Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Tuesday welcomes Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev for energy talks after Kiev opened a rift with the EU by jailing ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

The two leaders are scheduled to meet in the Ukrainian leader's industrial power base of Donetsk for a summit on regional cooperation but energy is expected to top the agenda.

A Syrian rights group called on Tuesday for President Bashar al-Assad to be tried for "crimes against humanity" as troops reportedly mounted the fiercest raids in the Damascus region of their seven-month crackdown on dissent.

Activists also reported that security forces shot dead three people in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the anti-regime protests that erupted in mid-March, and a fourth in the town of Qusayr on the Lebanese border.

The head of global online auction powerhouse eBay said that China has essentially put up a wall when it comes to non-Chinese Internet firms.

"The domestic China market for Internet-based service is, in essence, closed," eBay chief executive John Donahoe said during an interview at a Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

Cable television's USA Network said it has enlisted Internet startup Yap.TV to tap into the hot trend of people "chatting" online while viewing shows.

Yap-powered applications will let people take polls, dish about actors and more in online forums with friends watching programs at other venues.

Football superstar David Beckham looks set to visit Singapore and Indonesia on a promotional tour in the coming weeks, organisers said on Tuesday.

Beckham and his LA Galaxy team are "80 percent" confirmed to stop off in Southeast Asia en route to their friendly game in Melbourne in early December, a promoter told Agence France Presse.

The humble potato is at the center of a political food fight in Washington over what American children should be eating in their school cafeterias.

Opening a new front in its war on obesity, the U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to limit servings of "starchy vegetables" to no more than twice a week under a federally subsidized school lunch program.

A Buddhist temple on Malaysia's island resort of Penang has held a religious ritual in which mourners bit an apple to hasten Apple visionary Steve Jobs' reincarnation, a report said Tuesday.

Jobs, who was known for his Buddhist leanings, died on October 5 aged 56 after a lengthy battle with cancer, triggering worldwide mourning for the man who was the driving force behind the iPod, iPhone and other tech advancements.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is back on set as a small-town sheriff in his first starring role since stepping down as governor of California and admitting to fathering a child with the family maid.

Lionsgate studios said Schwarzenegger, 64, has begun work on the set of "The Last Stand," directed by South Korean Jee-woon Kim, in which the actor will play his first starring role since 2003's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines."

France vowed Tuesday to do everything in its power to keep its triple-A rating following a warning from Moody's, as markets fell after Germany dampened hopes that an EU summit will resolve the Eurozone crisis.

Paris shares tumbled by as much as 2.01 percent early Tuesday after the Moody's warning, following earlier falls on Asian markets amid concerns over the spreading impact of the Eurozone's debt woes.

Japan has overtaken France for the number of restaurants with three Michelin stars, according to the latest guide to the nation's western cities to be released on Friday.

Japan is now home to 29 establishments that hold the highly coveted three-star rating, against 25 in France.