Debate moderators always get a bad rap. As Jim Lehrer and Martha Raddatz demonstrated, candidates’ zealous supporters tend to blame the moderator if their champion doesn’t fare well. That’s not fair, but I do suggest moderators should be held accountable for whether they raise questions vital to the public’s understanding.

KABUL, Afghanistan — A member of the Afghan intelligence service detonated a suicide vest Saturday, killing two Americans and four Afghan intelligence agency colleagues, Afghan and international officials said Monday.      

Also on Monday, Afghan officials charged that a coalition strike against a Taliban target had killed three young children — two boys and a girl — from one family over the weekend.      

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon and State Department are speeding up efforts to help the Libyan government create a commando force to combat Islamic extremists like the ones who killed the American ambassador in Libya last month and to help counter the country’s fractious militias, according to internal government documents.

WASHINGTON — On the eve of the second presidential debate, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday night that she took “responsibility” for the failure to successfully defend against the Sept. 11 attack on the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.      

“I take responsibility,” she said in an interview with CNN. “I want to avoid some kind of political gotcha.”