Washington

Amazon.com's second-quarter profit more than triples

SEATTLE — Amazon.com Inc.'s second-quarter profit more than tripled, boosted by strong sales of books, music and electronics worldwide. The Web retailer's stock soared 11.3 percent in after-hours trading.

Earnings for the three months that ended June 30 climbed to $78 million, or 19 cents per share, from $22 million, or 5 cents per share, during the same period last year, the company said Tuesday.

Revenue rose 35 percent to $2.88 billion from $2.14 billion in the year-ago quarter, beating analysts' expectations for $2.81 billion in sales.

Prior to the announcement, shares of Amazon sank $2.49, or 3.5 percent, to close at $69.25. They gained $8.72 to $77.07, in after-hours trading.

Chinese police, FBI break up gangs; pirated software seized

SEATTLE — Chinese police have busted up two criminal organizations and seized pirated software worth half a billion dollars, the culmination of two years of work with the FBI, officials from both countries said Tuesday.

The gangs pirated Microsoft Corp. and Symantec Corp. software and sold it around the world, including in the United States, said Gao Feng, an official with China's Ministry of Public Security.

In a news conference from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, Gao said police arrested 25 people and seized property worth about $8 million. Chinese police also confiscated counterfeit software with an estimated retail value of $500 million, according to an FBI statement.

Gao said Chinese police discovered in 2005 that the Chinese gangs were colluding with people in the United States and notified the FBI's Beijing office.

China has long been the world's leading source of illegally copied goods, including designer clothes, movies and music. The country has been under pressure to crack down, and that has been increasing ahead of next year's Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Camarillo

Firefighter to showcase work on American Inventor'

Camarillo resident Greg Chavez, a firefighter, inventor and father of six, will be featured tonight on ABC's "American Inventor," a reality show that claims it will "uncover the hottest new product."

His "guardian angel" is a fire suppression and alarm system for Christmas trees.

The two-hour show airs at 9 p.m. and will reveal what the six finalists have done with their inventions using the $50,000 they have been given. Three of the finalists will be turned down, and then America will vote for the winner out of the top three.

The winner will receive $1 million and promotion from the show.