London  - The British government Monday set out plans for a massive 20-billion-pound (30 billion dollars) programme to stimulate the economy as it heads for recession.

It proposed to cut value-added tax (VAT) on consumer goods from 17.5 per cent to 15 per cent until the end of 2009, and announced an increase in the top tax rate for higher earners to 45 per cent.

The measures were aimed at tackling the effects of an "unprecedented global crisis," the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, told parliament.

They would make sure that the economic downturn would be "shorter and shallower" than would have been the case otherwise.

London - Britain is to ask for a 10-year extension to clear an estimated 20,000 unexploded landmines planted by Argentina during the Falkland Islands conflict of 1982, it was reported Monday.

Under the Ottawa Convention signed in 1997, Britain would have been obliged to remove the mines by March next year.

But the Foreign Office, citing Article Five of the treaty, would ask co-signatories to give it another 10 years to complete the task, the BBC reported.

London - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Monday defended his policy of tax cuts to stimulate the economy in an effort to soften the impact of a looming recession.

Speaking before a major tax-cutting budget was due to be announced in parliament, Brown said history had shown that failure to act early had only prolonged periods of recession in the past.

"Letting the recession run its course is not an option," said Brown at a conference of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Monday.

London - British conductor Richard Hickox has died from a suspected heart attack at the age of 60, his publicist said Monday.

Hickox, who was also musical director of Opera Australia, collapsed during a recording session Sunday in Wales.

The conductor, best known for his works on Vaughan Williams, was married to mezzo-soprano Pamela Helen Stephen, with whom he has three children.

Hickox was appoint musical director of Opera Australia in 2005 and recently had his contract extended to 2012.

London, Nov 24 : In yet another shocking case, quite reminiscent of Dungeon dad Josef Fritzl, an inhuman father at Wolverhampton raped his daughter more than 1,000 times in the span of eight years, revealed cops.

The 51-year-old man, who worked as a chef at a Chinese takeaway, attacked her at least three times a week from the age of eight to 16.

The sex beast dragged the terrified girl (name kept secret for legal reasons), from her bed after returning from work.

The girl was raped as her mum and siblings slept nearby, reports The Sun.

London, November 24 : A Brit family is scared that aliens may have chosen a new abode – in their sofa!

While Christine Strange, from Bristol, is scared that their family sofa may be alien haunted, her hubby Nigel has pledged to avoid sitting on it alone until it comes clean in investigations.

“One Sunday morning I sat down on it with a cup of tea and suddenly heard this odd squeaky noise,” the Sun quoted Christine as saying.