US President Joe Biden has suffered a setback after Congress delayed a vote on a $1tn (£750bn) infrastructure plan. Part of his Democratic Party refuses to move forward with the plan until Congress signs off on a separate $3.5tn plan on welfare and climate change. That plan is at the heart of the party’s agenda for government and passions are high among its liberal (progressive) and centrist wings. Centrists want to scale the legislation back radically. The $1tn public works bill, which would apply to routine transportation, broadband, water systems and other projects, enjoys wide support but liberal Democrats are linking it to their more ambitious welfare and climate change bill.(BBC)…[+]

Col Mamady Doumbouya has been sworn is as Guinea’s interim president after leading a coup which saw the overthrow of Alpha Condé. The former French legionnaire, 41, becomes Africa’s second-youngest leader, after Mali’s Assimi Goïta, 38, who also staged a military takeover. Col Doumbouya is barred from contesting future elections, under a transitional charter published this week. The 5 September coup has been widely condemned, Both West Africa body Ecowas and the African Union have suspended Guinea. Ecowas also imposed sanctions against the coup leaders and demanded a return to constitutional order within six months.(BBC)…[+]

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to a year in prison for illegally funding his unsuccessful 2012 re-election campaign. The 66-year-old was found guilty in a Paris court of spending tens of millions of euros more on his campaign than was permitted under the law. He will not be jailed, however, and can serve his sentence at home with an electronic bracelet, the court ruled. Mr Sarkozy denies any wrongdoing and is expected to appeal against the ruling. It is his second one-year prison term. In March, he became the first former president of France to receive a custodial sentence – for corruption and influence peddling – but remains free pending an appeal of that sentence.(BBC)…[+]

A former secretary at a Nazi concentration camp has been captured after trying to flee before her trial in northern Germany. Irmgard Furchner, 96, was due to stand trial for complicity in 11,000 murders, but she failed to turn up and the judge issued a warrant for her arrest. The defendant was detained by police hours after disappearing from a nursing home in the town of Quickborn. She had fled to Hamburg where she was reportedly seen on a local street.

Irmgard Furchner had been due to appear at a special juvenile court in Itzehoe, an hour’s drive north of Hamburg. Instead she went to an underground station and travelled to the outskirts of Hamburg. “She took a taxi,” said court spokeswoman Frederike Milhoffer. The court spokeswoman said later she would now be brought before the court in Itzehoe, German reports said. Judge Dominik Gross had earlier revealed that Irmgard Furchner was a fugitive and postponed the case until 19 October.(BBC)…[+]

Britney Spears has said she is “on cloud nine right now”, in what appears to be a response to a judge suspending her father as her conservator. The singer posted a video of her having a flying lesson, shortly after news that Jamie Spears’ role was suspended. Spears’ lawyer Mathew Rosengart said it was his “hope and expectation” the conservatorship would be fully terminated at a hearing on 12 November. Through his own lawyer, Jamie Spears called the ruling “disappointing”. Cher and Dionne Warwick were among those welcoming the judge’s decision. “This will be the start of a new life Brit,” wrote Cher on Twitter, while Warwick uploaded a video in which she expressed her “full support”. “My heart goes out to Britney Spears,” said the veteran soul star. “I feel her pain. How in the world could anyone endure what she has been enduring?”(BBC)…[+]

A house that miraculously survived an erupting volcano on La Palma in the Spanish Canary Islands for days has now been consumed by lava. The retired Danish couple who owned the house, Inge Bergedorf and Ranier Cocq, told Spanish media on Tuesday it had been swallowed by the flow. “Everything is destroyed,” Mr Cocq told the El Mundo newspaper. The property became known as the “miracle house” after escaping lava flowing from the Cumbre Vieja volcano. The lava has flattened hundreds of homes and forced the evacuation of more than 6,000 people since it started pouring from the volcano on 19 September. On Tuesday night the lava reached the Atlantic Ocean, on the west coast of the island, raising fears of explosions and the release of toxic gases.(BBC)…[+]

Two top US generals have said they recommended keeping a force of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, ahead of the full US withdrawal in August. Testimony by Gen Mark Milley and Gen Frank McKenzie to Congress seemed to contradict President Joe Biden, who said he did not recall any such advice. The Taliban took power in August, after rapidly advancing through the country. Gen Milley said the US had been taken by surprise by the speed of the Afghan government’s collapse. The two US generals were questioned by the Senate armed services committee along with Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday. The hearing comes weeks after a chaotic withdrawal at Kabul airport as foreign powers sought to get their citizens home and thousands of desperate Afghans begged for rescue. A suicide attack killed 182 people during the withdrawal operation. Thirteen US service personnel and at least 169 Afghans were killed by the airport gate on 26 August.(BBC)…[+]

At least 30 inmates have been killed and dozens injured in a fight between rival gangs at a prison in the Ecuadorean port city of Guayaquil. A police commander said at least five inmates had been decapitated while others had been shot dead. Commander Fausto Buenaño said the prisoners had also thrown grenades. The regional governor said it took 400 police officers to regain control of the jail, which houses prisoners with links to international drug gangs. So far this year, more than 150 people have been killed in prison violence in Ecuador. In the bloodiest incident so far, 79 prisoners were killed in simultaneous fights in February.(BBC)…[+]

Thirty-nine miners were faced with a 10-hour vertical climb after they became trapped deep underground in eastern Canada. They got stuck below the Totten mine in Sudbury, Ontario, on Sunday after the lift system was damaged. The miners were said to be unharmed, with access to food and water. Rescue efforts were under way on Monday and the exhausted miners were using harnesses to keep them on the ladders for the 1km (0.6 mile) climb. Local station CTV reported that four miners had reached the surface by the early hours of Tuesday.

Shawn Rideout, chief mine rescue officer from Ontario Mine Rescue, earlier said that the workers had already been in the mineshaft for more than 35 hours before beginning their ascent. He said the ascent could take up to 10 hours for workers to complete but there were rest stops every 100m if they needed to take a break. “Everybody is safe, they’re all in good spirits, we have no reported injuries. Our plan is to get them to the surface in that same form,” he said.(BBC)…[+]

North Korea has fired a short-range missile towards the sea off its east coast early on Tuesday, said South Korea’s military. The test happened as North Korea’s ambassador said at the UN that no-one could deny Pyongyang’s right to self-defence and to test weapons. Earlier this month Pyongyang test-fired both ballistic and cruise missiles. But several days ago North Korea had also expressed willingness to engage in talks with the South. The US military said in a statement on Tuesday that it was aware of the missile launch but that it posed no immediate threat to US personnel or its allies. However, the US Indo-Pacific Command said that the launch “highlighted the destabilising impact of [North Korea’s] illicit weapons program”.(BBC)…[+]