Follow Christiane on social media:
What time is Amanpour on CNN?
Check showtimes to see when Amanpour is on CNN where you are. Or watch online.
American writer: “No matter what, I’m still Catholic”
By Mick Krever, CNN
Mary Elizabeth Williams thinks the Vatican is strict, dogmatic, and backward-looking. She is also a committed Catholic.
With so much scandal and conservatism on the key issues of today, it is not unreasonable to ask why progressive Catholics stay in the Church.
“I think to be questioning, and to call out hypocrisy, and to illuminate injustice when you see it is about as Christ-like as you can get,” Williams told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.
A country where "insane" is the best hope
By Mick Krever, CNN
The “elite tend to not see what they don’t want to see,” Italian journalist Lucia Annunziata told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.
She was reacting to the deadlocked political landscape that Italy faces as results from its latest election were announced on Tuesday.
Italian parties never win outright majorities, Annunziata said, so as in most parliamentary systems must enter into a coalition.
What is astounding is just how great the impasse is that Italy seems to face.
Former Catholic friar: homosexuality is “the ticking time bomb”
Church in crisis: The Vatican responds
Christiane Amanpour, reporting from Rome, speaks with Assistant Vatican Spokesperson Father Tom Rosica.
Homosexuality and the Catholic Church
Christiane Amanpour speaks with Mark Dowd, an openly gay former Dominican friar.
Veteran journalist on papacy in crisis
Christiane Amanpour, reporting from Rome, speaks veteran Vatican journalist Marco Politi about a papacy in crisis.
by Mick Krever, CNN
Homosexuality is “the ticking time bomb in the Catholic Church,” a former Dominican friar told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
Mark Dowd, who is himself openly gay, spoke to Amanpour as a blitz of new scandals hit the Catholic Church, just days before Pope Benedict XVI is set to step down from the papacy.
The Vatican announced on Monday that the archbishop of Scotland is resigning, a day after British newspapers published accusations of decades-long sexual misconduct with other priests. An American Cardinal is facing fresh allegations of covering up abuse. And Italian newspapers over the weekend published sordid accounts of homosexuality and blackmail within the Church hierarchy.
That last allegation, of a secret “cabal” of gay priests, has been dubbed the “Vati-leaks” scandal.
“When you have this culture of secrecy and guilt and repression,” Dowd said, “you have conditions which foster the potential for blackmail and for manipulation.”
Killing the messenger, when journalists become targets
By Claire Calzonetti, CNN
For generations journalists have risked their lives and given their lives – covering wars, human disasters and uncovering dark and ugly crimes.
Over the past several years the targets of these stories have increasingly turned their guns on the truth-seekers: the journalists.
Exactly one year ago veteran foreign correspondent Marie Colvin – a legend in journalism – was killed by a shelling attack in Syria. French photographer Remi Ochlik was killed alongside her.
British photographer Paul Conroy, who survived that attack, says he is sure they were specifically targeted.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says 70 journalists were killed in 2012, a 49% increase from the previous year.
232 journalists are imprisoned around the world and 35 are missing.
A new campaign called "A Day Without News" is trying to raise awareness and bring penalties to those who target journalists.
One of the leading voices in that campaign belongs to New York Times photographer Lynsey Addario.
In the video above CNN’s Christiane Amanpour speaks with Addario about the campaign and discusses how she and three of her colleagues were abducted while covering the Libyan revolution and held for six terrifying days.
Gay Americans forced to choose between love and country
By Mick Krever & Claire Calzonetti, CNN
Love or country – it’s a decision many gay Americans with foreign partners are forced to make.
It may seem counterintuitive; in the past few years, a wave of American states have legalized gay marriage.
But because of a 1996 federal law, the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government does not recognize those unions.
The result is that a heterosexual American can sponsor his or her partner for U.S. visa, but a gay American cannot.
Rather than break the law or split up, many gay couples are leaving American shores.
That was precisely the situation that Brandon Perlberg found himself in when his British partner, Benn Storey, who had been in the U.S. legally on temporary visas, was told it was unlikely he would ever obtain a green card to stay.
The couple had lived in New York for seven years, but upended their lives and moved to the United Kingdom to stay together.
“We never considered separating,” Storey told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour from London on Thursday.
“We had always thought that this was going to be our backup plan,” his partner, Perlberg, added. “At the beginning of last year, it became certain that if we did not move now, we really faced the risk of being indefinitely separated. And that wasn't a risk we were willing to face.”
In New York, Perlberg had been a practicing attorney. But his expertise in New York and American law was not valued in London, and he struggled to find a job.
“That was one of the most difficult parts of this process for me,” he said. “I spent eleven months hemorrhaging financially, burning through savings and going on interviews.”
President Obama has made immigration overhaul a top priority for his second term. Part of his proposal is to recognize, for the first time ever, gay partnerships when evaluating visa applications.
Perlberg, the American, said he is conflicted about his feelings for the U.S.
“On the one hand,” he said, “I love my country and I've never felt more personally attached and involved in its future as I do right now, as there's a debate going on as to immigration and a debate going on as to same-sex marriage. At the same time, I cannot shake this feeling of resentment that I have, that our lives were taken away from us.”
Unlike many intra-national gay couples forced to choose between love and country, they had a fallback, because Storey happened to be from a country, the U.K., that allows gay citizens to bring in their foreign partners.
“We are very much the lucky ones,” Storey said. “There are people who have no option but to go back to their home country and separate from their partner.”
READ MORE: Why is Uganda attacking homosexuality?
Former Greek PM Papandreou: We expected more from Europe
It may surprise you, but the best-performing stock market in Europe in 2012 was Greece’s.
The Athens index rose 33%, outpacing even Germany’s DAX.
But the news is not symptomatic of Europe’s health as a whole, where the overall economy continues to contract.
And after so long underwater, the Greek market may just be making up for lost ground.
Greek officials now predict that the economy will start growing by October, as European support lends a measure of confidence to foreign and domestic investors.
So, is a Greek exit from the euro – a Grexit – finally off the table?
Judging by events unfolding there, not yet.
A nationwide strike on Wednesday shut down government services throughout the country. Roads and railways were bare as transportation came to a standstill.
Once again, the young took to the streets to do battle with police – some 60% of them remain without jobs.
Greece has the highest unemployment rate in Europe. The country owes more than it makes: the national debt is 161% of GDP.
The human factor is tragic: Suicides, and people losing their homes, unable to pay for food, or for heavily-taxed heating oil.
In the video above, former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou speaks to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour about the early days of the country's economic crash and future of Greece in the eurozone.
Robert Mugabe, how many more birthdays in power?
CNN's Christiane Amanpour looks at how Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe marked his birthday.
Inside America’s most dysfunctional relationship
By Samuel Burke & Ken Olshansky, CNN
Before the raid on the Abbottabad complex where Osama bin Laden lived and died, then U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter’s main concern was for the American community overseas.
“We didn't know what the response would be. I spent a lot of time talking with our team about how we would take care of the people in the embassy and the Americans overseas.”
Did he suspect that the Pakistani government and military would be so enraged? FULL POST
Pistorius' prior police run-ins
By Samuel Burke, CNN
During the bail hearing for Oscar Pistorius in Pretoria on Wednesday, a South African police investigator testified about previous run-ins that the double amputee Olympian has had with police.
Detective Hilton Botha said in his testimony that Pistorius had accidentally fired a weapon at a restaurant in January, and alleged that Pistorius persuaded a friend to take responsibility - Pistorius denied those charges.
The investigator also said Pistorius had previously threatened violence in another incident in an altercation over a woman.
In 2009, Botha said he also investigated another incident, in which an unidentified woman had accused Pistorius of assault, but her claim could not be proved and the case was dropped without any charges being filed. FULL POST
Can Twitter really change Saudi Arabia?
By Samuel Burke & Claire Calzonetti, CNN
The Arab Spring has largely passed Saudi Arabia by. In fact, protests are banned in the Kingdom’s streets.
But in the cyber world, protests are growing, much of it happening via Twitter.
Saudis have flocked to the social network in the millions. One recent study found that Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital, is one of the world's most active cities on Twitter.
Even though many protesters on social media sites have been targeted, the Saudi government mostly permits the discourse as a way to let their citizens vent their frustration. FULL POST
@camanpour on Twitter
