Brazilian police arrest two people over plot to bomb Lady Gaga's concert in Rio
Rio de Janeiro, May 4 (AP): Brazilian police said on Sunday that they had thwarted a plot to detonate a bomb at Lady Gaga's concert in Rio de Janeiro.
The event, on Saturday, was the biggest show of her career that drew some 2 million fans to Copacabana Beach.
Rio de Janeiro's state police said they had worked with the Justice Ministry to disrupt an attack allegedly planned by a group that was spreading hate speech against the LGBTQ community. Police said the group sought to radicalize and recruit teenagers to carry out attacks using Molotov cocktails and improvised explosives.
“The plan was treated as a collective challenge' with the aim of gaining notoriety on social media,” the police said.
Authorities said they arrested two people in connection with the planned attack — the alleged leader of the group on illegal weapons possession charges in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, and a teenager on child pornography charges in Rio.
Authorities said police raided the locations of 15 suspects across several states in Brazil and confiscated phones and other electronic devices.
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Rupee hits all-time low for second time in a week
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee depreciated 31 paise to settle at 91.99 against the US dollar on Wednesday, touching the lowest closing level for the second time in less than a week, amid increased month-end demand for the greenback.
Forex traders said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe offered quiet reassurance. However, increased month-end demand for the American currency as well as the ongoing geopolitical tensions dented investors' sentiments.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 91.60 and touched an early high of 91.50, but pared all the gains to touch an intra-day low of 91.99 against the greenback.
The domestic unit settled 31 paise down, revisiting its lowest-ever closing level of 91.99 against the greenback. The Indian currency previously ended at this level on January 23 when it also hit its all-time intraday low of 92 against the US dollar.
On Tuesday, the rupee rebounded from its all-time low levels and gained 22 paise to close at 91.68 against the US dollar.
Analysts said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe bolstered investor sentiment.
India and the European Union on Tuesday announced the conclusion of negotiations for the free trade agreement (FTA), under which a number of domestic sectors such as apparel, chemicals and footwear will get duty-free entry into the 27-nation bloc, while the EU will get access to the Indian market at concessional duty for cars and wines, an official said.
The deal has been dubbed the "mother of all deals" as it will create a market of about 2 billion people.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.07 per cent lower at 96.14.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.43 per cent lower at USD 67.28 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex jumped 487.20 points to settle at 82,344.68, while Nifty surged 167.35 points to 25,342.75.
Foreign Institutional Investors turned net buyers and purchased equities worth Rs 480.26 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
