of heated and angry discussion, and was the most debated in recent history. Even the laws introducing abortion in 1974, and the abolition of the death penalty in 1981, required fewer hours of debate in parliament and proved less contentious.

France is the ninth country in Europe (and the 14th in the world) to adopt same-sex marriage. The first civil union of this kind, between two gay men, will take place in Montpellier next week. It will likely take years for the whole of French society to adjust to this new reality.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Agnes Poirier.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/opinion/opinion-poirier-same-sex-marriage-suicide/index.html?eref=edition

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The victim killed in a cleaver attack Wednesday was identified as Drummer Lee Rigby of 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. The brutal killing of Rigby shocked the United Kingdom, with Prime Minister David Cameron saying the act appears to have been a terrorist attack.

A police officer stands with flowers in a hail storm on Thursday, May 23, close to the crime scene in front of Woolwich Barracks in southeast London.

A man contemplates at a scene where flowers lay, outside Woolwich Barracks in London.

Flowers lie outside Woolwich Barracks on May 23.

Soldiers walk outside Woolwich Barracks on Thursday, May 23, near where the soldier was killed.

Notes and shirts sit outside Woolwich Barracks on May 23. The slain soldier was wearing a “Help for Heroes” shirt when he was killed.

British soldiers stand guard outside the barracks on May 23.

Members of the far-right English Defence League wear balaclavas as they gather outside a pub in Woolwich on Wednesday, May 22.

EDL supporters confront police in Woolwich on May 22.

EDL leader Tommy Robinson joins supporters at the crime scene on May 22.

A police officer guards a tent that’s been set up at the crime scene as investigations continue late May 22.

Mary Warder brings flowers to the scene of the crime on May 22 to pay respects to the victim.

Men place flowers near the scene on John Wilson Street.

A police officer guards a blocked-off area in Woolwich on May 22.

A general view of Woolwich Barracks, near the scene in Woolwich.

Police officers block off a road in Woolwich.

Forensic officers investigate the crime scene on May 22.

Police walk to the scene in Woolwich on May 22.

A still frame from video shows a man outside the Woolwich Barracks in London holding a cleaver and addressing the camera directly, moments after a serving soldier was hacked to death in the street on Wednesday, May 22. The man in the video swore “by almighty Allah” to keep fighting. British Prime David Cameron called the attack terrorism.

Britain’s prime Minister David Cameron addresses media representatives at 10 Downing Street in London on May 23, 2013, a day after a soldier who was hacked to death in a London street by two suspected Islamist extremists.

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Are you from the area affected, or London in general? What is your reaction to the incident? Send us your images, video and experiences.

London (CNN) — Why did Lee Rigby have to die?

That’s what people around Britain — its officials, its authorities, its citizens — asked themselves Thursday, a day after the soldier was hit with a car, then hacked to death on a London street in broad daylight.

There’s been no indication that the 25-year-old machine gunner, drummer and father of a 2-year-old boy knew the men who attacked him with meat cleavers. One of them who approached a man filming the gory scene in southeast London’s Woolwich neighborhood suggested Rigby had been targeted only “because Muslims are dying daily” at the hands of British troops like him.

Soldier slain in London was a machine gunner, Royal Palaces drummer, father

That man and another who suffered gunshot wounds in a confrontation with police minutes after Rigby’s killing spent Thursday in stable condition at separate South London hospitals.

Cameron: Strong indication of terrorism

London attack suspect caught on video

Deadly attack near London barracks

Even with those two suspected attackers under guard, authorities pressed for answers — and to determine if others might have been somehow involved and, if so, why.

Six residences have been searched, and two people — a man and a woman, both of them age 29 — were arrested Thursday on “suspicion of conspiracy to murder,” London’s Metropolitan Police said.

“This is a large, complex and fast-moving investigation which continues to develop,” added police.

The attack, which Prime Minister David Cameron and others called an act of terror, stirred anxiety and alerts in Britain not seen since the summer of 2005, when coordinated bomb attacks struck London’s public transport network.

An additional 1,200 police are now on London’s streets to reassure the public, Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Crime and Operations Mark Rowley said, with extra patrols at key locations such as religious institutions and transport hubs. Steps were also taken to further protect military installations and personnel, he added.

Abu Barra blamed Wednesday’s attack not on his friend Michael Adebolajo — who he says is the bloody, cleaver-wielding man shown talking in the video aired by CNN affiliate ITN — but on the British government and predicted there may be more attacks.

“As long as (British) foreign policy is engaging in violence, they’re only inviting violence in retaliation,” Barra told CNN.

By sharp contrast, Cameron said “the fault lies solely with sickening individuals who carried out this attack,” adding that “nothing in Islam … justifies this truly dreadful act.”

“This was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life; it was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country.”

London attack: Terrorists targeting soldiers at home again?

Suspect knew British Muslim radical leader

It is understood that the two individuals suspected of carrying out the knife attack were known to Britain’s domestic security service. They had featured in previous investigations into other individuals, but were not themselves under surveillance.

Friends, acquaintances and British media identified the 28-year-old Adebolajo as the suspect seen on the ITN video. The identities of the other man, 22, and the two people arrested Thursday aren’t known.

A British national of Nigerian descent, Adebolajo converted to Islam and became passionate about his faith, said Barra.

British Muslim radical leader Anjem Choudary told CNN on Thursday that he knew Adebolajo, noting that the suspect attended demonstrations and a few lectures organized by Choudary’s group Al-Muhajiroun.

In fact, an ITN video from April 2007 shows Adebolajo standing behind Choudary at a rally protesting the arrest of men who allegedly made inflammatory speeches inside a mosque.

Barra described his friend as a “very caring” man who “just wanted to help everybody.” He was also “very vocal” about his feelings that Muslims were being oppressed, injustices he pinned, in part, on the British government.

London attack: Eyewitness heard gunshots

Terrorism analyst on soldier killing

Cell phone video of London attack scene

“I wasn’t surprised that it happened,” Barra said of Wednesday’s attack. “… Britain is only responsible, the government. And I believe all of us, as a public, we are responsible. We should condemn ourselves, why we did not do enough to stop these wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The Woolwich bloodshed spurred concerns not only about violence by Islamic extremists but also about attacks targeting Muslims by people angry about Rigby’s killing.

“People can only take so much. And people will break,” said Victor Easdown, a construction worker who heard shots ring out in Woolwich as police took on Rigby’s attackers.

London attack mirrors plot to behead Muslim soldier

In Kent, police arrested a man on suspicion of “racially aggravated criminal damage” at a religious building. And Wednesday night in Essex, a man with two knives was arrested after throwing a smoke grenade at the Al Falah Braintree Islamic Center and demanding someone come outside to answer to the Woolwich slaying, the mosque’s secretary Sikander Sleemy said.

Members of the far-right English Defence League clashed with police late Wednesday, with a tweet from its official account touting that “it’s fair to say that finally the country is waking up!:-) NO SURRENDER!”

“Don’t listen to the Government cover ups, The lies about Islam being peaceful,” read another EDL tweet Thursday.

Political and social commentator Mohammed Ansar appealed for “a sense of calm (and) perspective” after what he called “a really, really heinous act of, I would say, criminality, … not terrorism.”

“What we don’t need are knee-jerk reactions … to really ratchet up tensions and really stoke and inflame anxieties within communities,” he told CNN.

Watch: Terrorism analyst on soldier killing

Paper: Woman says she talked to attacker

The attack may have wide-ranging repercussions in Britain, including possibly enflaming sectarian tensions and leading to more violence.

But it’s already have an impact on people who live and work in Woolwich — the working-class, multicultural neighborhood where the mutilation took place — and witnessed the carnage firsthand.

A man who identified himself as James told London’s LBC 97.3 radio station that he saw two men standing by the victim, who was on the ground.

At first, James thought they were trying to help the man. But then he saw two meat cleavers, like a butcher would have.

Could London killing inspire other attacks?

“They were hacking at this poor guy, literally,” he told the radio station. “These two guys were crazed. They were just not there. They were just animals.”

Witness: Attackers ‘were just animals’

Amid the horror, an individual story of courage emerged Thursday in the person of a Cub Scout leader named Ingrid Loyau-Kennett.

Loyau-Kennett told Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper that she had jumped off a bus to try to revive a man — later determined to be Rigby — she thought had been hurt accidentally.

She swiftly realized the man was dead, and it was no accident.

“When I went up, there was this black guy with a revolver and a kitchen knife. He had what looked like butcher’s tools, and he had a little ax, to cut the bones, and two large knives, and he said, ‘Move off the body,’ ” she told the newspaper.

“So I thought, ‘OK, I don’t know what is going on here,’ and he was covered with blood. I thought I had better start talking to him before he starts attacking somebody else.”

Unarmed police — like most in Britain — arrived at 2:29 p.m. Wednesday, nine minutes after the first call came in police. Armed officers were on site five minutes later. Witnesses recounted the suspects then ran at the police, who responded with gunshots.

Recalling the incident later on ITV, Loyau-Kennett said she wasn’t scared when she talked to one of those suspects — who then had a revolver, knife and cleaver in his bloody hands — minutes before those shots rang out.

“Better me than a child,” she said.

CNN’s Laura Smith-Spark reported and wrote from London, and CNN’s Greg Botelho did the same from Atlanta. CNN’s Dan Rivers, Jonathan Wald, Carol Jordan, Atika Shubert, Erin McLaughlin, Richard Allen Greene, Ed Payne and Nic Robertson contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/world/europe/london-attack/index.html?eref=edition

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Actor Brad Pitt told Esquire that he has such a hard time remembering the faces of those he meets, he thinks he might suffer from prosopagnosia, or face blindness. He has not been tested or diagnosed with the disorder. Here’s a look at others who have said they have face blindness.

Artist Chuck Close, best known for his giant face portraits, says he suffers from the condition. He said in an interview with RadioLab that he paints faces by dividing a photo up on a grid.

Neurologist Oliver Sacks has spoken on a number of occasions about the science behind the condition and his personal experience with it. He told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta that he sometimes can’t even recognize his own face in a mirror.

Primatologist Jane Goodall said she didn’t realize that she had the condition until later in life when she met someone else who had difficulty recognizing faces. She wrote to Oliver Sacks, who diagnosed her. “Chimps are no easier than people” to recognize, she said in an interview.

Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria revealed in 2008 that she has been diagnosed with prosopagnosia. “I find it very hard to remember names and faces, and that is a big drawback in my capacity because obviously I meet an awful lot of people,” she told Sweden’s Foraldrakraft magazine.

Duncan Bannatyne, a business entrepreneur best known for his appearance on the BBC show “Dragons’ Den,” tweeted that he was a “mild sufferer” in 2011. He said in a video interview that he once had a manager of his quit because the manager through Bannatyne was being rude when he couldn’t remember his manager.

Markos Moulitsas, founder of the progressive blog “Daily Kos,” said in a post in 2010 that he has face blindness. “It’s a shitty condition to have when your job suddenly requires you to spend significant time in social situations,” he wrote.

Journalist Mary Ann Sieghart said she was tested for the condition after reading an article about it. Her husband also suffers from the condition.

Writer Heather Sellers describes her condition in her memoir, “You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know.” She said she would take social cues from people’s voice, gait, hair and context.

Karl Kruszelnicki, who hosts the science TV show “Sleek Geeks,” had his condition analyzed in an episode. “Faces to me are just like brick walls,” he said.

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(CNN) — It seems that anytime Brad Pitt speaks, the world stops to listen, and his latest interview with Esquire has been no exception.

The 49-year-old star, who’ll next appear in June’s “World War Z,” covers the magazine’s June/July issue. As you’ve probably noticed, bits and pieces of the profile have been floating around the Web all week.

Some of it isn’t all that new: We’ve heard him talk previously about how he was stagnant 10 to 15 years ago but made a conscious decision “not to squander my opportunities,” as he reiterated to Esquire in the interview. He also reminds us of how super-content he is in his new life, raising six kids with fiancée Angelina Jolie.

But there were a few revelations including a potentially startling medical one. Here, we recount the top five things we’ve learned so far from the interview:

1. Pitt won’t recognize you

Pitt told Esquire that he has such a hard time remembering the faces of those he meets, he thinks he might suffer from prosopagnosia, or face blindness, though he has not been tested or diagnosed with the disorder. We’re not sure whether the actor was being facetious or not, but he said even having a “real conversation” doesn’t help.

The lives of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, both on and off the big screen, make headlines around the world. Pictured here, Pitt and Jolie arrive at the 84th Annual Academy Awards on February 26, 2012, in Hollywood.

Pitt speaks at a Paramount Pictures presentation to promote his upcoming film, “World War Z” during CinemaCon on April 15, 2013, in Las Vegas.

Jolie leaves Lancaster House after attending the G8 Foreign Minsters’ conference on April 11, 2013, in London.

Jolie meets with refugees at the Zaatari refugee camp outside of Mafraq, Jordan, on December 6, 2012, in this handout image provided by UNHCR.

Pitt and Kevin Bacon perform a one-night reading of “8″ presented at The Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, on March 3, 2012.

Pitt arrives for a screening at the 65th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, on May 22, 2012.

Accompanied by their six children, Pitt and Jolie arrive at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, on November 8, 2011.

Jolie visits a man in a hospital in Misrata, Libya, on October 11, 2011, in this handout photo provided by UNHCR.

Jolie and Pitt visit refugees in the village of Medjedja, Bosnia, on April 5, 2010.

Pitt, George Clooney, executive producer Jerry Weintraub and Matt Damon pose for a photo during their hand and footprints ceremony at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, on June 5, 2007.

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Photos: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

“So many people hate me because they think I’m disrespecting them,” Pitt told the magazine. “I took one year where I just said, This year, I’m just going to cop to it and say to people, ‘OK, where did we meet?’ But it just got worse. People were more offended. …You get this thing, like, ‘You’re being egotistical. You’re being conceited.’ But it’s a mystery to me, man. I can’t grasp a face, and yet I come from such a design/aesthetic point of view. I am going to get it tested.”

(For more on face blindness, check out this 2011 video of CNN’s Sanjay Gupta speaking with Dr. Oliver Sacks, a famed neurologist who has face blindness. Occasionally, Sacks said he had trouble recognizing his own face.)

On Thursday, Carnegie Mellon University invited Pitt to have his brain imaged and be examined by Marlene Behrmann, a neuroscientist, professor of psychology and a member of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition within the university’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

“Carnegie Mellon is one of the very few places that can both test for face blindness and perform the brain imaging in our state-of-the-art imaging center,” Behrmann said in a press release.

2. Pitt’s daughter Zahara doesn’t appreciate her parents’ PDA

Pitt’s relationship with Jolie is one of constant speculation, but those hungry for intimate details aren’t often satisfied. This month, however, they have been, thanks to Pitt’s friend Frank Pollaro.

After getting permission from the actor to speak openly, Pollaro told Esquire that he once walked into the Pitt-Jolie home just in time to hear the couple’s adopted daughter, Zahara, protesting her parents’ apparently frequent displays of affection.

“I walked in and Angie was standing there and Zahara walked up and said, ‘Daddy, you’re not going to start making out with Mommy again, are you?’ And it’s like that,” Pollaro said.

3. He tries to avoid on-screen sex scenes now that he’s with Angelina

That wasn’t the only reveal Pollaro offered. The chatty friend said that Pitt tries to avoid “sexy scenes with other women since he’s met Angelina,” whom he’s been with for years and became engaged to in April 2012. “He’s crazy about her, and she’s the same way about him,” Pollaro continued. “No matter how hard he’s working, if one of those kids runs by the window he’ll get out of his chair and give them a kiss. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen Angie without one of those children in her arms.”

4. He doesn’t have a ton of friends

We’ve seen Pitt pal around with the likes of George Clooney and we now know of Pollaro, but it seems Pitt’s buddy list might not extend far beyond that.

“I have a handful of close friends and I have my family, and I haven’t known life to be any happier,” the actor said. “I’m making things. I just haven’t known life to be any happier.”

5. His home life sounds about as chaotic as you think it is

“I always thought that if I wanted to do a family, I wanted to do it big,” he says. “There’s constant chatter in our house, whether it’s giggling or screaming or crying or banging. I love it. I love it. I love it. I hate it when they’re gone. I hate it. Maybe it’s nice to be in a hotel room for a day — ‘Oh, nice, I can finally read a paper.’ But then, by the next day, I miss that cacophony, all that life.”

Esquire’s full interview with Pitt lands on newsstands May 31.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/showbiz/celebrity-news-gossip/brad-pitt-esquire-face-blindness/index.html?eref=edition

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Editor’s note: Agnes Poirier is a French journalist and political analyst who contributes regularly to newspapers, magazines and TV in the UK, U.S., France, Italy. Follow @AgnesCPoirier on Twitter.

Paris (CNN) — The gesture couldn’t have been more dramatic, nor the setting more grand: 78-year-old French writer and historian Dominique Venner chose the altar of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris to shoot himself in front of about 1,500 horrified visitors. Just before pulling the trigger, he had meticulously laid a letter on the altar for the police.

Venner, a former paratrooper and member of the Secret Army Organization (OAS), a group opposed to Algeria’s independence and which waged a war of terror against Charles de Gaulle and his government in the early 1960s, was a theorist of the French Extreme Right.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the Extreme-Right National Front party, provoked controversy when immediately took to Twitter to salute Venner’s “political gesture,” concluding that he had tried “to wake France up.”

“Venner’s models were ancient Greece and ancient Rome, he was a pagan and an anti-Christian but chose a highly symbolic place of western civilization to kill himself, ” commented Christophe Forcari in the French daily newspaper Libération.

Issues beyond same-sex rights for French

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Will France approve same-sex marriage?

Same-sex marriage battle in France

Read more: Man kills himself at Notre Dame Cathedral

Lately, Venner’s anger had focused on the same-sex marriage bill which became law last Saturday, and the abrogation of which, he thought, the French should seek in mass street protests. He dreamt, in fact, of a reactionary insurrection, a “French Spring.”

In a last post on his blog, he backed the anti-same-sex marriage march planned for this Sunday. He wrote that demonstrators were “right to shout their impatience and anger” and that laws could be overturned if the people shouted loudly enough. A xenophobe, he loathed multicultural France and called for radical and symbolic acts to “reawaken the memory of our origins.”

By committing suicide in such a fashion, Venner certainly hoped to show the way to like-minded radical militants; he recently wrote: “sometimes words are not enough, they need to be substantiated by acts.”

The four-month-long campaign on the same-sex marriage bill, during which supporters and protesters fought each other, sometimes violently, with hundreds of arrests, certainly antagonized the country in unexpected ways.

If a majority of the French people backed equality of treatment and therefore civil union for all, with its strings of fiscal advantages, they did however split on the second part of the bill, and the question of adoption rights and access to IVF for gays and lesbians.

Read more: Hollande signs same-sex marriage bill

In France, unlike in Britain for example, adoption and IVF for gay couples — alongside automatic joint parenting rights — was still illegal until last Saturday and remains controversial, simply because it touches on the highly sensitive question of family and what family is made of.

Surveys have showed that the divide is both political and generational: The Left is, for the most part, in favour of the same-sex marriage law while the hard Right, and leaders of the French Catholics, Muslims and Jews oppose it. The young, the educated and women are the main supporters of Hollande’s law.

The National Assembly was the theater where such French uneasiness played out: The bill required 172 hours of heated and angry discussion, and was the most debated in recent history. Even the laws introducing abortion in 1974, and the abolition of the death penalty in 1981, required fewer hours of debate in parliament and proved less contentious.

France is the ninth country in Europe (and the 14th in the world) to adopt same-sex marriage. The first civil union of this kind, between two gay men, will take place in Montpellier next week. It will likely take years for the whole of French society to adjust to this new reality.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Agnes Poirier.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/opinion/opinion-poirier-same-sex-marriage-suicide/index.html?eref=edition

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(CNN) — The eyes of the country will be upon Texas on Thursday.

That’s where 1,400 members of the Boy Scouts of America’s national council are expected to vote on whether to end the 103-year-old group’s outright ban on gay youths.

The outcome, to be announced late afternoon, follows months of intense debate among interest groups and within the ranks of scouting itself.

It comes down to a single sentence at the end of a resolution.

“No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.”

If the policy change is approved, the BSA will maintain its ban on openly gay adult leaders.

Boy Scouts of America is an organization that says it is focused on mentoring young men and helping them develop life skills. Here’s a look at BSA by the numbers. (Source: Boy Scouts of America).

102: The number of years since Boy Scouts of America was incorporated. Membership topped 20 million by 1952.

2.7 million: The number of youth members as of 2011. BSA also boasts 1.1 million adult members.

420,000: The number of youth members in units chartered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the most of any faith-based organization. As of 2011, the United Methodist Church had the second strongest membership, followed by the Catholic Church.

181: The number of NASA astronauts that participated in Scouting. Neil Armstrong was an Eagle Scout, the highest ranking in the program.

206: Number of lawmakers in the current session of Congress that have participated in Boy Scouts. Fifteen current governors were Scouts or Scout volunteers.

18: The number of presidents that have served as honorary president of Boy Scouts of America. (That’s every president since BSA was founded).

161: The number of countries with Boy Scouts, as of 2010.

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Photos: Boy Scouts by the numbers

Boy Scouts consider ending gay ban

Land: Gays in Boy Scouts ‘a catastrophe’

In February, the Boy Scouts’ national executive board postponed a vote on the issue and ordered a survey of its members. That survey showed an organization that is divided — by age and, in some cases, by region.

While most adults in the scouting community support the BSA current policy of “excluding open and avowed homosexuals, young parents and teens tend to oppose the policy.”

Survey: Should gay and straight Boy Scouts share a tent?

A BSA spokesman conceded the issue was “among the most complex and challenging issues facing the BSA and society today.”

A recent Washington Post-ABC News Poll showed that 63% of Americans support allowing gay youths to join the Boy Scouts.

But 61% of surveyed adult members say they support the current BSA policy, which excludes gay youths and adult leaders, the group said.

The vote comes more than a decade after a Supreme Court ruling that found the organization has the right to keep gays out, but also amid declining participation in the venerable American institution.

Membership in Boy Scouts has declined by about a third since 1999. About 2.7 million people now participate nationwide.

The Boy Scouts relies on “chartered organizations” to provide facilities and sponsorship for the individual units.

More than 70% of troops are affiliated with a church or religious groups. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Catholic Church sponsor 43% of Scout troops in the country.

In April, the Utah-based Mormons said, “while the church has not launched any campaign either to effect or prevent a policy change, we have followed the discussion and are satisfied that BSA has made a thoughtful, good-faith effort to address issues …”

The vote could have an impact in at least two Western states

If the policy proposal is approved, 97% of chartered organizations in the heavily Mormon populated states of Utah and Idaho would be likely to leave the organization, local councils say.

The Catholic Church in the United States says it will strive to maintain ties with the BSA, regardless of the outcome.

“We would hope that the Boy Scouts of America will continue to provide young people a formative experience grounded in virtue and directed by service to God and others,” the National Catholic Committee on Scouting said in February.

A full picture of opinions was not captured in the survey, according to the BSA.

“When the survey process was originally announced, several chartered organizations, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Baptist church, and many parents asked that their youth members not be contacted as part of the survey.”

There’s been no shortage of lobbying on the issue, which will be taken up at the BSA’s annual meeting in Grapevine, Texas.

“This (current) ban hurts kids and undermines key scouting values like helpfulness, friendliness and courteousness,” says the Human Rights Campaign. “It’s time to send a message of inclusion — not discrimination.”

James Dale, an Eagle Scout and former assistant troop leader who was kicked out of the Boy Scouts in 1990 because he is gay, said the issue is about fairness.

“Each of us has the power to make positive change,” he says in a video posted by GLAAD (The Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation).

In an opinion piece for USA Today on Wednesday, BSA President Wayne Perry endorsed the policy change. “Parents, adults in the Scouting community and teens alike tend to agree that youth should not be denied the benefits of Scouting,” Perry wrote. “The resolution is not about adults; it is about what is best for young people.”

Conservative groups and some religious organizations have argued against making any change, saying it would dilute the Boy Scout message of morality and potentially destroy the organization.

The Family Research Council says the vote is “critically important to the future of the Scouts and the moral fiber of our nation.”

It urged people to visit OnMyHonor.net, a group opposing the policy change, to send their thoughts to scout leaders and executives.

That website reposted an article by the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, who said the BSA was “at the brink.”

“The culture wars came to the Boy Scouts many years ago. For the last few decades, the Boy Scouts have had to fight battles with both secularists and homosexual activists,” wrote R. Albert Mohler Jr.

“How, exactly, are openly gay boys to be included in the activities of scouting? We are talking about boys who will now be expected to participate in everything from camping trips to travel with boys who are openly gay,” says Mohler. “Boys of these ages just might be the least equipped of all God’s creatures to deal with the complexities of the situation. Most parents are likely to decide that, all things considered, this is just not something they want imposed on their sons.”

President Barack Obama has been become outspoken in his support of gay rights and same-sex marriage.

When asked about the BSA policy in February, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama believes the Boy Scouts is a valuable organization that has helped educate and build character in American boys

“He also, as you know, opposes discrimination in all forms. And as such, believes — that gay Americans ought to be able to participate in the Boy Scouts. But in terms of the process of their evaluation of their policies, I don’t have a comment.”

If approved, the new BSA rules would take effect January 1.

CNN’s Katia Hetter and Ed Payne contributed to this report.

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A model, wearing a Campbell’s Soup dress in a nod to Andy Warhol’s iconic pop art, stands at the “Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal” exhibition currently showing in Shanghai.

American pop artist Andy Warhol poses in a Mao suit — the common attire of men in China during the second half of the 20th century, including Communist Chinese leader Mao Zedong. The photo was taken in a New York studio after his return from China.

During his first and only trip in China, Warhol is pictured in front of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, with its iconic portrait of Chairman Mao in November 1982.

After signing as a model with Ford Agency, Warhol began considering how to pose for the camera. Warhol experimented with poses in front of his friend and personal photographer, Christopher Makos. Here, he imitates the expression of one of the guardian lions in Beijing’s Forbidden City.

In his hotel room in Beijing, Warhol tried poses inspired by the many people he observed practicing tai chi outdoors.

Warhol stands by Chinese citizens on the Great Wall of China.

Warhol also spent a morning at the Great Wall of China. “It doesn’t look like a wall, it looks like a rollercoaster without the roller,” Makos recalls him remarking.

Christopher Makos (L) and Andy Warhol (R) had their picture taken in front of Tiananmen Square by one of the photographers hanging around the area. Back in the U.S., they received the hand-colored photo in the mail a few months later.

Several of Warhol’s “Chairman Mao” portraits from the collection of Gunter Sachs are pictured at the auction preview at Sotheby’s London in May 2012.

A visitor takes photos at the exhibition “Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal” showing at Shanghai’s Power Station of Art from April 28- May 31. The show excluded his iconic portraits of Chairman Mao.

A Christie’s art expert walks by a Mao portrait by Andy Warhol at a press preview in Hong Kong in October 2006. The piece was auctioned to Hong Kong property tycoon Joseph Lau for US$ 17.4 million the following month in New York, setting a world auction record for the artists.

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Hong Kong (CNN) — When American pop artist Andy Warhol visited Beijing in 1982 and was told there wasn’t a McDonald’s, he replied: “Oh, but they will.”

Twenty-six years after his death, Warhol, whose much-lauded prescience extended across visual and consumer culture, has popped up in China once again — and he was right about the fast-food chain.

“Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal,” the first major retrospective of his work in China, recently arrived in Shanghai with the aim of acquainting the Chinese public with the artist who created some of the most famous paintings of the most iconic figure in the country’s history.

Warhol goes to China

While Warhol’s trip to Beijing was his first and only visit to mainland China, his engagement with the country started a decade earlier, inspired by former U.S. president Richard Nixon’s rapprochement with the communist power in 1972.

On China: Contemporary art

On China: Censoring contemporary art

On China: Contemporary art unhindered

Ripping from the headlines, Warhol adopted Chairman Mao as his subject, applying his signature pop aesthetic to China’s paramount leader. His series of portraits went on to become some of his most well-known works.

READ: Can Chinese art be cutting edge?

“Mao was front-page news in America and that was often where Warhol got his biggest inspiration,” said Eric Shiner, director of Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum, which organized the exhibition. He described Mao as “classic Warhol subject matter.”

Warhol relied on a copy of Mao’s portrait photograph in the leader’s Little Red Book of ideological quotations to create his paintings. Little did he know that he would eventually pose for a photo in front of the original portrait hanging in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

His trip to Beijing was an unexpected byproduct of a visit to Hong Kong. The industrialist Alfred Siu had invited him to the city to attend the opening of a night club, decorated with portraits of Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana that he had commissioned from the artist. Upon Warhol’s arrival, Siu announced he had arranged a VIP tour to Beijing for him and his friends.

Artistic inspiration aside, China also provided Warhol with a respite from the pressures of fame. “It was one of the special places,” said Christopher Makos, the artist’s close friend and personal photographer, who accompanied him to China.

READ: Hong Kong’s art explosion

He recalled that Warhol went virtually unrecognized in China, although the artist stood out for his unusual looks. “As Andy would say, he didn’t have to wear his Andy suit. Notoriety and fame is a double-edged sword….you have no privacy.”

China’s communist uniformity, with its blue sea of unisex Mao suits, appealed to Warhol’s aesthetic obsession with repetition. “He was all about multiples…and at the time, China was the ultimate multiple,” Makos said.

The country also provided a source of inspiration for Warhol’s nascent modeling career. Warhol posed for Makos’ camera with gestures he adopted from the tai chi practitioners he observed outdoors — and even adopted the bared-teeth expression of the guardian lion in the Forbidden City in one photo.

Can Warhol make a name in China?

While Warhol is well-known within art and fashion circles in China (Shiner said 600 of these cultural elite attended the exhibition’s pre-opening), he remains unknown to the average Chinese citizen.

Many Chinese are familiar with certain Warhol works, such as the Marilyn Monroe or the Chairman Mao portraits, reproductions of which dot cafes and tourist markets across Beijing. But they are much less likely to connect the work with the artist — or to even have heard of the artist himself.

“If you don’t know who Andy Warhol is, I won’t blame you. But if you say you’ve never seen his Marilyn Monroe portrait, I would have to jump into the Huangpu river and kill myself!” wrote user @Jianisi_yangyang on Sina Weibo. A search on China’s popular Twitter-like platform revealed many posts by users expressing ignorance of whom Warhol was or why he is famous.

Having recently launched a “massive” advertising campaign and sat for dozens of interviews with mainland media outlets, Shiner is hoping to reach the masses.

“One of the reasons why I wanted to do this show is so the general public can learn about the artist behind these iconic works and realize (Mao and Marilyn Monroe) are just a few of thousands of images he made,” he said.

So far, it appears that this education is welcome — and necessary. “For the first time, I learned the charm of pop art,” Weibo user @Yanmingdu wrote about the exhibition, while user @GracieMankedun posted, “Just saw Andy Warhol’s exhibition and I got a little confused. For example, I didn’t understand the Campbell’s soup cans.”

“The curiosity is greater than the awareness,” said John Good, international director for post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s, which is holding its second private sale of Warhol’s work in Hong Kong this week. “We’ve seen a great deal of interest and curiosity (among Chinese) about Western art and international culture. I think Warhol is a perfect artist…to show what Western culture is all about.”

Christie’s first private Warhol sale in Hong Kong last November attracted a mostly Asian demographic and managed to sell nearly half of its lots, Good said.

Censoring Mao in China

However, visitors to the “15 Minutes External” exhibitions in mainland China will not see any Chairman Mao portraits. While Shiner was planning the exhibition with the host venue — the Shanghai Power Station of Art — its staff advised that exhibiting the Mao works wasn’t a “good idea right now.” A staff member told CNN that government authorities would have considered the works “too political.”

“Of course, the primary concern is to get the show there and up and not put anything in a category that would ever question anything,” Shiner said. “Knowing that we would have the censors from the Ministry of Culture, we wanted to make sure… that nothing would put the show in jeopardy.”

An editorial in the state-backed Global Times newspaper suggested that while Warhol may not have had ill intent, the “provocative” blotches of color splattered on Mao’s face suggested that he was wearing make-up — a disrespectful portrayal of the iconic leader.

While Shiner acknowledged the Mao portraits “could be read as a sarcastic or ironic portrayal”, he said Warhol “definitely wasn’t being critical. He always liked to blur the lines on gender, and making colorful men somewhat beautiful was something that he liked to do as an inside joke,” he added.

Once the Chinese public gains a deeper understanding of Warhol’s work, he expects that the Mao works “won’t be as big a deal.”

Influence on Chinese contemporary art

Warhol’s influence on Chinese contemporary art can actually be traced back to 1981, when many contemporary artists, labeled as dissidents, fled the country, Shiner said. While most of them went to Paris and Berlin, two artists “very specifically went to New York because they wanted quite literally to be part of Andy’s universe” — Ai Weiwei and Xu Bing.

Both artists have gone on to become some of the most recognized and celebrated names in Chinese contemporary art, and some would go as far as calling Ai Weiwei “China’s Andy Warhol.”

“Ai Weiwei loves the idea of multiples,” Makos pointed out, noting Ai’s most famous installations, including the 9,000 backpacks representing the schoolchildren killed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and the millions of porcelain sunflower seeds he poured into the Turbine Hall of London’s Tate Modern museum.

Shiner readily concurred: “He’s really gone on to model his entire art-making process and career on proven Warhol tactics, looking at repetition, multiplication, and critique of consumer culture. When you look at his Coca-Cola works, that’s directly related to Warhol and it’s really amazing how many things he picked up from Andy.” Ai’s similarity to Warhol also lies in his social activism, which aims to change Chinese society through art, he added.

As for Xu Bing, viewers may not immediately see Warhol in his work, Shiner said, but he described the artist as a “huge fan of Warhol” who “loves the idea of repetition — the formal arrangement of Chinese character after Chinese character, an endless array of similar looking imagery.”

Unfortunately, neither artist became acquainted in person with their muse, despite moving to New York for him. Ai once spotted Warhol at a party, but did not approach him, Shiner revealed. “As a young man, he was too shy to actually go and say hello,” he said, recalling that Ai told him his English wasn’t good enough at the time.

Ai and Xu aside, the Warhol aesthetic and vocabulary has deeply influenced Chinese contemporary artists over the past 10-15 years, with its characteristic combinations of social realist imagery with pop culture and iconic brands.

The Shanghai exhibition will run to July 28 and make its way to Beijing later this year. Meanwhile, Makos will also hold an exhibition of his photographs of Warhol next month in Shanghai, including images from their 1982 trip to China.

“His work lives on. Maybe (the Chinese) don’t know him, but they know his work,” Makos said, predicting that Warhol “will get bigger and bigger in China.”

“Andy was the ultimate pop artist. To this day you can still find Campbell soup on the shelf in the grocery store and you can see multiples of them,” Makos said. “As long as that imagery is live and well, Warhol will have this built-in publicity.”

CNN’s Feng Ke contributed to this report.

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(CNN) — Deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev participated in a 2011 gruesome triple homicide outside Boston along with a Chechen killed early Wednesday during a confrontation with the FBI and Massachusetts State Police in Orlando, Florida, a federal law enforcement official told CNN.

Ibragim Todashev, who died during the interview with authorities, not only confessed to his direct role in slashing the throats of three people in Waltham, Massachusetts, but also fingered Tsarnaev in the deaths, the official said Wednesday.

Todashev was being questioned about the slayings and his acquaintance with Tsarnaev.

Todashev attacked an FBI agent, who shot him dead, a federal law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the case told CNN.

From left, Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev went with Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to Times Square in this photo taken from the social media site VK.com. Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev were arrested on Wednesday, May 1, on charges they tried to throw investigators off Tsarnaev’s trail. See all photography related to the Boston bombings.

Robel Phillipos, a U.S. citizen, was also arrested on May 1. He has been charged with lying to federal agents about the bombing, according to court papers.

Phillipos, Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev are accused of removing items from Tsarnaev’s dorm room after the April 15 bombings. The items they took included a backpack containing fireworks that had been “opened and emptied of powder,” according to the affidavit.

Kadybayev, left, poses with Dzhokhar Tsamaev in a picture taken from the social media site VK.com.

The FBI released photos and video on April 18 of two men identified as Suspect 1 and Suspect 2 in the deadly bombings at the Boston Marathon. They were later identified as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26.

Authorities say Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, identified as Suspect 2, was captured in a Boston suburb on April 19 after a manhunt that shut down the city.

Police say the dead suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is the man the FBI identified as Suspect 1. He was killed during the shootout with police in Watertown, Massachusetts, early April 19. He is pictured here at the 2010 New England Golden Gloves.

Boston Police released surveillance images of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at a convenience store on April 19.

The FBI tweeted this photo on April 19 and urged Watertown residents to stay indoors as they searched for the second suspect.

The FBI released photos and video on April 18 of two men it called suspects in the deadly bombings and pleaded for public help in identifying them. The men were photographed walking together near the finish line.

A man identified as Suspect 2 appeared in this photograph by bystander David Green, who took the photo after completing the Boston Marathon. Green submitted the photo to the FBI, he told Piers Morgan in an interview.

The man identified as Suspect 2 appears in a tighter crop of David Green’s photo.

Authorities later identified Suspect 1 as Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Suspect 2 was identified as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Suspect 1 walks through the crowd.

Suspect 1 walks through the crowd.

Suspect 1 walks through the crowd.

Both suspects are seen walking through the crowd.

Suspect 2 walks through the crowd.

Suspect 2 walks through the crowd.

A photo released by the FBI highlights Suspect 2.

A photo released by the FBI highlights Suspect 2.

Suspect 2 walks through the crowd. See all photography related to the Boston bombings.

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Photos: Suspects tied to Boston bombings

Police: Man linked to Tsarnaev shot

“He used some kind of weapon,” the official said, and that prompted the FBI agent to shoot the suspect.

A second law enforcement official confirmed Todashev made the confession.

The unsolved triple murder received renewed interest after it was learned that Tsarnaev was sparring partners at a local gym with one of the victims.

Source: 2011 slayings of Tsarnaev friend, 2 others revisited

Investigators of the crime reported at the time that the heads of the three victims were pulled back and their throats slit ear to ear with great force. Marijuana was spread over the bodies in a “symbolic gesture,” and several thousand dollars in cash was found at the scene.

Todashev told investigators the men were killed during a drug ripoff because he and Tsarnaev were afraid they would be able to identify them and tell police what happened, according to a law enforcement source.

So far, no link has been found between Todashev and the Boston Marathon bombings. However, the FBI is looking into the many connections between Todashev and Tsarnaev, whose radicalization allegedly led to the Boston bombings.

A federal law enforcement official has told CNN they were initially led to Todashev because they learned he knew Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar. They also said cell phone records connected Tamerlan and Todashev.

Todashev was being interviewed in the kitchen of his Florida home. He grabbed a knife, which is why fatal force was used, according to a source briefed on the ongoing investigation.

“Preliminary information indicates the agent took actions to defend himself,” said a federal law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the case.

“The agent sustained non-life-threatening injuries,” FBI spokesman Jason Pack said.

Investigators are awaiting test results to determine whether Todashev’s DNA was found at the Massachusetts triple murder scene and whether the DNA of Tamerlan Tsarnaev also was found there.

Todashev and Tsarnaev were acquainted through a mixed martial arts center near Boston, said a source briefed on the bombing investigation.

In Orlando, an FBI team is reviewing the circumstances of the shooting, a procedure that follows any FBI shooting.

Todashev had an impending flight from Orlando, via New York and Moscow, to Chechnya, when investigators sought to interview him, according to a source briefed on the ongoing investigation. He was told not to take the flight, the source said.

Details emerged Wednesday about how Todashev had Tsarnaev’s phone number in his cell phone, said the source.

Both men were members of the mixed martial arts forum Sherdog.com, along with Russian-Canadian boxer-turned-jihadist William Plotnikov, the source said.

Last month, CNN reported that Plotnikov and six others died in a July 2012 firefight with Russian forces in the southwestern republic of Dagestan, while Tsarnaev was visiting the region, according to a source briefed on the investigation.

Todashev, 27, knew Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, also a suspect in the April 15 bombings, the official said. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, injured and captured after a manhunt, is being held by authorities. His brother died in a shootout with police.

Todashev was from the Chechnya region, as were the Tsarnaev brothers, the source said.

Todashev was granted political asylum in 2008, but he came to the United States some time before that, a federal law enforcement official told CNN. Todashev had been living in the United States as a legal resident because of that asylum claim.

In the 2011 Massachusetts triple homicide, the Middlesex County district attorney’s office said at the time that the victims and two unknown perpetrators appeared to know each other and that it was not a random crime. No suspects were named then.

Suspect: Bombing was payback for hits on Muslims

A source said that the FBI had been investigating Todashev for about a month.

The FBI had followed Todashev for days, his friend told CNN affiliate Central Florida News 13.

Todashev “wasn’t like real close friends (with Tsarnaev), but he just happened to know him,” Khasuen Taramov told the TV station. “But he had no idea that they were up to something like that, like bombings and everything, you know what I mean?”

He told CNN affiliate WESH that Todashev and Tsarnaev had spoken by telephone about a month before the bombings.

“It was a complete shock to him,” Taramov said.

The two met a couple years ago in Boston, where Todashev had lived and where there is a small, close-knit community of Chechens, said Taramov.

Their telephone conversation before the bombings contained nothing but routine pleasantries, he said. “It was ‘How are you doing; how’s your family?’ That’s all.”

Taramov said he himself was questioned by the FBI for three hours Tuesday night. Asked what he was asked, Taramov said, “Different kind of questions like ‘what do you think about bombings,’ ‘do you know these guys,’ blah blah blah, what is my views on certain stuff.”

He said Todashev was not a radical. “He was just a Muslim. That was his mistake, I guess.”

Taramov said his friend had told him he had a bad feeling about the direction the investigation was heading.

“He felt like there’s going to be a setup … bad setup against him. Because he told me, ‘They are making up such crazy stuff, I don’t know … why they doing it. OK, I’m answering the questions, but they are still making up some, like, connections, some crazy stuff. I don’t know why they are doing it.’ “

Before meeting with the FBI for a 7:30 p.m. interview Tuesday, Taramov said, his friend asked him to take his parents’ telephone numbers. “He just told me, ‘Take the numbers, in case something happens, if I get locked up, or whatever, call them.’ You know what I mean?

“We were expecting to get him locked up, but not getting him killed. I can’t believe it.”

Todashev was unemployed and had been living on insurance money he received after surgery for an accident. “He used to be a fighter, MMA fighter,” Taramov said, in a reference to mixed martial arts.

Todashev was arrested this month on a charge of aggravated battery after getting into a fight over a parking spot with a man and his son outside an Orlando mall. The son was taken to a hospital with head injuries, a split upper lip and several teeth knocked out of place, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a report.

“Todashev said he was only fighting to protect his knee because he had surgery in March,” the report said. He told the police that he was a former mixed martial arts fighter, it said.

Todashev, described as 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds, was released on $3,500 bond.

Asked about the incident, Taramov downplayed it. “He had a fight in the parking lot, the two guys jumped on him … pretty much he just defended himself against two,” he told WESH. “The only mistake: he did kick their ass and left.”

Todashev had recently gotten his green card and had been planning to visit his parents in Chechnya and then return to the United States, but canceled the plans, Taramov said.

Now, he added, he was planning to call his friend’s parents.

Former Chechen rebel: ‘I have nothing to do with’ Boston bombings

CNN’s Michael Martinez, Jason Hanna and MaryLynn Ryan contributed to this report.

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