By Samuel Burke, CNN

Imran Khan says he’s creating a political tsunami in his country.

Khan - a former cricket legend and therefore Pakistani icon - has transformed himself into a populist leader. He is aiming to be the next prime minister of Pakistan - one of the most dysfunctional countries in the world, and a nuclear power at that.

Over the summer Khan surprised Pakistan and the world by drawing crowds of more than 200,000 followers to his political rallies.

Khan’s political party 

Pakistani observers say it's the first time in forty years that a relatively new national party has come on the scene and shaken things up so dramatically.

Khan says membership in his Tehreek-e-Insaf party has crossed 10 million.

"But the party isn’t even in the government - though Khan believes this fact will help endear him to the Pakistani electorate." FULL POST

By Samuel Burke, CNN

In the race for President of the United States, domestic policy has so far dominated both campaigns.

But Thursday, Republican candidate Mitt Romney took on the world in his first major foreign policy address. Romney accused President Barack Obama of failing to assert American leadership in the world’s most volatile regions. “I know the president hopes for a safer, freer and more prosperous Middle East allied with us. I share this hope. But hope is not a strategy,” Romney said.

A recent poll shows that a majority of Americans currently prefer Obama's foreign policy to Romney’s 52% to 45%. And as Romney presented his worldview, Obama fought back with a sharply critical ad of Romney's foray into this arena so far, depicting his July tour of Europe and Israel as “reckless” and “amateurish.”

Romney on Syria

“In Syria, I'll work with our partners to identify and organize those members of the opposition who share our values,” Romney said. “And then ensure that they obtain the arms they need to defeat Assad's tanks and helicopters and fighter jets.”

David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for "The New York Times," said Romney’s speech was good in its critique diminished American influence in the Middle East. But Sanger, in his reporting, has characterized Romney’s foreign policy team as fractured. He said he saw those same fractures in Romney’s speech.

“He made the case that the Syrian rebels needed to be armed against President Assad,” Sanger said. “In fact, the Obama administration has been allowing some of the Gulf States to go do that, but he stopped short of saying it was the U.S. that should provide those arms.” FULL POST

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour looks at the international reaction to the U.S. presidential debate

By Samuel Burke, CNN

As Turkey launched retaliatory air strikes against Syria for a second day on Thursday, thousands of demonstrators marched on
Istanbul shouting “no to war.”

On Wednesday, Assad forces in Syria shelled a Turkish border town, killing five civilians in their home.

In recent weeks the Turkish people have grown critical of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's support for the Syrian opposition – partially because of what detractors say are bad elements that come with the flood of refugees entering Turkey.

Turkey has said it has no interest in a full-scale war, though parliament held an emergency session and voted to authorize military action. Turkish troops are now taking up positions in Akçakale, the Turkish town that Syria shelled Wednesday.

Syria has apologized for the escalation, but still the world watches anxiously.  FULL POST

More than 300,000 civilians have fled Syria, according to the United Nations – spread throughout Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon.

With winter approaching and crowded camps, they are living in difficult conditions. The U.N. estimates that the number of refugees could double by December.

Yet on Monday, Syria’s foreign minister, Walid Moallem, went before the U.N. General Assembly and said that the refugee crisis has been “fabricated.”

“I appeal from this podium to those Syrian citizens to return to their towns and villages where the Syrian State will guarantee their safe return,” he said.

Ali Velshi, sitting in for Christiane Amanpour, spoke with CNN’s Ivan Watson from Turkey, where tensions are rising among the more-than 80,000 refugees.

And from Lebanon, opposition activist Karam Nachar responds to the Syrian foreign minister’s claim that the crisis is fabricated.

Corruption in Equatorial Guinea

Christiane Amanpour speaks with Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president of Equatorial Guinea.

Dissent in Equatorial Guinea

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo talks about democracy in Equatorial Guinea and sharing power with this son.

By Lucky Gold, CNN

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the world’s longest-serving leader, says that allegations of massive corruption within his own family are “all the work or our enemies.”

The governments of the United States and France are investigating Obiang’s son, Teodorin, for corruption, extortion and money-laundering that includes multi-million dollar mansions, Maseratis and Michael Jackson memorabilia. But Obiang, who has held power in the African nation of Equitorial Guinea since 1979, defended his son, who is also Vice President: “First of all, my son, even before he became a politician, he’s always been a businessman. He has his own private business activities.”

Appearing Monday on Amanpour, he added, “There are no signs or any proof that he had actually embezzled any government property or government money. The moment he became a minister, he contributed a great deal into the coffers of the government’s administration.” FULL POST

Highlights
- The government and rebels are scheduled to sit down for peace talks next month
- "The conditions are right" for negotiated end to conflict, Juan Manuel Santos says
- The president stresses there will be no cease-fire while the two are in talks
- "Making war is much easier than making peace," says Santos

By the CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said that FARC guerillas must be permitted to participate in the political process, in an interivew with CNN's Christiane Amanpour that aired Friday.

Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, are scheduled meet with representatives of the government for peace talks in Oslo, Norway, next month.

The two sides have been at war since the 1960s, making the FARC Latin America's oldest insurgency.

"You can't ask the FARC to simply kneel down, surrender and give us the arms. They will not do that, so there has to be some kind of way out, and this way out has to be you can be able to participate in the political arena. This is a way any conflict is settled, not only the Colombian conflict," Santos said in New York.  FULL POST

By Mick Krever, CNN

(CNN) - Manaf Tlass was once one of Bashar al-Assad's closest friends.

"He is humble. He loves people," Tlass said when describing the Syrian leader. "But he has changed. The crisis has changed him."

Before he defected this July, Tlass was the very image of an Assad regime insider.

His father is a former defense minister.

Manaf Tlass was a brigadier general in Syria's Republican Guard. And, of course, he was a close friend of Assad's.  FULL POST

By Samuel Burke & Mick Krever

After a decade of war in Afghanistan, the United States is getting ready to hand off the country's security to the Afghan army.

But there are growing concerns that the local army isn't yet prepared to hold the country together.

Those fears have been heightened since NATO halted most joint missions with the Afghans in response to insider attacks.  FULL POST