SAN FRANCISCO – Intel Corp. (INTC), the world’s largest maker of computer chips (search), Tuesday posted a higher net profit helped by notebook computer demand, but shares dipped more than 3 percent on what one analyst said could be profit-taking. Net income rose to $2.03 billion, or 33 cents per …

NEW YORK – Grammy award winner Luther Vandross (search), whose deep, lush voice on such hits as “Here and Now” and “Any Love” sold more than 25 million albums while providing the romantic backdrop for millions of couples worldwide, died Friday. He was 54. Vandross died at John F. Kennedy …

WASHINGTON – The Securities and Exchange Commission (search) will ask a federal judge on Thursday to allow its civil case against Richard Scrushy (search), former chief executive of HealthSouth Corp. (search) , to go forward, an SEC spokesman said on Tuesday. In March 2003 the SEC filed accounting fraud charges …

Some recent cases in which prosecutors have sought to have reporters disclose sources: —New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper (search) have been found in civil contempt of court for refusing to reveal their sources to the prosecutor trying to find out who in the …

NEW YORK – Clay Aiken (search) lurked outside a house, Emmylou Harris (search) stopped by a university, Nick Lachey (search) dropped in on a stranger’s workplace and Moby (search) played with dogs while making special deliveries in honor of online retailer Amazon.com’s 10th anniversary. Over 10 days, 23 Amazon customers …

GENEVA – General Motors Corp.(GM) Vice Chairman Bob Lutz (search) said on Friday that the world’s biggest carmaker had generated record U.S. sales for light trucks in June. “We think we have the biggest truck month in history. The statistics will tell the story when they are released…We think it …

PHOENIX – In the span of a week, in the throes of a record heat wave (search), 14 transients have perished on the streets of metropolitan Phoenix (search). They lived in obscurity, and many of them died the same way — anonymous, ignored, alone. Their bodies were found crumpled on …

BEULAH, Colo. – Improving weather helped crews make progress against a wildfire that had forced nearly 5,000 people to flee their homes, officials said Wednesday. The blaze in the Wet Mountains (search) had grown to 12,200 acres, but firefighters had extended their containment lines around 40 percent of the fire. …

LOS ANGELES – The latest superhero movie may have been just fantastic enough to snap Hollywood’s longest modern losing streak at the box office. The comic-book adaptation “Fantastic Four” (search) raked in $56 million during its first three days, apparently helping to end a swoon in which domestic movie revenues …

NEW YORK – The mammoth stage version of “The Lord of the Rings,” (search) opening in Toronto next March, has found its Gandalf, Frodo, Gollum and more. Brent Carver (search), the Tony-winning star of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” will portray the majestic wizard Gandalf, while Frodo, the ring-bearer, will …