this morning, international intrigue. >> a chinese dissident escapes house awe rest and takes refuge inside the u.s. embassy in beijing. terrible toll. an suv careens out of control plunging over a guardrail, taking the lives of three generations of one family. apple's slice. the ruchest company in the world pays one of the lowest tax rates in america. how do they get away with it? also this morning, nerd prom. the white house correspondents hold their annual dinner. look who they get to bring as the dates.

good monday morning, everyone. i'm rob nelson. >> i'm sunny hostin. paula faris son assignment. high level talks between the u.s. and china could soon resolve the drama with chinese dissident when hua cheng. good morning, tahman. >> reporter: the u.s. will not say whether the dissident is under protection. if he is, it would be the first time since the tiananmen square situation. a blind chinese activist, chen wong chang was possibly in u.s.

embassy. he is a campaign ir for rights and has opposed forced abortions. this is what happened when christian bale tried to visit hymn last week. >> why can i not visit him? >> reporter: he was drin to beijing by a supporter. after a car chase, activists say he was nang be the u.s. a senior white house aide spoke about the difficult balancing act. >> i think in all interests, the president tries to balance our commitment to human rights. we're going to make sure we do this in the appropriate way. >> reporter: asylum could happen in the next day or so. >> if the chinese want to play it down, we may reach an agreement for him to leave the

country. if not, this could fester and become a big issue. >> reporter: secretary of state leaves for china later tonight. >> abc's tahman bradley in washington, thank you. the president is drawing on some heavy hitters in his re-election bid. former president bill clinton joined president obama last night for a suburban fund-raising event. they appeared relaxed and friendly. another political partnership. this one between mitt romney and newt gingrich. gingrich is expected to drop out of the race on wednesday so their campaigns are meeting behind closed doors today. shifting gears now, tomorrow marks one year since the death of osama bin laden. now a new report in "the guardi guardian" newspaper says documents found at the compound

show a close relationship between him and mullah omar. the documents are said to talk of joint attacks on u.s. forces in afghan tan. mullah omar disappeared after his regime collapsed in 2001. authorities say speed may have played a factor in the crash of a family on the way home from church. >> reporter: in one horrific moment, this honda pilot went from the family car to a mass coffin. all seven victims inside suffered the same last breath together. 12:30 sunday afternoon, when many families are on the road. somehow this suv lost control, bounced off the barrier,

careened across the bronx river parkway and kept going over the guardrail. experts estimate it went 75 feet in the air before it fell down here in the wooded section of the bronx zoo. the most experienced crews were shaken by what they found inside. >> sometimes you come upon events that are horrific. this was one of them. >> reporter: this is the family portrait the rescue workers carried from the wreckage. 80-year-old man and woman, 45-year-old woman. young kids. >> and to the father of the two girl, he lost his wife an his two daughters. so, basically lost his family. >> reporter: as accident investigators work to answer why and how the driver, maria

gonzalez lost control, one family is left mourning three generations of their own. >> i love them. my whole family was there. >> and that report from lucy yang. in other news this monday morning, classes will take place as scheduled today on the university of south alabama. the campus was under lockdown after a robbery in one of the dorms. one shot was fired. they later arrested one man. a second suspect got turning to weather. >>? st. louis this morning, cleanup getting under way after a nasty hailstorm pounded the city. that storm triggered a sudden powerful blast of wind that shattered a tent full of people seeking shelter. one man died, dozens injured.

the threat of severe storms hangs over st. louis again today. wichita and amarillo could also see bad weather. >> temperatures in the south more summer than spring today. atlanta expected to break the record at near 90 trees. seattle is damp and chilly in the mid-50s. coming up, gas prices are still skidding. how much you're going to be saving straight ahead. also this morning, the world's richest company, apple, of course. why it pays a much lower tax rate than you and i. and a bike ride that went all wrong. the hit and run caught on tape. the driver explains himself in court today.

and good news for all you drivers out there this morning. gas prices keep going down. the average price of a fwal lon of regular fell four cents in the past week to an average of $3.82, lower than a month ago and a year ago. well, no wonder apple has so much cash on hand. the tech giant paid less than 10% of its profits in tax, last year, far less than most companies. walmart last year paid 24%. about average for a nontech company. "the new york times" reports

that apple cuts its tax bill by putting some operations in low tax states and foreign country. overseas markets were mostly up overnight. tokyo's nikkei average was closed for a holiday. today, hong kong's hang seng added 322 points. in london, the ftse opened higher. on wall street, the dow gained 199 points. the nasdaq was up 69. google reportedly looked the other way. they have blamed a lone engineer for harvesting data. they say management knew data was being collected and aloud it to be corrected for two years. google said it was inadvertent. a surprise at the movie box office this weekend. the emessentialable comedy "think like a man" was at number one for the second weekend.

it beat four new films, including "the pirates, band of misfits" and "the lucky ones." disney's "the avengers" doesn't open here until friday. it set records over the week end in other countries though. they took in $178 million. it could be the first blockbuster of the summer season, that kicks off this weekend. i'm going to see that. >> i bet you are. they need the money. extraordinary security for london's summer games. why sit making some residents nervous. it was all in good fun over the weekend in washington. the laughs and the looks coming up. [ female announcer ] walgreens introduces nice! [ woman ] i got it. [ dad ] where's your brother? ♪

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sky-scraper. stool workers are set to add enough steel to make it just over 1250 feet tall. once it's finished, it will be the tallest building. otherwise, it will be number two behind the willis tower in chicago, if you don't count the antenna. you'll get the first look at the view there the very top later today. should be cool. >> yes. for a look at morning road conditions, wet with possible flooding on i-95 from miami to west palm beach. stormy on i-95 to oklahoma city. rainy on i-70 from pittsburgh to st. louis. icy on 84 and 90 in the cascades. airport delays possible in chicago, miami, and detroit. the search for a sailor missing off the u.s. mexico coast has been suspended following a deadly weekend

racing accident. three other members of the california-based crew were killed in the int dent. it's believed a large commercial ship struck the yacht. crew aboard the larger vessel didn't see the smaller boat. a dolphin stranded since last thursday in a california wetlands channel shows know sign of wanting to leave. at one point, they coaxed the dolphin to the channel opening but was scared back by two unfriendly dolphins. officials in washington sate are hoping a laptop may provide details. survivalist peter keller killed his wife and daughter before setting fire to the crime scene. he hold up in a bunker until s.w.a.t. teams moved in over the weekend. they found him dead inside,

apparently of a self-inflicted wound. two riders were sharing the road with drivers in berkeley when a car swerves into them and drives away. one of them had a camera on the handlebars. that recorded the driver's license plate. now to london where the city is preparing for the olympics this summer in an extraordinary way. some londoners have received leaflets from the military saying they'll deploy anti-aircraft missiles and soldiers on their roof tops. now some nba playoff highlights. we get those from our friends at espn news. good morning, cole wright here with your "sportscenter"

update. game one. let's get to the action. grizz up six, mike conley, let's make it nine. tickling the twine from deep right there. memphis taking full advantage of home court. conley to gay. pops, stops. hold on one second. here come the clippers. down 12, chris paul to nick young. clippers down by three. within one with 1:00 to go. reggie evans, yes, they lead. just over 30 to go. rudy gay, fade-away "j." grizzlies back on top. paul makes his first from the stripe. second one, that gave the clips the lead, with four seconds to play. rudy gay, he was the answer, or was he? apparently not.

he misses that. the clippers come back if 27 down to win this one, 99-98. sflncht ray allen, out with an injury. celtics, loose ball. brandon bass called for the foul. rajon rondo didn't like it. he got teed up. he bumped the ref, he gets ejected. hawks win, 83-74. and monday night baseball, the blue crew go north of the border to face the blue birds. it all gets under way at 7:00 eastern on espn and espn3. you won't want to miss it. up next, "the pulse." michael jackson? whitney houston? wait until you hear about this? and who was glamming up the white house correspondents' dinner over the weekend. we're on the red carpet, next. for three hours a week, i'm a coach.

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aspirin? i don't really know what it's for. isn't aspirin like a vague pain reliever? aspirin is just old school. people will have doubts about taking aspirin for pain. that's why we developed bayer advanced aspirin with micro particles. it enters the bloodstream fast and rushes relief to the site of pain. we know it works. now we're challenging you to put it to the test. visit fastreliefchallenge.com today for a special trial offer. then try it yourself and tell us what you think. all right, time to check "the pulse," the stories you'll be talk about today. first up, a report from the british tabloid "the sun." it quotes a former body guard for michael jackson saying that michael jackson had a secret fling with whitney houston at the peak of her fame.

>> he also says that jackson was a nazi sympathizer and was riddled are marx on his arms from doing drugs. >> is this real? >> he's claiming he's blanket's father. i'm not sure that the body guard is blanket's father. well, it was a big saturday night in washington, d.c. the annual white house correspondents' dinner. >> a night where the media, hollywood stars and heavy hitters in politics get together. >> four years ago, i was locked in a brutal battle with hillary clinton. four years later, she won't stop drunk-texting me from cartagena. it's great to be here this evening in the vast, magnificent hilton ballroom.

or what mitt romney would call a f fixer-upper. >> there's a term for guys like president obama. probably not two -- terms -- but there is. >> good-natured ribbing on all sides. how about the fashions? let's take a look at some of the outfits saturday night. >> first up, kim kardashian. a velvet gown. her long luscious lox back in a bun. looking good there. >> kim, of course, well known for her bun. and we at abc news invited sofia vergara as well. a black strapless dress. looking good, m miss sofia. >> lindsay lohan, a low-cut dress. a brilliant shade of lipstick. >> it's good that she's out, how about that? and finally "world news tonight"

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updating our top stories now. talks are under way to resolve the fate of chinese dissident chen guangcheng. a meeting today between the gingrich and romney campaigns will take place behind closed doors. the wife of john edwards' former aide, sherry young is back on the stand today. on friday, she testified about her husband's formerly close relationship with edwards. rainy in the pacific northwest. a nice, sunny day along the east coast after a chilly start. and finally from us this morning, like everything else,

these days, courtship has gone online. dating websites attract millions of folks with the lure of technology and a promise of a little bit of science. >> can that science find your soul mate any better than you might yourself? jim avila investigates. >> reporter: in cleveland, autumn is single and writes about her dating frustration on her week site, 30somethingsingle.com. >> i hoped to meet my soul mate. >> reporter: she's writing about the claim she saw on eharmony. she paid there are 59 a month for the service, took two hours to fill out the questionnaire. but after a handful of dates, she's not buying the science. >> it didn't seem scientific at all, the way they matched me. >> reporter: autumn may be on to something. according to this pro ffessor o

psychology. >> online dating sites are very unlikely to make better choices for you than you would make for yourself. >> reporter: e harmony says it creates more love in the world every day and is responsible for 542 marriages a day. the former ceo told us two years ago -- >> i think of our algorithm as a starting point. >> reporter: they point out professor carney had has never seen the science that goes into their love formula because it's secret. the professor says that's part of the problem. they won't provide evidence that the questionnaires use science the find a better match since the answers cannot be vary fid. men fudge their height, women their weight and age. stwr the guys i t,