10 things you need to know today: October 17, 2013 | The Week

President Obama — (Image credit: (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak))

1. Congress passes bill to reopen the government, prevent a default

Congress voted late Wednesday to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling. President Obama signed the bill just after midnight. Many Republicans, taking the brunt of public anger, voted with Democrats to accept a deal without the delays to ObamaCare they had demanded as a potentially disastrous debt default loomed. "We fought the good fight," House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said. "We just didn't win." [Washington Post]

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Newark Mayor Cory Booker easily won Wednesday's special election in New Jersey to fill the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg's seat. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, he led conservative Republican Steve Lonegan 55 percent to 44 percent. The charismatic Booker will arrive in Washington as one of the nation's best-known Democrats. He'll join Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) as one of two African-Americans in the Senate. [New York Times]

U.S. diplomats said Wednesday that Iran engaged this week in the most serious talks yet over its nuclear program, the latest in a series of signs that relations with Tehran are improving. Still, the Geneva meetings between Iran and six world powers yielded no solid concessions. "No one should expect a breakthrough overnight," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Follow-up talks are scheduled for November. [Reuters]

Forty-nine people were apparently killed on Wednesday when a plane from Laos' state-run airline crashed into the Mekong River in southern Laos, the government said. Rescuers didn't expect to find survivors. The twin-engine turboprop plane went down in bad weather as it was preparing to land at an airport five miles away. There were people from 11 countries on board, including one American. [Associated Press]

Nearly 30 million people are living in modern-day slavery around the world, according to the new Global Slavery Index compiled by the Walk Free Foundation, an Australia-based human rights group. With overall figures higher than previous estimates (the International Labor Organization puts the number at 21 million), the report cites India as having the most people living as slaves, at 14 million total. Hillary Clinton said governments should see the report as a "call to action." [BBC News]

Two men forced their way into the home of a high-ranking Dutch diplomat on Wednesday and beat him up. A week earlier, the Netherlands had to issue an apology after police allegedly beat a Russian diplomat in The Hague in what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a "rude violation" of diplomatic treaties. Tensions between the two nations have been rising since Russia arrested 30 Greenpeace activists on a Dutch ship protesting drilling in Russia's Arctic. [Wall Street Journal]

A Texas jury cleared billionaire Mark Cuban on insider trading charges. Prosecutors had said Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, used a private tip to avoid a major loss on a 2004 sale of Internet company stock. After the verdict was announced, Cuban accused regulators and government lawyers of lying and trying to bully him. He said the victory was sweet, but "not like winning a Mavs championship." [USA Today]

A committee of Ohio legislators on Wednesday approved a bill offering compensation to Michelle Knight, Gina DeJesus, and Amanda Berry for the time they were held captive in the home of kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro, who hanged himself in his jail cell in September. The women would get $25,000 for each year, so Knight would get $275,000 for her 11 years of captivity, Berry $250,000, and DeJesus $225,000. The bill now goes to the full state House. [Reuters]

A long-time House of Representatives employee was sent for a mental examination after she walked up to the podium and launched a bizarre rant about God and Freemasons during the vote to end the government shutdown Wednesday night. The woman, a well-liked stenographer identified as Dianne Reidy, said the nation can't serve two masters. "This is not one nation under God. It never was..." she yelled into a mic, which wasn't on. [Washington Times]

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.