By Samuel Burke

Xi Jinping, the Chinese president-in-waiting, mysteriously disappeared for two weeks because of a back injury suffered while swimming, according to Tung Chee Hwa, the former Chief Executive of Hong Kong.

“He hurt himself in sport and he’s now recovered and he’s now back at work,” Tung said in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Tuesday.

Tung says he considered the media coverage to be mere speculation.

“In China the health of senior leaders is not a public issue. I suppose as time goes on, as China becomes more and more open and is also a part of the world, all these things will eventually change,” Tung said.

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By Samuel Burke & Ken Olshansky, CNN

For a year and a half Syrians have been watching state television and been hearing there's no uprising in their country.

They've been told that the violence is a terrorist conspiracy against their leader, Bashar al-Assad.

Many of those reports came from anchorwoman Ola Abbas, who for years was a familiar face and voice in the Syrian media, controlled by the government.

Then this summer, Abbas posted a message on YouTube:

"My dear people of Syria: Since the regime unleashed its first attack against this land, we have been one. And we share the same dreams of a free, fair and independent Syria. Liberate yourselves from the oppression and victimization."

And with that, Ola Abbas quit the regime and joined the revolution. She says she had enough of the lies and the bloodshed.  FULL POST

- NEW: 3 or 4 others are being sought, prime minister says
- U.S. warships with guided missiles are moving toward the Libyan coast, officials say
- Libya's prime minister denounces the "cowardly criminal act" in Benghazi
- Analyst: "Jihadists will want the world to believe that the attack is just a part of the protests"

(CNN) - At least one person has been arrested in the killing Tuesday of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, the Libyan prime minister said Thursday.

"Three or four are currently being pursued," Mustafa Abushagur told Christiane Amanpour, anchor of on CNN International's "Amanpour." and ABC's Global Affairs Anchor. He said the arrest was made early in the day in Benghazi and that the person arrested and those being sought are all Libyans.

Earlier, the Libyan state-run news agency LANA said more than one person had been arrested. It cited the deputy minister of interior in the eastern region, Wanees al-Sharif, as its source. FULL POST

A panel discusses the anti-Muslim film that has contributed to protests in the Middle East.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, founder and CEO of the Cordoba Initiative says, “The Quran states explicitly that no soul shall be responsible for the sins or the crimes of another. And while this film is indeed offensive, and those who have done this have done this deliberately to offend Muslims, we should not kill innocent people."

James Rubin, former assistant secretary of state under president Clinton – and Amanpour’s husband – said of the U.S., “We are a country where the word ‘tolerance’ is built deeply into our system, and we have to make that true both through law enforcement, through education.”

Rubin added, “We can defend somebody’s right to speak but that doesn’t mean we can’t condemn what they say. And we have to be very clear on that. And we can’t let the Arab Spring be hijacked by the extremists and remember that it’s a good news story – a positive development for the people of the Middle East.”

The grenade assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi Tuesday was originally thought to have been sparked by rage over an anti-Muslim film made in the U.S.

But U.S sources now tell CNN that the operation was planned by an al-Qaeda offshoot that may have used the angry protest outside as a diversion.

The attack killed the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, 52-year-old Christopher Stevens, as well as three of his colleagues.

Libya's Ambassador to the U.S., Ali Suleiman Aujali, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that he had lost a personal friend in the attack.

“This is one of the saddest days in my life,” Aujali said. “He is a man who knows Libya very well, before and after [the revolution]. He was the man who stood by the Libyan people. He was the right man, in the right place, at the right time. It is a great loss for the Libyan people.”  FULL POST

Eighteen years after apartheid, the hopes and dreams of the rainbow nation – South Africa – are coming apart at the seams. Mounting anger at the perceived enrichment of a small elite at the expense of the majority – especially the miners who extract South Africa's most precious minerals – has exploded into a violent strike, now in its fifth week.

With the government of Jacob Zuma largely silent on this issue, activists are calling for a national mining strike.

Julius Malema, a former leader of the youth wing of the African National Congress political party, has become the face of the crisis.

Malema was expelled from the ANC for fomenting division within the party. He is now being investigated for corruption charges related to the misuse of party funds while he was in office.

He is a harsh critic of the Zuma government and the unrest has given him a window to step into the leadership void left by Zuma.

Malema is calling for a national strike in all of South Africa's mines, but his critics see him as a rabble rouser and opportunist, using the miners to increase his profile.

In an interview Tuesday, Malema told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, “We have now taken over the leadership of that struggle to make sure the mineral resources of this country benefit the people of this country. Particularly the workers who are working very hard in very risky conditions underground, trying to take out these precious minerals.”  FULL POST

By Samuel Burke

(CNN) - In the United States, two men with two very different approaches to leadership and decision making are vying to become president.

For decades, Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman has studied thinking processes and the machinery of the mind.

In his latest book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow,” he lays out a school of psychology that groups people in two different modes of thinkers:

System 1: people with minds operate automatically and quickly with little or no effort, and no sense of voluntary control.

System 2: people with minds that allocate attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it; more deliberative.

In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Kahneman said that he is confident that President Obama is a system 2 thinker.  FULL POST

By Mick Krever

(CNN) - “Egypt is coming back,” says Egypt’s new prime minister.

Tourism is picking up, foreign investors are lining up, and security is returning, Hesham Kandil told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

And yes – lest secularists in the West worry – Kandil said that President Morsy’s administration is a moderate one.
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The most confusing guessing game in the Middle East right now is if and when Israel will attack Iran's nuclear facilities.

This week Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that he didn't think it would be likely. But the talk of war from Israel has the world on edge.

Amanpour Exclusive w/ Turkish PM: U.S. elections hampering Syria action

And there is a stalemate in the so-called last-ditch negotiations between the United States and its allies with Iran.

Contrast this with events fifty years ago this October, when the world stood on the brink of an all-out nuclear war. The Soviet Union had moved nuclear weapons into Cuba – just 90 miles off the United States.

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