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.

London, Nov 24 : Pop singer Lily Allen has admitted that she had to undergo a therapy to cope up with her miscarriage.

The Smile singer, who lost the baby of Chemical Brothers'' Ed Simons in January, said that she was depressed after the miscarriage and needed therapy.

"I was in a very, very dark place after the whole thing happened,” the Mirror quoted her as saying.

"That was the toughest thing I''ve had to go through in my life," she added.

After months of one-on-one sessions, the 23-year-old singer said that she felt life was turning around.