The lawmakers said they were "disturbed" by administration accounts suggesting the attack grew out of a protest.

The U.S. delegation left the floor before the Iranian leader delivered a tirade against America and Israel.

German lawmakers said they could block a planned merger between European companies BAE Systems and EADS after EADS CEO Tom Enders addressed the parliament Wednesday.

Kerstin Andreae, a member of the German parliament's economic committee, said lawmakers were raising questions over whether the merger should proceed due to disagreements between the government and EADS, the Guardian reported.

"More questions were left open than answered," she said. "There are disagreements between the government and Tom Enders on the question of the valuation of the golden share,” referring to state holdings in the companies.

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is expected to deliver another anti-American and anti-Israeli diatribe when he addresses the United Nations General Assembly today. His speeches to the world body have caused walk-outs by Israel's delegation in the past.

While his speech is largely aimed at a domestic audience, Ahmadinejad's trip to the U.N. is not without critics inside Iran. Prominent conservatives are attacking him for taking 120 people with him on a “picnic” and staying at New York's luxurious Warwick hotel while the country is suffering from unprecedented U.S.-led sanctions, London's Guardian newspaper reports.

In the United States, meanwhile, Iranian-American groups are planning a rally in New York and urging the media to “blacklist” the Iranian leader.

Also speaking on Wednesday: Egypt's president, Mohammed Morsi; Great Britain's prime minister, David Cameron; and Japan's prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda.

Sens. Isakson and Corker want "all communications" between State and the U.S. Mission to Libya on security in Benghazi.

Obama called on the gathered leaders to “seize this moment” and “speak out forcefully against violence and extremism.”

The Palestinians' envoy to the United States said Tuesday he was unimpressed by President Obama's renewed call for peace with Israel in his address to the United Nations, which got just 86 words in a 4,000-word speech devoted to progress in the Middle East.

"Evidently, the president is not totally focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Ambassador Maen Rashid Areikat, the chief representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, told The Hill in an email. “The root cause is Israel's continued military occupation, preventing us from practicing our right to self-determination. Once the conflict is over, the entire region will enjoy peace, security, and prosperity."

In his remarks, Obama reserved his criticism for groups that reject Israel's right to exist.

“Among Israelis and Palestinians, the future must not belong to those who turn their backs on the prospect of peace,” Obama said in a thinly veiled jab at Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Romney was caught on video at a Florida fundraiser telling donors that the conflict would “remain an unsolved problem” because “the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace.”

House Republicans blasted President Obama on Tuesday for issuing an executive order aimed at eradicating trafficking by federal contractors or subcontractors, arguing that it's a sign that Obama would rather politicize the issue rather than work with Congress on more effective legislation.

Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said Obama's decision to issue an executive order similar to his bill, the End Human Trafficking in Government Contracting Act, would undermine his bipartisan bill that has been the subject of months of work in Congress.

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) on Tuesday blasted Mitt Romney on China trade, arguing that there is no reason to believe the GOP presidential candidate will actually get tough with China.

The attack comes on a day when Romney campaigns in the key swing state of Ohio and as he is increasingly criticizing President Obama for not doing enough to reduce the massive U.S. trade deficit with China.

“Gov. Romney taking this tack against the president is laughable, quite frankly,” Ryan said, on a press call organized by the liberal Campaign for America’s Future.

Ryan said that Obama has, in fact, been tough on China, by slapping emergency tariffs on Chinese tire imports and steel tubes used for oil and gas production. He also lauded the president for announcing last week he will take China to a World Trade Organization panel on automobile subsidies.

He said that in contrast, Romney is on record opposing the tire tariffs.