New Delhi, Mar 6 : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate L. K. Advani on Friday offered 25 more seats to the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Orissa. The announcement was aimed at persuading the BJD to stay in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Since 1998, the BJD has been contesting 84 Assembly and 12 Lok Sabha seats while BJP has fielded candidates in 63 Assembly and nine Lok Sabha constituencies.

The Orissa State Assembly polls will be held along with the general elections on April 16 and 23.

Mumbai/New Delhi, Mar 6 : Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, today termed the return of his grandfather''s items as a `miracle'.

Expressing his joy, Tushar said he was grateful to liquor and airline magnate Vijay Mallya for coughing up 1.8 million dollars for the treasured icons.

New Delhi - The wealthy buyer of the set of artefacts that once belonged to Mahatma Gandhi was acting on behalf of the government of India, media reports said Friday.

According to the PTI news agency quoting India's Culture Minister Ambika Soni, the Indian independence icon's pocket watch, sandals, a bowl, "thali" (plate) and letters of authenticity were "procured through the services of an Indian, Vijay Mallya."

New Delhi, Mar 06 : Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow recently admitted that her marriage to rocker Chris Martin too has its own set of issues.

The `Great Expectations' actress also came clean about the fact that her husband would definitely `kill' her about it publicly, as the couple had a pact that none of them could talk about their private life openly.

New Delhi, Mar 6 : External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said that the attack on Sri Lankan cricket players was a matter of grave concern to the entire world, and charged Pakistan with not having the will to fight terrorism.

"Pakistan failed in providing security to Sri Lankan cricketers, which is a matter of grave concern to the entire world," Mukherjee said on the sidelines of the India Today Conclave.

New Delhi, Mar 6 : Indian Premier League (IPL) Commissioner Lalit Modi on Friday said that there would be no IPL matches on the day of counting of votes.

Modi said a new schedule would be released soon, adding that they were working on a schedule, which was a "cumbersome process".

"We will shortly have a new schedule out," Modi told reporters here.

Stressing that the tournament was on, he said: "We want to assure our fans that the IPL is on. There is no question of the IPL moving to a foreign country".