A trio of Senate hawks that's long supported Georgia's pro-Western leader said Wednesday they were “disappointed” by calls from Monday's election winner for President Mikheil Saakashvili step down before his term ends next year.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) are longtime supporters of Saakashvili, who led his country into a disastrous war with Russia in 2008. Saakashvili's party was defeated in parliamentary elections on Monday, and the leader of the opposition Georgian Dream coalition, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, is expected to be named prime minister.

In a joint statement Wednesday, the senators called Saakashvili a “democratic statesman” and “Georgian patriot,” papering over criticism that he had grown increasingly authoritarian and hounded the opposition. The senators congratulated Ivanishvili, who is seen as pro-Russian, but warned him to be “magnanimous in victory” and “not use the instruments of the state for political retribution.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday named the deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, James Warlick, to lead negotiations on a post-war troop deal.

Clinton announced Warlick's selection during the first meeting of the U.S.-Afghanistan Bilateral Commission. Her Afghan counterpart, Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul, said the Afghan ambassador to the United States, Eklil Hakimi, will serve as Warlick's counterpart. 

The Strategic Partnership Agreement signed by Presidents Barack Obama and Hamid Karzai in May called for the establishment of a bilateral commission chaired by the two countries' top dignitaries. It also committed the United States and Afghanistan to initiate negotiations on a Bilateral Security Agreement to supersede the current Status of Forces Agreement, which will spell out the role of U.S. troops in the country after 2014.

Three House Republicans are criticizing an educational trip to Cuba that they say led to a meeting with a fugitive from U.S. justice last year, and have called on President Obama to ensure that future visits do not allow these sorts of meetings to take place.

Travel to Cuba is allowed for several specific reasons, including educational activities, although they require a license from the State Department. But House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) said a 2011 trip went to far, and cited reports in The Daily Iowan that said a University of Iowa student was allowed to meet with someone wanted for a crime in the United States.

The White House on Wednesday applauded NATO's decision to extend by one year the mandate of Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

He can now remain in his post until July 31, 2014.

“The United States commends the Secretary General for his strong leadership of America’s most important security alliance,” National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement, “and we look forward to continuing to work with him and with our NATO allies and partners as we strengthen and revitalize NATO for the 21st century.”

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Your morning global affairs speed-read

Three weeks after the attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, the investigation remains in its initial stages with just a handful of suspects detained and the crime scenes minimally secured, The Washington Post reports.

And Reuters quotes Libya's deputy foreign minister, Mohammed Adbel Aziz, as saying that his country has yet to agree with the United States on how the U.S. investigative team will cooperate in the probe, with the country's prosecutor general having given only verbal approval for a joint investigation. 

"We are getting ready for the FBI team to go to Benghazi and meet with our team and start joint investigations together and also visit the site," Adbel Aziz said Tuesday.

The involvement of the congressional Republicans' top inquisitor all but guarantees further headaches for the Obama administration.

Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) called for democracies on Tuesday to demand a free and fair election in Venezuela.

Venezuela’s presidential election will take place this Sunday, between a young opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, and socialist President Hugo Chávez.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday that Taiwanese travelers have been approved for visa-free travel to the United States.

The country joins 36 participants in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, which permits visa-free travel to the United States for eligible travelers visiting the United States for 90 days or fewer for business or tourism. Visitors traveling under the program accounted for 18.3 million visits to the United States last year, according to the Homeland Security Department, or more than 60 percent of tourist and business travelers entering the United States by air.

“Today’s announcement is a major step forward in our long-standing economic partnership with Taiwan,” Napolitano said in a statement. “Taiwan’s participation in the VWP will not only stimulate tourism in the United States, it will also enable us to work together to maintain the strictest security standards.”

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Two House Republicans say whistleblowers have revealed to them that the consulate in Libya was attacked and threatened 13 times.