A deal was reached to end the 16-day shutdown of the American government and to increase the debt ceiling, just hours ahead of a deadline after which the Treasury said it would have trouble paying the government's bills. Republicans won virtually no concessions from Democrats in their demands to defund Obamacare. Fitch put America on negative credit watch. Americans were deeply dissatisfied; 74% of voters would like to see the current lot of congressmen thrown out of office at next year's elections. America's Supreme Court said it would review a case that will decide whether the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate carbon emissions from power plants. In 2007 the Court ruled that the EPA has the right to regulate harmful emissions from cars. Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark and a rising star in the Democratic Party, won a special election in New Jersey for a vacant seat in the Senate. Still smarting Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, announced plans to create a secure e-mail service and to host an international summit on internet security next year. Last month Ms Rousseff cancelled a state visit to Washington in response to revelations that America's National Security Agency spied on her e-mails and on the state oil company. Cristina Fernández, Argentina's president, was discharged from hospital after surgery to drain blood from her head. She remains under doctors" orders to rest. Venezuela's navy released an oil-exploration ship operated by Anadarko, an American company, which it had seized in Guyanese waters. Venezuela has a long-standing claim to Guyana's Essequibo territory. In a speech to Canada's Parliament setting out its legislative programme, Stephen Harper's Conservative government promised to balance the budget within two years. Mr Harper was also about to finalise a free-trade agreement with the European Union. Smoke and mirrors The Italian government approved its 2014 budget. It includes tax and spending cuts aimed at boosting the sclerotic economy while keeping the budget deficit below the ceiling of 3% of GDP, as required by the EU. Enrico Letta's left-right coalition government signed off on the main bit of the budget just a few hours before a deadline imposed by EU law; the cabinet met afterwards to iron out the details. An appeal court in Russia upheld the conviction of a popular opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, for embezzlement, but suspended his jail sentence. Although Mr Navalny was allowed to walk free, his conviction will probably prevent him from running in the presidential election in 2018. He vowed to stay in politics and to appeal against the verdict. Russia's foreign ministry expressed "regret" after a Dutch diplomat was beaten up in his flat in Moscow. The Dutch foreign ministry summoned Russia's ambassador amid rising tension between the two countries related to the earlier arrest of a Russian diplomat in the Netherlands, and Russia's detention of the crew of a Dutch-flagged Greenpeace ship. Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front bagged a symbolic local by-election victory in southern France. Meanwhile, the Socialists" primary election for next year's mayoral race in Marseille was won by a senator styling herself as the "queen of the suburbs." Voters rejected a government minister who had contested the primary. Two weeks after hundreds of African migrants died when their boat sank off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa, another 370 were rescued between Sicily and Libya. Three days before that another migrant boat capsized near Italy, killing at least 33. More than 35,000 migrants have landed on Italian shores so far this year. At least they're talking After a six-month hiatus, talks resumed between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, known as the P5+1, over the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear plans. At a meeting in Geneva, the Iranians presented a timeline under which Iran would agree to limit its nuclear programme in return for recognition of its right to continue enriching uranium and relief from the economic sanctions hurting its economy. The parties agreed to meet again in three weeks. The African Union passed a resolution demanding that the International Criminal Court in The Hague grant immunity to African leaders while they are still in office, casting uncertainty over the trial due to start next month of Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya's president. He has been charged with crimes against humanity. William Ruto, his deputy, whose trial began last month, is co-operating with the court but has asked that he be allowed "sporadic absences." Charles Taylor, a former president of Liberia, arrived in Britain to serve the remainder of a 50-year prison sentence for war crimes, after his request to serve his jail time in Rwanda was rejected. Mr Taylor was convicted last year by a UN-backed special court in The Hague for crimes committed in Sierra Leone during its civil war in the 1990s. Citizen anger Demonstrators clashed with police in the eastern Chinese city of Yuyao over the local government's flood-relief efforts. Thousands of people were protesting that too little had been done to help residents in the wake of Typhoon Fitow. Australia's new prime minister, Tony Abbott, published draft legislation to repeal the country's carbon tax. Mr Abbott says the tax has forced up energy prices and caused job losses, and intends to replace the tax by paying farmers and industry to reduce emissions. The governor of Logar province in eastern Afghanistan was killed by a bomb blast at a mosque. The bomb was apparently hidden in a microphone. Logar, just south of the capital, Kabul, is increasingly coming under Taliban control. Relief efforts continued on the island of Bohol in the central Philippines, after an earthquake of 7.2 magnitude struck the region. More than 150 people died in the quake, some of them on the neighbouring island of Cebu.