Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is turning up the diplomatic heat on Tunisia over its refusal to allow U.S. officials access to terror suspect allegedly tied to the deadly Sept. 11 consulate attack in Libya. 

Al Qaeda's cell in Somalia on Wednesday said Hurricane Sandy was Allah's punishment for America's “disbelief” and “crimes against Islam.”

In a series of tweets Wednesday afternoon, al Shabaab urged people in the United States to convert to Islam "before it's too late." 

“Allah imposes disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes & volcanic eruptions so as to punish the Kuffar who have rejected the call of Islam,” al Shabaab said in its first tweet.

A National Security Council spokesman is denying claims made by former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

The Obama administration has failed to respond to GOP questions about Libya, a group of Republican senators said Wednesday. 

The Obama administration is preparing a statement addressing the ongoing crackdown against pro-democracy protests by U.S. ally Bahrain amid increasing international condemnation, a State Department official told The Hill on Wednesday.

The Persian Gulf kingdom, which is home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, banned all public demonstrations on Tuesday. It also threatened legal action against protest supporters amid intensifying complaints of discrimination against the Sunni-ruled country's Shiite majority. Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid bin Abdulla al-Khalifa justified the decision by accusing protesters of fomenting violence and disrupting the economy.

The State Department and the U.S. embassy in Manama have so far declined to comment. The department, by contrast, vocally condemned the death of a Bahraini policeman earlier this month when his patrol came under attack by rioters.

There will not be a delay in Afghanistan’s elections, the country’s independent election commission said Wednesday, announcing that the elections will be held as scheduled in April 2014.

Afghanistan will pick a new leader in 2014; the Afghan constitution does not allow President Hamid Karzai to run again. Opposition groups and independent observers have been concerned that Karzai would try to push back the date of the presidential election.

The elections are scheduled to occur in a crucial year for Afghanistan, when its forces are supposed to take control of security from NATO as most U.S. and international troops will depart.

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, holds his first meeting with the new French president, Francois Hollande, today in Paris as he seeks to shore up international support against Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program. France is one of six parties, along with the United Staes, involved in talks with Iran. [Agence France-Presse]

The trip comes as the issue of Iran's nuclear program continues to play an outsize role in the U.S. presidential election, with both parties seeking to score points with Jewish voters in the final stretch.

Clinton in Kosovo: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Kosovo's Albanian leaders and with minority ethnic Serbs today in an effort to ease ethnic tensions in one of the region's most pro-American countries. Clinton said Kosovo's 2008 independence and boundaries — which Serbia doesn't recognize — are set, but called on the country's leaders to embrace their Serbian citizens, many of whom want to break away and reunite with Serbia. [Associated Press] 

Supporters of both candidates are seeking to raise doubts about their rival’s commitment to stand up to Iran.

A free trade agreement between the United States and Panama goes into effect on Wednesday, a deal supporters say will expand growing trade between the two nations. 

The White House issued a proclamation Tuesday afternoon outlining the agreement, which was passed by Congress in October 2011.  

Last week, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Ricardo Quijano, Panama's minister of Commerce and Industry, locked in the date, the final of the three agreements passed a year ago to go into effect. Agreements between South Korea and Colombia were implemented earlier this year. 

Panama's economy, one of the fastest growing in Latin America, expanded 10.6 percent last year and expectations are that their economy will expand between 5 to 8 percent each year through 2017.