The NewsHour's foreign correspondent since 1983, Krause was previously the Latin American correspondent for CBS News from 1980 to 1983 and the South American bureau chief for The Washington Post from 1978 to 1980.

Krause is the author of Guyana Massacre: The Eyewitness Account. He was the first reporter to return to Jonestown after its tragic destruction, and it was he who accompanied Representative Leo Ryan to this site of cult madness turned fatal in 1978. In 1979, Krause's reporting from Jonestown won awards from the Overseas Press Club and Sigma Delta Chi, and was nominated by the Washington Post for a Pulitzer Prize.

In 1987, Charles's NewsHour coverage of Central America won the Latin American Studies Association Media Award for distinguished reporting. In 1997, Krause won an Emmy for a report on the Middle East. Furthermore, he has twice been an Emmy finalist: for reports from Mexico, and for "Islands of Discontent," a week-long series from the Philippines that forecast the end of the Marcos regime. His additional work for The NewsHour has taken him to Central Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East (during the Gulf War), Latin America, and Canada.

Krause lives in Washington, D.C.