News brief: Big stories of the day

The Election Commission-appointed surveillance teams have seized cash, jewellery and other inducements worth over Rs 120 crore in the poll-bound Karnataka, a senior official said today.

Congress party on Saturday slammed BJP for ''threatening voters in frustration. A defeatist BJP facing rejection at the hands of Kannadigas is threatening voters in frustration. Mr Yeddyurappa, insulting democracy and intimidating voters will trounce the BJP decisively," tweeted Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.

Critics of Vladimir Putin took to the streets of Russia on Saturday ahead of his inauguration for a fourth presidential term to register their opposition to what they say is his autocratic Tsar-like rule.

Days after a historic inter-Korean summit Lee Min-bok, a defector who has been flying anti-Pyongyang leaflets into the North for 15 years, received a call from an official at Seoul's Unification Ministry urging him to halt his balloon campaign.

Paris police are deploying in large numbers and activists are calling for calm as the French capital prepares for a mass protest on the anniversary of President Emmanuel Macron's inauguration.