Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and his state of health is so precarious that he has trouble feeding, speaking and recognizing people, a Venezuelan physician tells El Nuevo Herald.

British Prime Minister David Cameron’s new chief whip, Andrew Mitchell, yelled at police because they wouldn’t let him pedal his bike out of Downing Street, The Sun reports.

Said Mitchell: “Best you learn your fucking place. You don’t run this fucking government. You’re fucking plebs.”

An eyewitness said Mitchell also branded them “morons”.

“We’re not impotent.”

— U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, in an interview with ABC News, saying the United States can defend itself in the face of violent protests against American interests sweeping the Muslim world.

“We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.”

— British Prime Minister David Cameron, quoted by the Daily Telegraph, slapping back at suggestions from Mitt Romney that Britain wasn’t prepared for the 2012 Olympic games.

The Brookings Institution announced that Jon Huntsman will join the think tank as a distinguished fellow, according to the Washington Post.

John Heilemann profiles U.N. ambassador Susan Rice and wonders if she might take the top foreign policy post in an Obama second term.

“Whatever ultimately transpires with Iran and Syria, Rice’s U.N. tenure is already seen in the administration — and particularly by the guy behind the big desk in the Oval Office — as having been a success.. along with [national security adviser Tom] Donilon and John Kerry, she is considered the likeliest successor to Clinton should Obama win reelection.”

French Socialist Francois Hollande won the most votes in the first round of the country’s presidential election, the BBC reports.

“He got about 28% of votes, according to projections based on partial results, against about 26% for centre-right incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. The two men will face each other in a second-round run-off on 6 May.”

But the Financial Times notes the “shock of the night” was the 20% received by the National Front’s Marine Le Pen, who beat pollsters’ predictions.

Jon Karl flags a Danish television clip showing how President Obama welcomed Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt to the Oval Office last month by noting the Danes “punch above their weight in international affairs.”

But the video also cleverly shows how President Obama has — in the same Oval Office setting — found that “Norway punches above its weight.” Ireland, too. And the Netherlands. And even the Philippines.

[Read more…]

Just hours before Daw Aung San Suu Kyi announced her return to politics, President Obama said he was sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on a visit to Myanmar next month, the New York Times reports.

“The twin events underscored the remarkable and sudden pace of change in Myanmar, which has stunned observers inside and outside the country, analysts said.”

The Washington Post notes “the two-day trip, starting Dec. 1, would mark the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state in 50 years.”

A man wearing nothing but a loin cloth and carrying a torch ran behind Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a photo op in Hawaii.

[Read more…]

The New York Times confirms reports that the radical American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in a drone strike in Yemen.

First Read: “No president since George H.W. Bush has had more foreign-policy successes happen under his watch than President Obama. The death of bin Laden. The dismantling of al Qaeda. The ouster of Khaddafy. And the end of combat operations in Iraq. Yet when you look at polls and Obama’s approval rating, he’s getting almost no credit from the American public, a la Bush 41.”

Jake Tapper: “Remember when Rudy Giuliani warned that electing Barack Obama would mean that the U.S. played defense, not offense, against the terrorists? If this is defense, what does offense look like?”

Andrew Sullivan: “Obama has done in two years what Bush failed to do in eight.”