Militants staged two suicide attacks that killed at least 18 people on Saturday, the first full day of U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's visit to Afghanistan. They were a fresh reminder of the challenges posed by insurgents to the U.S.-led NATO force as it hands over the country's security to the Afghans.

"This attack was a message to him," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said of Hagel, in an email to reporters about the attack on the country's Defense Ministry in Kabul.

Hagel was nowhere near that explosion, but heard it across the city. He told reporters traveling with him that he wasn't sure what it was when he heard the explosion.

"We're in a war zone. I've been in war, so shouldn't be surprised when a bomb goes off or there's an explosion," said Hagel, a Vietnam War veteran. Asked what his message to the Taliban would be, he said that the U.S. was going to continue to work with its allies to insure that the Afghan people have the ability to develop their own country and democracy.

In the first attack, a suicide bomber on a bicycle struck outside the Afghan Defense Ministry early Saturday morning, just as employees were arriving for work. About a half hour later, another suicide bomber hit a joint NATO and Afghan patrol near a police checkpoint in Khost city, the capital of Khost province in eastern Afghanistan, said provincial spokesman Baryalai Wakman.

Nine people were killed in the bombing at the ministry, and an Afghan policeman and eight civilians, who were mostly children, died in the blast in Khost, Afghan officials said.

The former girlfriend of computer hacker Aaron Swartz is lashing out at the US Justice Department after Attorney General Eric Holder defended the prosecution that some say drove the prodigy into committing suicide.

Swartz took his own life in January while waiting to stand trial in a federal computer fraud case that could have ended with him serving upwards of 35 years in prison. Earlier this week, Attorney General Holder said the suicide was a "tragedy" but that the prosecution was indeed by the books.

The Justice Department, said Holder, demonstrated "a good use of prosecutorial discretion" in going after Swartz, who was charged with illegally accessing a trove of academic articles from the website JSTOR. The attorney general also went on to say that Swartz realistically was only facing a few months in prison, not the three decades reported by the press.

Now only days later, Swartz's partner Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman has harsh words for the attorney general. In a statement obtained by the website TechDirt, Stinebrickner-Kauffman accuses the DoJ of lying to the American public, seizing evidence without a warrant and other claims.

An undercover TSA agent successfully bypassed security with a mock "bomb" during a recent drill at Newark Liberty International Airport, claims the New York Post.

The daily newspaper reports this week that a team of agents with the US Transportation Security Administration's special operations group entered Newark Airport on February 25 and attempted to board a plane with fake bombs. One of the secret agents, claims the Post, successfully passed two separate security screenings while containing an improvised explosive device-like contraption in his pants.

"He did have a simulated IED in his pants," the source tells the paper. "They did not find it."

According to the person familiar with the incident, the "bomber" made it to his gate in Newark's Terminal B, where aircraft belonging to American Airlines, JetBlue and Delta all regularly dock.

With 33,869,307 passengers going in and out of Newark in 2011, it is one of the busiest transportation hubs in the world. But is it the safest?

Seven men sentenced to death for crimes committed whilst underage, have had their executions postponed by Saudi Arabia's royal family. Their cases are being reviewed following claims the men were tortured, threatened and their trial was unfair.

Saudi King Abdullah's eldest son ordered a one-month postponement on the executions that were scheduled for Tuesday, also promising a new investigation and a new trial to be carried out, one of 200 relatives and friends of the young men who gathered near the royal court told Reuters.

The seven men were facing a firing squad, with one to be publicly crucified for three days thereafter.

According to a Saudi security official cited by AP, King Abdullah met with families of the seven accused on Sunday and later said he would review the sentences.

Using Latin American covert operations as a template for its Iraqi paramilitary proxies, the US once again lost the moral war

In one of the fiery oratories for which he was well-known, the late Hugo Chávez once stated his belief that "the American empire is the greatest menace to our planet." While his detractors have often sought to paint his rhetorical flourishes as a manifestation of unprovoked and unpopular extremism, to his death Chávez remained extremely popular with the majority of the Venezuelan people.

Indeed, far from being an outlier, Chávez fit well within the spectrum of both Central and Latin American popular opinion. While his style may have been his own, his beliefs and worldview regarding US interventionism were reflected in other leaders throughout the region. Looking at the history of US engagement in Latin America, it becomes evident why such a situation exists. From overthrowing democratically elected leaders, operating death squads, and torturing civilians, the history of US involvement in the region has understandably helped create a widespread popular backlash that persists to this day.

The primary theatre of war has since switched from Latin America to the Middle East, but many of the same tactics of that period - which caused so much devastation and engendered so much visceral anger - seem to have been redeployed on the other side of the world. As reported this week by the Guardian, recent investigations have suggested that Pentagon officials at the highest levels oversaw torture facilities during the war in Iraq. The allegations are decidedly gruesome: rooms used for interrogating detainees stained with blood; children tied into extreme stress positions with their bodies beaten to discoloration.

According to the Obama administration, the president has the right to assassinate American citizens within the United States, without charges or any legal process. This claim, contained in a letter from Attorney General Eric Holder, constitutes the most far-reaching abrogation of constitutional rights and is aimed at establishing the pseudo-legal framework for military rule.

Holder's letter, the first explicit assertion of a power to extrajudicially kill Americans in their homes, was in response to a question delivered to the Obama administration from Republican Senator Rand Paul. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Holder reiterated and expanded on this position, declaring that the authorization to use military force in the "war on terror" extends to the United States.

In the letter to Paul, Holder responds to a question as to whether "the President has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a US citizen on US soil, and without trial."

Mattis: Diplomatic and economic efforts failing to bring Islamic Republic to its knees

Sanctions are not preventing Iran's nuclear progress, the US Army commander in the Middle East told Congress on Tuesday, adding that he had prepared a military option.

A simple "No, sir" was General James Mattis's response when asked whether "the current diplomatic and economic efforts to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear capability" were working.

"I think we have to continue sanctions, but have other options ready," said Mattis, of the Central Command, to the Armed Services Committee during an official hearing.

Mattis said Iran could be convinced to alter its course by "a purely cost-benefit ratio," but at the moment, he noted, the "nuclear industry continues" apace, despite sanctions.

"Between economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation, and encouragement of behavior that does not cost them such a degree of political support that they end up losing power, there may yet be a way to bring them to their senses," the general stated.

Such means to bring Iran "to its knees," Mattis commented in response to another question, did not necessarily entail "open conflict," but a military operation is "one of the options that I have to have prepared for the president."

Senator Rand Paul discusses the United States' relationship with Israel.

Ben Shapiro, Breitbart: There's been a lot of talk about, let's say you become President Paul at some point in the future--

Sen. Rand Paul: I like the sound of that!

Shapiro: Let's say Israel comes under attack from its enemies. Does the United States stand with Israel, in terms of giving military foreign aid.

Paul: Well absolutely, we stand with Israel, but what I think we should do is announce to the world, and i think it is well-known, that any attack on Israel will be treated as an attack on the United States.

Chicago police terrorized six children in the wrong apartment, demanding at gunpoint that an 11-month-old show his hands, and telling one child, "This is what happens when your grandma sells crack," the family claims in court

Lead plaintiffs Charlene and Samuel Holly sued Chicago, police Officer Patrick Kinney and eight John Does in Federal Court, on their own behalves and for their children and children.

The six children were 11 months to 13 years old at the time. Plaintiffs Connie and Michelle Robinson are Charlene Holly's daughters.

The complaint states: "On November 29, 2012 in the early evening hours Charlene Holly was in the first floor apartment at 10640 S. Prairie in the front room helping minor Child #1, Child #2, Child #4, and Child #5 rehearse songs for their church choir. Charlene was also caring for Child #3, who was 11 months old. Child #6 was in the upstairs apartment alone.

"Charlene and the children heard a loud boom outside and a voice cry out 'Across the street!'

Chavez proved that radical policies work and win support and that defiance of US imperialism is possible and popular - Chris Nineham writes on why he will be missed in every corner of the globe

One of the great figures of the 21st Century has died. At a time of universal mediocrity and ubiquitous buy-in to neoliberal orthodoxy, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stood out amongst politicians as a massive personality of independence, principle and courage. He didn't just speak about socialism and social justice, he ensured his successive governments delivered measures that genuinely improved the lives of millions of people in his country, particularly the poorest. His charisma and radicalism was such that it is no exaggeration to say his example helped produce progressive governments and movements across the region.

His galvanising presence and his left wing politics were themselves the product of a widespread grass-roots radicalisation. The neoliberal policies that Pinochet brutally pioneered in Chile in the 1970s were rolled out accross the continent from the early 1980s onwards. Venezuelan President Carlos Andrez Perez broke with his corporatist past to introduce the IMF backed 'Great Turn' at the end of the 1980s. Between 1981 and 1997 the richest 10% of Venezuelans saw their share of national income grow from 22 to 33%. The Venezuelan poor responded to the turn too with occupations, mass protests and riots popularly known as the Caracazo.

Inspired by this movement, the young Hugo Chavez, then a junior officer in the Venezuelan army, launched a long-prepared coup attempt in 1992. The coup had popular support, but was headed off by the Perez government. On his arrest Chavez made a characteristically courageous statement, "unfortunately" he said, "for the moment the objectives that we set ourselves have not been achieved...New possibilities will arise and the country will be able to move definitely towards a better future." Instantly the red beret of Chavez's parachute regiment and the phrase 'for the moment' became symbols of resistance amongst the country's poor.