U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world community on Tuesday to take action on the situation in Syria.

While Ban stopped short of calling for military intervention, he delivered some of his strongest statements yet condemning the violence he says Syrian President Bashar Assad is perpetrating against his people. Ban said it is time for U.N. member nations to unite and take "coherent measures."

South Korea has struck a $43 million deal with an Israeli company to buy advanced rockets to protect a front-line area attacked by North Korea last year, officials said Tuesday.

South Korea will deploy 67 Spike NLOS rockets on Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands in the Yellow Sea as early as late this year, a South Korean government arms procurement official said. Four South Koreans were killed on Yeonpyeong when the North shelled it last November.

A powerful earthquake jolted the western Indonesian island of Sumatra early Tuesday, killing a 12-year-old boy and sending people streaming from houses, hotels and at least one hospital in panic.

The magnitude-6.6 quake was centered 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of the city of Medan and 62 miles (110 kilometers) beneath the earth's crust, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Oil prices extended losses and fell below $85 a barrel Monday as a dismal U.S. jobs report suggested demand for crude in the world's largest economy will drop.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for October delivery was down $1.60 to $84.85 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude fell $2.48 to settle at $86.45 on Friday.

pain's ruling Socialists' candidate for prime minister in November elections said Monday that if he wins he will raise taxes on wealthy people and banks and use the extra revenue to create jobs, especially for young people.

Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, interior minister until a few months ago and the party' most veteran and prominent member, gave no details in a radio interview but estimated the tax hikes would bring in €2.5 billion ($3.6 billion).

The incoming chief of the European Central Bank says the eurozone countries need a "quantum" leap toward economic integration.

Mario Draghi told a conference in Paris on Monday that there are problems with the common currency, including a lack of coordinated fiscal policies.

The head of Taiwan's top technical institute says economic downturns in the West and Japan provide the island an opportunity to lure talent from abroad to develop its high-tech sector.

Industrial Technology Research Institute Chairman Tsay Ching-yen says his institute will try to recruit recent graduates and experienced tech company workers to come to Taiwan.

For British director Steve McQueen, there was no better place than Manhattan to film "Shame," his new film that portrays the life of a 30-something sex addict, played by Michael Fassbender in often graphic detail.

"Excess and access. New York is the place," McQueen said Sunday ahead of his second film's world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

Al Pacino's movie "Wilde Salome" is a complicated examination of Oscar Wilde's once-forbidden play about illicit love and revenge.

But his inspiration was simple: Jessica Chastain.

The Black Widow of eating contests has scarfed down 183 chicken wings in 12 minutes to break her own world record set last year in Buffalo, New York.

Sonya Thomas took home first place Sunday at the 10th annual National Buffalo Wings Festival. She beat eating marvel Joey "Jaws" Chestnut, who came in second with 174 wings.