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Block party: Brazil builds world's tallest Lego tower
Move over Chile, Brazil has just finished building the world's largest Lego tower.
Standing at 31.19 meters the tower in the city of Sao Paulo breaks the previous record set in Santiago, Chile, in 2008 by 25 centimeters.
Brazilian former footballer Cafu was responsible for attaching the last piece of the tower, which was built in the parking lot of a shopping mall.
Lego sent designers from Denmark to Brazil for the event, the company said on its website.
The tower took four days to build.
The first Lego tower was built in London in 1988 and stood just a little over 15 meters, according to Lego. Since then 53 cities have hosted the tower in more than 30 countries.
Reeling from quake, Japan automakers cut output in U.S. plants
Ripple effects from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan continued to be felt by the U.S. work force this week as Japanese automakers announced cuts in plant production at North American factories.
While the cuts were expected, the news signals the long road ahead for Japan's economy, the world's third largest, and how other nations will be affected.
Japan's big three - Honda, Nissan and Toyota - and the global auto industry are increasingly hampered by parts suppliers in Japan who are struggling in the aftermath of the worst disaster to strike the island nation since World War II.
'Serious casualties' from blast at Nigerian voting station
A bomb blast ripped through a voting station in northeastern Nigeria Saturday evening, causing "serious casualties," a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency said.
It was the third such explosion in the country since Friday.
Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 85 people have been killed in political violence in the run-up to the delayed national elections, being held over three days: Saturday, April 16 and April 26.
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Film director Sidney Lumet dies
Sidney Lumet, director of the classic films "12 Angry Men," "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Network," died early Saturday of lymphoma, his family said. He was 86.
Lumet received Academy Award nominations for best director for all of those films, as well as "The Verdict," but never won one, according to the Internet Movie Database. He received a best-writing nomination for "Prince of the City." He was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2005.
"While the goal of all movies is to entertain, the kind of film in which I believe goes one step further. It compels the spectator to examine one facet or another of his own conscience. It stimulates thought and sets the mental juices flowing," Lumet once wrote, according to The New York Times.
Other notable films Lumet directed, according to imdb, include "Fail Safe," "The Group," "Murder on the Orient Express," "Serpico," "The Wiz," and "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead."
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Report: 2 killed in mall shooting in Netherlands
At least two people were killed in a shooting at a shopping mall in Alphen aan den Rijn, in the Netherlands, early Saturday, eyewitnesses tell CNN affiliate NOS.
Democrats, Republicans agree on a budget deal
The Senate has passed a short-term budget deal that will keep the government funded through next Thursday. The measure was later approved by the House of Representatives.
"We have agreed to an historic amount of cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year, as well as a short-term bridge that will give us time to avoid a shutdown while we get that agreement through both houses and to the President. We will cut $78.5 billion below the President’s 2011 budget proposal, and we have reached an agreement on the policy riders. In the meantime, we will pass a short-term resolution to keep the government running through Thursday. That short-term bridge will cut the first $2 billion of the total savings," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner said in a joint statement issued after the agreement.
President Obama commended Democrats and Republicans on working together to reach a solution.
"The government will be open for business," Obama said. "That's because today, Americans of different beliefs came together again.
"In the final hours before our government would have been forced to shut down, leaders in both parties reached an agreement that will allow our small businesses to get the loans they need, our families to get the mortgages they applied for, and hundreds of thousands of Americans to show up at work and take home their paychecks on time."
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