A massive power failure blacked out Brazil’s two largest cities and other parts of Latin America’s biggest nation for more than two hours last night, leaving millions of people in the dark after a huge hydroelectric dam suddenly went off-line.

Alfredo Stroessner, the canny anti-communist general who ruled Paraguay with a blend of force, guile and patronage for 35 years before his ousting in 1989, died in exile today. He was 93.