Today's edition of quick hits:
* A suicide bomber killed 19 people, including three Americans, in a crowded market today in Khost, Afghanistan.
* Iraq: "In another wave of bombings across Iraq on Sunday, insurgents struck Shiite neighborhoods and security forces, officials said, killing at least 26 people."
* Economy: "The manufacturing sector expanded in September, shaking off three months of weakness as new orders and employment picked up, an industry report showed on Monday."
* Good call: "The Department of Homeland Security has stated in writing that foreigners who are same-sex partners of American citizens can be included under an Obama administration policy suspending deportations of some immigrants who pose no security risk."
* Good court ruling: "A federal judge in St. Louis has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the contraception mandate of the federal health care law."
* Austerity doesn't work: "Unemployment in the 17-member euro area rose to 11.4 percent in August, Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union, reported from Luxembourg."
* Enjoy the payroll tax cut now; it'll almost certainly expire in January.
* Oops: "The Pentagon is scrambling to figure out how to keep its personnel in Iraq after Congress failed to authorize funding for the hundreds of U.S. military personnel involved in training the Iraqi security forces."
* American journalist Austin Tice, reporting from Syria, hasn't communicated with family or colleagues since mid-August. Today, he was shown alive and "in the custody of armed men in a video posted on YouTube."
* And Media Matters put together a collection I'll treasure: "A History Of Dishonest Fox Charts." There are some real doozies in there.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.