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 : Former England captain Michael Vaughan thinks England can recover from bitter defeat to India and level the series in Mohali.

He told Telegraph TV that he was proud of his teammates'' performance.

He said: "It was a great game of cricket. Both teams played to an incredible standard in terms of what they''d gone through in the previous two weeks.

"The England team can be very proud of the way they played. For three-and-three-quarter days they dominated the Test and that is something which is very difficult to do in India."

Los Angeles - Tracy McGrady showed how good the Houston Rockets can be when he's healthy.

China's Yao Ming scored 32 points while McGrady posted his fourth career triple-double - the first of the season - with 20 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists as the Rockets cooled off the Denver Nuggets, with a 108-96 home-court victory on Tuesday night.

London, Dec. 17 : Boxer Lennox Lewis has offered to come out of retirement and be David Haye's sparring partner for his crack at the world heavyweight title.

According to The Sun, the former undisputed champion made his offer after a deal was reached for Haye to fight WBC king Vitali Klitschko in June.

Arsenal's Emirates Stadium has emerged as one of the front-runners to stage the London showdown.

Haye's manager Adam Booth confirmed the Lewis connection.

"Lennox was in Germany to commentate for American TV station HBO when Vitali's brother Wladimir Klitschko beat Hasim Rahman at the weekend. He seems to have really taken to David and wants to do all he can to help him land the heavyweight title."

Beijing - Police in south-western China have arrested two men suspected of throwing paint-filled eggs at national, military and Communist Party flags, local media said on Wednesday.

More than 100 police questioned 873 people in the hunt for the paint-throwers after the attack at a martyrs' cemetery in the city of Chongqing on November 23, the Chongqing Times reported.

The two suspects confessed to police that they had thrown four paint-filled eggs at each of five flags, the newspaper said.

If convicted, Zhang Jingzhi and Wen Tingyu face up to three years in prison under Chinese administrative law, it said.

New Delhi - Authorities in India's eastern state of West Bengal said Wednesday an extensive culling operation was ordered to contain an outbreak of bird flu, news reports said.

Only 155 birds were killed in the first day of culling Tuesday due to poor weather conditions and the lack of adequate workers, IANS news agency quoted Dilip Chakraborty, a senior official in the state's Animal Resources Development department as saying.

"There are adequate number of workers since Wednesday and they are operating at full strength since morning. We hope to cull a substantial number of poultry by the end of the day," Chakraborty said.