New digital rights management (search) technology shipping on music CDs by Sony Corp. of America/Bertelsmann AG artists employs stealthy, rootkit-style techniques to hide from users, according to a security expert. The new technology, which Sony has dubbed “sterile burning,” manipulates the Windows core processing center, or “kernel,” to make the …

CHICAGO – Luxury clothing maker and retailer Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. (RL) on Friday said quarterly profit rose 31 percent as it sold more products at full price. The company, whose shares edged up slightly in trading before the market opened, said earnings increased to $104.2 million, or 97 cents …

PARIS – France was returning to an “almost normal situation” with arson attacks vastly diminishing around the country after nearly three weeks of unrest, police said Wednesday, hours before a Senate vote on extending a state of emergency. National police said 163 vehicles were torched overnight, down from 215 the …

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. – Public schools in Broward and Palm Beach counties reopened Monday for the first time since Hurricane Wilma damaged classrooms and cut power to millions of people two weeks ago. Wilma (search) hit Florida on Oct. 24, causing billions of dollars in damage across the state and …

PITTSBURGH – He could be older than Warner Bros. studio, General Motors and the Boy Scouts. He could have survived two world wars and Prohibition. He could have been dinner. He’s Bubba, a 22-pound leviathan of a lobster pulled from the waters off Nantucket, Mass., and shipped to a Pittsburgh …

LONDON – Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas pledged Tuesday to reform the tangled Palestinian security forces — a goal long sought by the international community and considered vital ahead of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank. Addressing a conference convened to build on the recent …

NEW YORK – The final CBS News (search) executive asked to resign for his role in the network’s discredited report on President Bush’s military service reached a settlement with CBS and quit Tuesday. Josh Howard (search) was executive producer of the “60 Minutes Wednesday” (search) broadcast where the Sept. 8 …

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Two strong earthquakes jolted northeastern Taiwan (search) early Sunday, sending people fleeing outdoors from their beds and buckling floors, officials said. Police said several people suffered minor injuries from falling objects, but no major damage was reported. The two quakes hit within moments of each other in …

DETROIT – A former public schools official, accused of conspiring with a Florida man in the 1990s to raise money and recruit Muslim extremists to fight in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Somalia, was ordered held to face federal terrorism charges. A criminal complaint issued in December and unsealed Monday in …

ROME – Police in Sicily gave a new “face” to Italy’s No. 1 fugitive on Monday, issuing an updated composite of Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano (search) in hopes of ending the Corleone (search) crime chieftain’s 42 years on the run. Authorities trying to capture Provenzano have only five photographs to …