NPR Blogs

Beginning, today, illegally downloading a copy of your favorite new song could land you in jail in Japan.

The country has instituted a new law that punishes those downloaders with up to two years in prison or fines of up to $25,700. CNN reports that the move is an effort to curb music piracy in the country.

CNN adds:

Starting today, America's hospitals will find that their checks from Medicare are a little bit lighter.

As part of the government's biggest effort yet at paying for performance, Medicare is withholding 1 percent of its regular hospital payments and putting that money into a fund to reward hospitals that score well on 20 different quality measures.

The White House today admitted that one of its computer networks had been targeted by a cyber attack, but it downplayed a report that sensitive nuclear networks were targeted.

There was a time — and it wasn't that long ago — when kids would leave home on a summer morning and roam free. "I knew kids who were pushed out the door at eight in the morning," writes Bill Bryson of his childhood in the 1950s, "and not allowed back until five unless they were on fire or actively bleeding." That's what kids did. They went out. Parents let them, and everybody did it. "If you stood on any corner with a bike — any corner anywhere — more than a hundred children, many of whom you had never seen before, would appear and ask you where you were going," Bryson writes.

When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to speak in New York at the U.N. last week, he brought some 140 Iranians in his entourage.

It seems he went home with just 139.

Ahmadinenjad's cameraman, Hassan Gol Khaban, apparently stayed behind and is seeking asylum in the U.S., the Associated Press reports, citing New York lawyer Paul O'Dwyer.

There was no immediate word on the cameraman's whereabouts, the AP adds.

Unless Congress passes legislation in a lame-duck session, taxes will be higher by a half-trillion dollars next year, costing the average household nearly $3,500 a year, according to a just-released report by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

After studying details of the tax changes now set to take effect for 2013, the researchers were struck by "how big the tax increase is," said Eric Toder, one of those researchers. "It's a huge, huge number."

After three months of declines, an index that measures activity in the factory sector rose in September, the private Institute for Supply Management reports.

Its purchasing manager's index increased 1.9 percentage points, to 51.5 percent, thanks to gains in orders, production, employment and other key indicators.

Two weeks ago it was baseball's 500,000th error.

Now, we want to pass this along: There were some very odd odd events Saturday during a game between the Washington Nationals and St. Louis Cardinals.

Here's what happened:

The Nationals loaded the bases. Slugger Michael Morse was at bat. And his long hit to right field bounced off the top of the fence.

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Bombing Kills At Least 14 In Afghanistan, Including Three NATO Troops.

-- With First Debate This Week, We Really Are In Campaign's Final Stretch.

Other stories in the news:

Some of the latest news from Afghanistan, including a grim milestone:

-- "A suicide bombing [today] in the eastern Afghan city of Khost has killed at least 14 people, three of them Nato soldiers, officials say." (BBC News)