In his new ad, Romney says foreign leaders looked at the president's Middle East tour and "saw weakness."


Your morning global affairs speed-read

The presidential candidates' third and final debate is over, and in the end it wasn't really about foreign policy and not much of a debate. President Obama and Mitt Romney repeated well-worn talking points — Romney said U.S. leadership in the world has waned over the past four years; Obama said America's reputation is on the rebound after the George W. Bush years — but both largely stayed away from any deep policy prescriptions.

There were a few surprises, starting with Romney's decision to stay well clear of criticizing the politically charged deaths of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya last month. And Romney promised to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan in 2014, without the usual caveats.

One of the most heated exchanges came when Obama ripped into Romney for bringing up the president's so-called “apology tour” to the Middle East in 2009, a line that works well with conservatives but clashed with Romney's tack to the center during the debate.

Two powerful business groups want a federal court to modify or scrap what they call burdensome Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules that force companies to disclose whether they rely on minerals from war-stricken parts of Africa.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the rules, which are required under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

A divided SEC, in a 3-2 vote in August, approved rules aimed at cracking down on the use of “conflict minerals” from the militia-ravaged Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and surrounding areas.

The business groups’ short petition Friday does not spell out the basis for challenge. The two groups, in a statement, said the business community “understands the seriousness of the strife occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

The one foreign policy topic that was expected to dominate Monday night's foreign policy debate barely got a mention: Libya.

Republican hopeful Mitt Romney reiterated during Monday night's debate with President Obama that he would label China a currency manipulator on his first day in office should he win the White House.

Romney, who has called for a get-tough approach on China in swing-state campaign ads, said the United States is losing jobs to China because the government there "has not played by the same rules, in part by holding down artificially the value of their currency." He said the U.S. can't "surrender and lose jobs year in and year out" while China games the system. 

"It holds down the prices of their goods. It means our goods aren’t as competitive and we lose jobs. That’s got to end," Romney said.

Asked by debate moderator Bob Schieffer whether labeling China a currency manipulator would start a trade war, Romney said one is already under way. 

"There's one going on right now that we don't know about. It's a silent one, and they're winning." Romney said. "We have an enormous trade imbalance with China, and it's worse this year than last year."

Romney suggested stabilizing Pakistan should be America's next mission; Obama said "it is time to do some nation-building at home."

Obama called Romney's allegation that he'd gone on an “apology tour” the “biggest whopper” of the campaign.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney opened Monday night's debate by calling for a measured U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney argued Monday the White House's lack of leadership in Syria has prolonged civil war in the country.