London/Baghdad - British forces will leave Iraq by mid-2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on a surprise visit to Baghdad Wednesday.

He confirmed that the withdrawal would begin in the spring and that the bulk of the 4,000 British troops would have "completed their tasks" in the first half of 2009.

The announcement came in a joint statement released during Brown's talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

They said: "The role played by the UK combat forces is drawing to a close. These forces will have completed their tasks in the first half of 2009 and will then leave Iraq."

London, Dec 17 : The song that British soul/pop singer Alexandra Burke sang, and which also broke a chart record, is said to have been inspired by `sex'.

Burke, who is the winner of the fifth series of the X Factor show, sang her own version of the song `Hallelujah', a song which is originally Leonard Cohen's and whose lyrics were inspired by bedroom antics.

London, December 17 : Former glamour model Jordan has revealed that she would love to drop her clothes for Playboy.

Peter Andre's better half, who had taken a step backward from photo shoots to experience motherhood, said that though she would be thrilled to pose for the men's magazine.

"I''d love to do Playboy," the Sun quoted her as telling OK! magazine.

The writer-singer, originally born as Katie Price, added that she had been disappointed with the magazine's cover featuring Burlesque Queen Dita Von Teese.

London, December 17 : Former `Spice Girls' star Emma Bunton insists that it is not necessary for her to marry her boyfriend Jade Jones to justify their relationship.

The couple have been together since 1999, and have a 12-month old son Beau from their long-term relationship.

Bunton has, however, scotched media speculation about an imminent wedding.

She says that she does not have any plans to marry Jones any time soon.

"We''ve been rumoured to be engaged about 20 times, but we don''t need a wedding to justify our relationship. But if we ever do get married, I couldn''t run off and do it in secret - my family would be so upset," the Daily Express quoted her as telling British magazine Closer.

London, Dec 17: Oasis rocker Noel Gallagher is often so bored while touring that he turns to net surfing for bargain buys.

The 41-year-old guitarist is currently on tour with the band in the U. S. and admits that the journey has dragged him down.

He spends hours watching sport on TV - and is even buying instruments from sellers on auction website eBay.

While writing on his band's blog, Gallagher said that the tour "utterly soul-destroyingly dull."

London, Dec 17: A new study has found that sea levels will rise much faster than previously predicted, as the world's glaciers and ice sheets are melting at an alarming rate.

According to a report in The Times, the study, commissioned by the US Climate Change Science Program, said that the rises will substantially exceed forecasts that do not take into account the latest data and observations.

The adjusted outlook suggests that recent predictions of a rise of between 7 inches and 2 feet over the next century are conservative.

The study predicts that sea level rises will be far higher than the levels that were set out last year by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change.