Oil prices headed lower to near $84 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as fears of a recession in developed countries sent stock markets and commodities lower.

Benchmark oil for October delivery was down $2.13 to $84.32 at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude last settled at $86.45 on Friday because U.S. markets were closed Monday for the Labor Day holiday.

The Swiss National Bank on Tuesday decided to fix the country's exchange rate at 1.20 francs per euro and indicated it would buy an unlimited amount of euros regardless of the risk to maintain that value.

The central bank is exercising what many analysts in recent weeks had called the last-ditch "nuclear option" to shield the Swiss economy and exporters from the damaging impact of a strong franc.

A strike by Italy's largest labor union against austerity measures has shut down air, land and sea transport and curtailed other public services throughout the country.

Workers for the state railway, city transit systems and ferry services all were on strike. Hospital workers, postal employees and bank tellers also joined in.

They are two different players and, at times, it looks as if they're playing two different games.

There's the Serena Williams style, filled with intimidation and huge shots. And there's the way Caroline Wozniacki does it, with great hustle and even better conditioning.

Hong Kong's first Apple Store appears to be nearing completion after builders this week removed scaffolding from the shop's exterior windows to reveal a giant sign with the company's logo.

Carolyn Wu, a Beijing-based spokeswoman for Apple Inc., confirmed that the store would open soon but would not comment further.

For incoming freshmen at western Connecticut's suburban Brookfield High School, hefting a backpack weighed down with textbooks is about to give way to tapping out notes and flipping electronic pages on a glossy iPad tablet computer.

A few hours away, every student at Burlington High School near Boston will also start the year with new school-issued iPads, each loaded with electronic textbooks and other online resources in place of traditional bulky texts.

After capturing a one-ton crocodile that could be one of the biggest caught alive in the world, officials said Tuesday that they are hunting for an even bigger beast that may be lurking in the creeks of a remote southern Philippine region.

Villagers and veteran hunters ensnared a 20-foot (6.1-meter) saltwater crocodile over the weekend after a three-week hunt in Bunawan township in Agusan del Sur province, where terrified villagers have reported at least one deadly attack by the huge reptiles.

Netflix launched its movie and TV streaming service in Brazil on Monday, the beachhead for a push into Latin America that is seen as key to the company's continued growth after recent setbacks in the United States.

Netflix Inc. says it plans to expand into 43 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean soon, the online movie rental company's largest international expansion yet.

A new study estimates that about 38 percent of Europeans, or 165 million people, have some type of mental illness and that most are going untreated.

Researchers analyzed data from more than 500 million people in 30 countries in the European Union plus Switzerland, Iceland and Norway.

Salvatore Licitra, a tenor known in his Italian homeland as the "new Pavarotti" for his potent voice and considerable stamina, died Monday at age 43 after spending nine days in a coma following a motorscooter accident in Sicily.

Catania's Garibaldi Hospital, announcing the death, said Licitra never regained consciousness after suffering severe head and chest injuries in the Aug. 27 accident. Doctors had said Licitra crashed his scooter into a wall near the town of Ragusa, apparently after suffering an interruption of blood to the brain while driving.