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President Obama and his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, engaged Thursday night in a sometimes spirited, but always cordial, debate that got very technical at times.

It was the "corporate executive" (Romney) vs. the "government professor" (Obama) and the GOP nominee appeared to be "full of confidence and full of sales pitch," NPR Senior Washington Editor Ron Elving says, while Obama put pressure on the Republican to explain what he would do as president.

Transcript of the first presidential debate between President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney, moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS, Oct. 3, 2012, in Denver. Source: Federal News Service

There were 367,000 first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week, the Employment and Training Administration says.

The bottom line: This doesn't mark any significant change in the jobs market, especially considering the "4-week moving average was 375,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised average." That figure is a better measure of labor market trends.

There just aren't many bands like Antibalas. These are jazz players making dance music: Their music is big and fun, and their guiding spirit is Fela Kuti, the brilliant big-band leader and Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer. Afrobeat is a musical style featuring nearly endless songs, mixing funk and jazz, grooves and riffs, with the rhythm carried by not only the drums, but everyone. Everyone — horn players, bass players, guitarists — plays rhythm in Afrobeat music.

The Detroit Tigers' Miguel Cabrera became a baseball legend last night: He took the first Triple Crown in 45 years and joined the likes of Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle as the 15th player in history to win it.

The stats that got him the most coveted mantle for a hitter? A .330 batting average, 44 home runs and 139 RBIs. (You win the Triple Crown if you lead the league in those three measures.) Boston's Carl Yastrzemski was the last player to achieve the feat, back in 1967.

The situation between Syria and Turkey escalated today, as Turkey continued its attack on targets inside Syria and the Turkish parliament gave the OK for military action outside its borders.

As we reported, Turkey is retaliating for a rocket attack that killed five civilians yesterday. The development is important because it could mean the conflict between rebels and the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad has now become regional.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. Canadian police say they've seized thousands of gallons of maple syrup. They found the sweet stuff in the storehouse of an exporter. The truckloads of syrup appear to be a small part of a heist that siphoned off much of the strategic reserves of a producers cooperative in Quebec. The total amount missing: about $20 million worth. Still, it's a bit of a sticky investigation, as maple syrup is near impossible to track. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Major League Baseball's regular season ended yesterday with the kind of day that would warm the commissioner's heart: fans cheering from coast to coast, a towering achievement for one very good hitter, and the promise of even more excitement to come as the playoffs begin. NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman has been tracking this season. He's on the line.

Good morning, Tom.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Hello.