By Lucky Gold & Samuel Burke

Italy’s unelected Prime Minister, Mario Monti, tells CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that he will not run in the upcoming elections.

“I don't need to, because the president of the republic appointed me senator for life,” Monti said Tuesday. “And I think it's important that the full political game resumes in Italy, hopefully with a higher degree of responsibility and of maturity. We are helping that by being part of the European Union. Obviously, I will facilitate as much as I can the evolution.”

Putting out a big European fire

Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti, in New York this week for the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, sounded a note of optimism about the fate of the euro: “Since June-July of this year I am much more confident about the future of the eurozone.”

Appearing Tuesday on CNN's Amanpour program, Monti credited the tough economic measures his government has instituted, even if they have deepened the recession in the short run.

“It’s normal that Italy is still in a recession because the measures we introduced, if anything, did deepen the recession a bit…. But above all we took Italy out of the list of the countries that might have created a big European fire.”

Ghosn: Eurozone now has time, but needs growth

However, he acknowledged that there was much more work to be done. “Can I borrow an expression that President Obama used this morning in his speech to the General Assembly? He spoke of the Arab world after the [Arab] Spring - of the painstaking work of reform. That exactly applies equally to domestic reforms in each of our countries. And I’m glad to say that although the Italian people have been subjected by the government I chair to an unprecedented amount of sacrifices, and discipline and eliminating privileges and grants, the Italian people so far have behaved in a highly responsible manner.” FULL POST

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.

FULL POST

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