While much of President Obama's speech about U.S. foreign policy after the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa was aimed at an international audience, he also spoke for domestic consumption as well, of course.

And because the 2012 presidential election campaign is underway, how the speech might play out in that context is worth taking a few minutes to ponder.

To give his domestic listeners a framework they could readily relate to, Obama likened the street protests that have characterized the Arab Spring to evocative touchpoints in American history.

U.S. Southern Command announced the apparent suicide of a 37-year-old detainee at Guantanamo on Wednesday. The Afghan detainee was identified as Inayatullah:

The director Lars Von Trier caused an uproar, yesterday, during a press conference at the Cannes film festival. In a rambling comment about his German background, Von Trier said he used to think he was a Jew but then found out he was a Nazi.

The Cannes Film Festival reacted swiftly, today. The Wall Street Journal reports the organizers released a statement calling him a "persona non grata:"

Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump are out.

Ron Paul and Herman Cain are in; so is embattled Newt Gingrich — for now.

Mitt Romney is raking in the dough, if not enthusiasm, but hasn't "officially" announced.

And Thursday, former two-term Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, most recently President Obama's man in China, has become the latest to formally test the GOP presidential waters, beginning a swing through New Hampshire to see if he's the Republican they've been waiting for.

Some Beltway sages suggest that the 2012 Republican field is coalescing.

With Dominique Strauss-Kahn out of the picture, the job of heading the International Monetary Fund has temporarily fallen to his No. 2 man — an American named John Lipsky.

And so it was that Lipsky found himself giving a speech in Washington on Thursday that was originally supposed to be delivered by the departed Frenchman.

"I deeply regret the circumstances that have made it necessary for me to substitute for Dominique Strauss-Kahn," he said, during the speech. Strauss-Kahn is accused of trying to rape a maid at a Manhattan hotel.

The FBI has requested a DNA sample from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski in connection with the infamous 1982 Tylenol poisonings in Chicago that killed seven and prompted a recall of the painkiller. Kaczynski is serving a life sentence for his part in bombings that killed three people.

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was formally indicted Thursday, prosecutors announced. He's charged with sexually assaulting a maid in a New York hotel. Michele Norris talks to NPR's Joel Rose for the latest.

President Obama declared Thursday that the United States will promote democratic reform across the Middle East, challenging not only adversaries like Syria but also allies like Bahrain. In a speech at the State Department, Obama offered his first comprehensive response to the political uprisings that have gripped the region over the last six months. He also called for Israel and the Palestinians to resume negotiations over the shape of a two-state solution.

Robert Siegel talks to Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Alwaleed is the biggest individual foreign investor in the U.S. The 56-year-old Saudi prince wields no political power in the house of Saud, but he is the richest man in Saudi Arabia — and the 26th richest man in the world.

The NBC Sports Group chairman has resigned. The longtime NBC executive has been closely associated with NBC's broadcasts of the Olympics — as well as the creation of Saturday Night Live. Dick Ebersol leaves as NBC's operations are reconfigured by Comcast.