1st trial to open in 2010 Mich. stabbing spree

In this Aug. 26, 2010 file photo released by the Genesee County Sheriff's Department, Elias Abuelazam is shown in Flint, Mich. Abuelazam is going to trial, Tuesday, May 1, 2012 for a series of stabbings that terrorized the city. (AP Photo/Genesee County Sheriff, File)

In this Aug. 26, 2010 file photo released by the Genesee County Sheriff's Department, Elias Abuelazam is shown in Flint, Mich. Abuelazam is going to trial, Tuesday, May 1, 2012 for a series of stabbings that terrorized the city. (AP Photo/Genesee County Sheriff, File)

This image made from video made on April 25, 2012 in Flint, Mich., shows Tom Booker pointing to where he was attacked nearly two years ago. Elias Abuelazam, an Israeli-born man, goes to trial Tuesday, May 1, 2012 for the first time since the Detroit-area attacks of 2010, when as many as 14 people were stabbed, five fatally. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)

This image made from video made on April 25, 2012 in Flint, Mich., shows Tom Booker talks in his home about the stabbing attack he suffered nearly two years ago. Elias Abuelazam, an Israeli-born man, goes to trial Tuesday, May 1, 2012 for the first time since the Detroit-area attacks of 2010, when as many as 14 people were stabbed, five fatally. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)

FLINT, Mich. (AP) ? Defense lawyers acknowledge that DNA will be hard evidence to overcome in the first trial linked to a series of stabbings that killed five people in Michigan and injured many more in summer 2010.

Victims who survived the late-night attacks in the Flint area, 60 miles north of Detroit, say Elias Abuelazam would ask for directions or help with his Chevy Blazer before stabbing them and speeding away. Jury selection starts Tuesday in the death of Arnold Minor, a 49-year-old whose body was found in the middle of a busy street.

Police say Minor's DNA was discovered in dried blood in Abuelazam's SUV and inside luggage that was seized as he tried to flee to his native Israel in August 2010.

"DNA's tough ? it just is," defense attorney Brian Morley said in an interview. "He's ready. He understands the evidence. He understands what's going on."

Abuelazam, 35, is charged with three murders and six attempted murders in the Flint area, although authorities believe he's responsible for as many as 14 stabbings. Prosecutors will be allowed to tell jurors about some of the other attacks because they were similar.

Morley and co-counsel Ed Zeineh are prepared to offer an insanity defense, claiming Abuelazam was mentally ill when Minor was killed. They've lined up an expert to talk about his mental state, but a decision about pursuing that strategy won't be publicly disclosed until trial. Prosecutors have their own experts who have examined Abuelazam and are prepared to rebut it.

"The question is: Is there legal culpability if there was an insane person at the time of the crime?" Morley said. "That's the jury's domain."

Abuelazam had lived in Flint only for a brief time in a house owned by an uncle who lived next door. He had spent time in Virginia before landing in Michigan and getting a $10-an-hour job at a liquor store in a tough neighborhood.

He is also charged with attempted murder in Toledo, Ohio, and suspected but not charged in attacks in Leesburg, Va.

Associated Press

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Comcast earnings beat expectations for Q1

Looks like it's time for a little endzone celebration in the City of Brotherly Love this week. Comcast issued its earnings, and things are looking up, marking a 30 percent profit increase for the first quarter. Revenue for the cable company is at $14.9 billion, beating out analyst estimates of $14.4 billion. The company did continue to shed video customers however, dropping around 37,000, although it did experience more customers adding on internet and phone service. The Associated Press chalks the happy results up to Super Bowl advertising and the popularity of the company's broadband offerings.

Comcast earnings beat expectations for Q1 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 09:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Clinton heads to China and into dissident drama

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left on Monday on a high-stakes trip to Beijing, where a blind dissident is reportedly holed up in the U.S. embassy in a drama threatening to overshadow top-level meetings between the two governments.

Dissident Chen Guangcheng, according to one of his helpers, will demand to stay in China and press on with his campaign for reform, adding to tension between Beijing and Washington that poses risks for both governments as well as to relations between the world's two biggest economies.

Both governments have scrupulously avoided official comment on the Chen case and neither has confirmed that he is under U.S. protection in Beijing.

Chen's audacious escape from house arrest, under the watch of the world's largest domestic security apparatus, was a "miracle" of planning and endurance, said Guo Yushan, a Beijing-based researcher and rights advocate who has campaigned for Chen and helped bring him to the Chinese capital after his escape.

But he said the 40-year-old, self-taught lawyer wants to stay in China and campaign for reform.

"He was adamant that he would not apply for political asylum with any country. He certainly wants to stay in China, and demand redress for the years of illegal persecution in Shandong and continue his efforts for Chinese society," said Guo on Monday, speaking in his first long interview since he was released from days of police questioning.

Chen, who campaigned against forced abortions as part of family planning, was confined to his village home in the eastern province of Shandong since September 2010, after release from jail on charges he rejected as spurious.

President Barack Obama nudged China to improve its human rights record, saying the two countries' relationship "will be that much stronger and China will be that much more prosperous and strong as you see improvements on human rights issues in that country".

POLITICAL AMMUNITION

But at a news conference, he walked a fine line between not saying anything that would make it harder to resolve Chen's case while conveying U.S. concern for human rights and appreciation for wider cooperation with China.

It is a politically fragile period for both countries.

Obama, in this presidential election year, wants to avoid giving any political ammunition to his Republican foes who already accuse him of being too soft on China and have demanded he ensure Chen and his family are protected from persecution.

In Beijing, the ruling Communist Party is gearing up for leadership changes later in the year but the carefully choreographed planning has already been jolted out of step by the downfall of top official Bo Xilai, in a case linked to the apparent murder of a British businessmen.

Before leaving, Clinton promised to press China's leaders on human rights, an issue that has dropped down the agenda between the two countries in the more than two decades since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Clinton ducked a question about Chen, but hinted that she would not be shy about the matter in Beijing.

"A constructive relationship includes talking very frankly about those areas where we do not agree, including human rights," she told a news conference.

The Chen case has already distracted attention from this week's two-day talks, which U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will also attend amid some progress in long-standing disputes over currency, trade and market access.

The talks also give Washington a chance to win more Chinese co-operation on international issues including pressuring Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs, halting Syria's continued crackdown on unarmed protesters and reducing tensions over competing territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Analysts said Chen appears to have two options: going into exile or getting the Chinese authorities to allow him to live in freedom within China, a challenge at best.

Yang Jianli, who runs the U.S.-based pro-democracy group Initiatives for China, said he believed that both the United States and China would prefer that Chen go into exile but that he did not think the dissident would.

"He is not the (kind of) person who will give in," Yang said. "He is so determined to stay in China."

Bob Fu, whose religious and political rights advocacy group ChinaAid has been a source of information about Chen, suggested the most plausible solution would be for him to leave China for the United States with his family, ostensibly for medical care.

Fu, who said he has spoken with senior U.S. diplomats in China about Chen's case, suggested the dissident ultimately may have little choice.

"At the end of the day, that is the only option that is left, if he wants safety and freedom for himself and his family."

(Additional reporting by Chris Baltimore, Laura MacInnis, Paul Eckert and Andrew Quinn; Editing by Don Durfee and Jonathan Thatcher)

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