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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has called on investors in the liberalizing power sector not to stuff their "stomachs" with quick profits and pledged harsh treatment for those not respecting national and social interests.

KABUL (Reuters) - Four U.S. helicopter engines worth more than $13 million have been stolen while they were being trucked from Afghanistan to a port in Pakistan to be shipped home, the U.S. military said.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Lured by tax-free jobs and cheap living, foreign workers have long gravitated to wealthy Gulf Arab states to earn a better living, but rising costs are now forcing many to go home.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's embattled president apologized on Thursday for a U.S. beef import deal that sparked street protests and said he will sack top aides but analysts said that might not be enough to reverse a slide in public support.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Gunmen have killed the police administrative director in the violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, the latest high-profile killing in Mexico's drug war, police said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - China promised to make improvements to human rights ahead of the Olympic Games but its record may have actually deteriorated in the run-up to the events in August, a human rights activist and writer says.

FENGKAI, China (Reuters) - When the people of Fengkai were warned that the rivers in their south China town were going to overflow, they knew what to do.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's grip on dissent in Tibet remains tight after deadly riots there in March, with more than 1,000 people still detained without charge, human rights group Amnesty International said in a new report on Thursday.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A Brazilian judge ordered army patrols out of a Rio de Janeiro slum on Wednesday after 11 soldiers were accused of involvement in the gangland killing of three youths in a neighboring shantytown.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Gunmen have killed the police administrative director in the violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, the latest high-profile killing in Mexico's drug war, police said on Wednesday.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Former Cuban President Fidel Castro's appearance in a televised video on Tuesday night put to rest the latest rumors of his imminent demise and suggested he still plays a significant role in Cuba's government.

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Students and teachers clashed with police in Chile on Wednesday to protest an education bill they say doesn't go far enough to bring equal access to schooling for the poor even with a government flush with copper dollars.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian prosecutors on Wednesday charged three men with a role in the killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya who was critical of the Kremlin's rights record in Chechnya, but her newspaper's editor said he did not believe the crime was solved.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Wednesday it would curb the use of Taser stun guns after the federal force's watchdog issued a stinging report accusing officers of zapping suspects unnecessarily.

GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour voiced concern on Wednesday over "taboos" on discussion in a key U.N. forum of subjects that Islamic countries see as offending their religion.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Fighting between Islamist-led insurgents and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops has killed at least 17 people, residents said on Wednesday, underlining the lack of impact of a U.N.-brokered peace agreement.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel are putting the final touches to an agreement to exchange prisoners, a Lebanese political source said on Wednesday.

RIGA (Reuters) - Latvian Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis injured his head in a car crash on Wednesday and was taken to hospital, but his life is not in danger, a spokesman said.

MALABO (Reuters) - The son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was a leader of a 2004 coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea that was backed by Spain and South Africa, a British mercenary told a court on Wednesday.

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - A former CNN journalist could lead a leftist party of former Cold War Marxist guerrillas to power for the first time in El Salvador's presidential election next year, opinion polls show.