North Korea Missile Alert After Japan Blunder

A Japanese official mistakenly announced the launch of a North Korean missile instead of sending an alert about a strong earthquake.

An official at the western Osaka aviation bureau emailed 87 airport offices to say a North Korean missile had been launched, Japan's transport ministry said.

The official was trying to send a message to check on possible airport damage immediately after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck near the southwestern city of Kobe, injuring dozens of people and destroying several homes.

But instead the official dispatched a pre-prepared alert ready to go in the event of a North Korean missile launch.

The incorrect message was retracted six minutes later but at least one domestic flight was delayed due to the mistake.

Japan is on full alert ahead of an expected mid-range missile launch by North Korea, with Patriot missiles stationed in its capital to protect the 30 million people who live there.

In addition to PAC-3 batteries, Aegis destroyers equipped with sea-based interceptor missiles have been deployed in the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

On Wednesday officials in the Japanese city of Yokohama were left red-faced after mistakenly announcing the launch of a North Korean missile to 40,000 followers on Twitter.

Saturday night's earthquake was in the area where a magnitude 7.2 quake killed more than 6,400 people in 1995.

The Meteorological Agency warned there may be aftershocks for about a week.

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Thatcher: Daughter Carol's Personal Tribute

Baroness Thatcher's daughter Carol has spoken of the "tough and tearful week" ahead as she prepares for the former prime minister's funeral.

Ms Thatcher spoke publicly about her mother's death for the first time as she appeared outside the ex-leader's home in London.

With her brother Mark standing behind her, she thanked those who had sent messages which she said had given her strength.

But she admitted that the days ahead and the funeral on Wednesday would be difficult "even for the daughter of the Iron Lady".

Ms Thatcher wore a black shawl and black trousers and clutched a pair of sunglasses as she delivered the statement.

Mark Thatcher, wife Sarah, Carol Thatcher and her boyfriend Marco Grass

She said: "I would just like to say that I feel like anyone else who has just lost a second parent. It's a deeply sad and rather thought-provoking moment in life.

"My mother once said to me: 'Carol, I think my place in history is assured'.

"The magnificent tributes this week, the wonderful words of President Obama, and others of colleagues who once worked alongside her, have proved her right."

She thanked those who had sent messages of "sympathy and support", adding: "These have given me strength.

However, she admitted: "But I know this is going to be a tough and tearful week, even for the daughter of the Iron Lady."

Carol Thatcher with her mother at Wimbledon ladies' singles finals in 2006

Lady Thatcher died at The Ritz last Monday after suffering a stroke. She had been staying at the hotel since January.

Ms Thatcher flew in from Switzerland with her boyfriend ski instructor Marco Grass on Friday night after spending some days grieving privately.

Her brother Mark arrived earlier in the week and spoke of how his mother would have been "humbled" that the Queen would be at her funeral.

Police, ministers and family representatives have been meeting regularly to finalise arrangements for the ceremony.

Operation True Blue, as it has been dubbed, will see a huge security presence amid fears of anti-Thatcher protests.

Lady Thatcher with her husband Denis and their children in 1976

It has emerged that the former politician left very specific instructions for the service, to which more than 2,000 people have been invited.

She chose the hymns - including I Vow To Thee My Country - and selected the Bible readings, according to the Daily Telegraph.

She reportedly also made clear that she wanted the current prime minister to read a lesson from the Gospels. Another lesson will be read by her granddaughter Amanda.

It is officially a ceremonial funeral but the Queen's presence effectively elevates it to a state ceremony.

She has broken with protocol by deciding to attend.

The last former prime minister's funeral the monarch went to was Sir Winston Churchill's in 1965 which was a state event.

Other guests will include Lady Thatcher's old Cabinet foes, former prime ministers, TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson and singer Dame Shirley Bassey.

Some key players - including former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan's wife Nancy - cannot attend.

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Five Dead In Crash Between Lorry And Car

Police have confirmed that five people who died in a head-on crash between a car and a lorry were from the same family.

The victims, who included a baby, were all from the Durham area, according to Humberside Police who are investigating.

Three of the family died at the scene after the smash on the A18 near Grimbsy on Friday lunchtime.

Two were taken to the Diana Princess of Wales Hospital but died later.

They had been on their way to a Butlins in Skegness with friends to take part in a dance competition.

Three ambulances and an air ambulance rushed to the spot in Laceby, which was then closed until late on Friday night.

The driver of the lorry - a light goods vehicle - is thought to have sustained minor injuries.

The accident happened on the A18 near Grimsby

A Humberside Police spokesman said: "Police officers investigating the serious collision which happened on the A18 near Laceby on Friday 12 April 2013 are now able to confirm that all five people who tragically died were from the same family who were from the Durham area.

"The family, which included a baby, are thought to have been driving to Skegness with friends when the collision happened."

Operations Superintendent Tracy Bradley said: "Our deepest thoughts go out to the family and friends of those who were tragically killed in this collision.

"We are working closely with relatives of those who lost their lives and are supporting them through what will be a very difficult time.

"Roads policing officers are working closely with our collision investigation team to piece together the evidence we have gathered in order to try and determine what led to this tragic incident taking place and took the lives of those travelling in the Nissan at the time.

"We have spoken to a number of key witnesses already, however, if anyone saw the incident but has not come forward I would ask them to do so."

The Grimsby stretch of the A18 featured in a BBC television programme, Britain's Most Dangerous Roads, in 2011.

The show, which aired two years ago, claimed the stretch of road was 25 times more dangerous than the average British motorway, with 20 crashes in the previous three years.

It was also found to be the UK's highest-risk stretch of road for car drivers in a nationwide survey conducted by the Road Safety Foundation in 2010.

After the crash, Jason Abrams, a golfer at the nearby Laceby Manor Golf Club, told ITV News: "All we know is that there's been four adults and one baby killed in the accident.

"It's a bendy road but people do go at a great lick along it. It's 60mph at the moment but the council are looking at changing it to 50 and hopefully this will make a difference.

"A car went into an articulated lorry. All we know is what the police have said - that the car tried to overtake something or the car hit a kerb which has sent it spinning out of control and obviously gone head-on into a lorry."

Chris Baron, resort director at Butlin's Skegness, said: "We are all shocked and stunned by this tragedy and our thoughts go out to the extended families of the victims.

"Our team at Skegness is offering support and assistance to the other competitors and their families. We are working closely with the dance competition organisers."

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Plane Plunges Into Water Near Bali Airport

A plane with more than 100 people onboard has overshot a runway on the island of Bali and plunged into the sea.

Despite dramatic pictures showing the Lion Air jet with a broken fuselage, officials said everyone on board had survived.

The brand new Boeing 737-800 came to rest in shallow water and bright yellow life jackets could be seen littering the shore.

Passengers spoke of screaming in terror it hit the water and "chaos" erupting amid fears they would drown before escaping.

"There was no sign at all it would fall but then suddenly it dropped into the water," Tantri Widiastuti, 60, told Metro TV.

Tourists and locals gathered on the shoreline after the crash

Dewi, who suffered head wounds, added: "The aircraft was in landing position when suddenly I saw it getting closer to the sea, and finally it hit the water.

"All of the passengers were screaming in panic in fear they would drown. I left behind my belongings and went to an emergency door. I got out of the plane and swam before rescuers jumped in to help me."

Passengers in life jackets could be seen in the water as police in rubber dinghies rowed out from the shore.

The plane came to rest just yards beyond the airport edge

Lion Air said there were 95 adults, five children and a baby on board - as well as seven crew. They included three foreigners - a Frenchman, a Singaporean woman and a Singaporean man.

Bali police chief Arif Wahyunadi told local TV One that everyone had been evacuated and taken inside Denpasar airport.

He said the jet had flown in from Bandung, the capital of West Java province.

Some 40 people were treated for injuries including broken legs, head wounds and shock, though only four were admitted to hospital, officials said.

Ignatius Juan Sinduk, 45, was treated for breathing difficulties after his chest was injured in the crash.

A passenger being attended to a hospital in Kedongan, near Denpasar

Speaking from his hospital bed, he said: "The plane plunged into the sea at high speed. Everybody screamed and water suddenly surged into the plane.

"Passengers panicked and scrambled for life jackets. Some passengers fell, some ran into others, it was chaos. I managed to grab one (a lifejacket) and slowly swam out of the plane and to the shore."

The twin-engined aircraft was operated by local carrier Lion Air, a budget airline whose operating base is in Bandung.

Company spokesman Edward Sirait said the jet had been delivered to Lion Air in Indonesia on March 18 and had come "straight from the factory".

It started operations a week later and the pilot had been flying for the airline for six years, the firm added.

He refused to comment on the cause of the crash but said: "The plane broke into two pieces," adding that "judging from visual observation, the plane cannot be used any more."

Lion Air - the first private airline in Indonesia was founded in 1999 by multi-millionaire brothers Kusnan and Rusdi Kirana.

Bali is a popular tourist destination in Indonesia

It started operating in 2000 with just one aircraft in its fleet but quickly expanded operations to more than 36 locations across the sprawling archiplego nation.

The airline also flies to foreign locations including Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam and used a fleet Boeing 737 aircraft.

Last month, it signed a $24bn (£18bn) deal with Airbus for 234 passenger jets and two years ago, it signed a contract with Boeing for 230 planes.

However, the rapidly-expanding carrier is reportedly banned from US and European airspace due to safety concerns.

Between 2004 and 2006, Lion Air suffered a series of six accidents which all involved planes overshooting or missing the runway - but no-one died. 

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Ex-Apprentice Winner Loses Sugar Job Case

Former Apprentice winner Stella English has lost her claim of constructive dismissal against millionaire businessman Lord Sugar.

Ms English, 34, sued the Labour peer after resigning from the £100,000-a-year job that was her prize for winning series six of the BBC1 show in 2010.

She had complained her role at Lord Sugar's Viglen division was that of an "overpaid lackey", which her former boss strongly denied.

Ms English also claimed the job was "a sham" and a "PR construct", a tribunal heard last month.

The businessman insisted he had no case to answer and that Ms English was a "chancer" and a "money-grabber" who brought the case with the intention of settling out of court.

"I'm afraid she underestimated me and her reputation is now in tatters," Lord Sugar said.

In a written judgment, tribunal judge John Warren said: "This was a claim which should never have been brought."

Ms English and Lord Sugar pictured after she won The Apprentice

Lord Sugar has now vowed to take on the so-called claim culture as a "personal crusade".

He said: "She picked on the wrong person here and I do hope that, apart from it being a victory for me, that other business people will start to realise they shouldn't succumb to this type of blackmail and they should fight it."

After winning the TV series, Ms English was given a job at Viglen, supplying IT equipment to academy schools.

But she claimed that when the business mogul told her he would not be renewing her contract she was given no choice but to resign.

Ms English, who quit Viglen in May 2011, said she had no real role there and was not taken seriously by her colleagues.

She said she did not feel like Lord Sugar's "apprentice" as she only saw him five times during her 13-month employment.

Ms English had fought back tears in court as she said she was given no guidance about what she was meant to be doing, and was "ostracised" by her colleagues.

She claimed her employment was a "sham" and that she had been relegated to administrative tasks.

Lord Sugar said Ms English tried to 'extract money' from him

Ms English, of Whitstable, Kent, also said she felt pressurised into taking up a new position at Lord Sugar's internet set-top box company YouView, but the tribunal panel said this was unfounded.

In September 2011, Ms English was told that her contract was not being renewed and she then quit.

However, the peer said at the time there was no long-term position available at YouView and that she had already made it clear she did not want to work at Viglen.

Lord Sugar said during the case that Ms English wrongly believed he was "scared" of articles about him or The Apprentice appearing in the press and that he would pay her off to avoid a hearing.

The tribunal judgment said it was made "abundantly clear" to Ms English that she would not be working directly under Lord Sugar.

It said she had the wrong idea about how glamorous, or otherwise, the role would be and that she had stated in her evidence that she believed previous winners of The Apprentice "had accompanied Lord Sugar in his private jet".

Lord Sugar said afterwards: "There was never a case for us to answer but her need for money and fame meant that the whole system was subjected to this charade.

"I have been cleared of a derisory attempt to smear my name and extract money from me.

"The allegations were without substance, and I believe this case was brought with one intention in mind - the presumption that I would not attend the tribunal, that I would not testify and that I would settle out of court, sending Ms English on her way with a tidy settlement."

He added: "This case was a sham and a total abuse of a tribunal system, which is there to protect employees who have been mistreated.

"It is not there to aid those chancing their arm at landing a big payday. I hope that other companies will learn from this example and also fight off derisory claims."

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Thatcher: Policeman Quits Over Tweets

A police officer who reportedly posted a series of offensive messages online following the death of Baroness Thatcher has resigned from the Met.

Sergeant Jeremy Scott, who worked in a back-office role for the Metropolitan Police, is understood to have written on Twitter that he hoped Lady Thatcher's death was "painful and degrading".

Scotland Yard confirmed Sergeant Scott had submitted his resignation and it was accepted with immediate effect.

Commander Allan Gibson added: "This officer's behaviour was completely unacceptable and it is right that he has resigned."

Under the Twitter handle @thinbluespeck, which has since been taken down, Sgt Scott said Baroness Thatcher's death was "87 years too late" and added that the world was a "better place".

He had also greeted "death parties" held after she died with the tweet: "Marvellous stuff! Margaret Thatcher's death greeted with street parties in Brixton and Glasgow."

Before resigning on Friday, Sgt Scott reported the matter to the Directorate of Professional Standards, which is responsible for investigating complaints against officers' professional conduct.

An example of one of the police officer's anti-Thatcher tweets

According to Sky News' Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt the 52-year-old officer was about to be suspended but quit his post instead. By doing so, he will keep his police pension.

His resignation comes after figures from Scotland Yard revealed that three police officers have been sacked for misusing social media over the past five years.

Allegations linked to the use of sites including Facebook and Twitter have been recorded against 75 Metropolitan Police officers since 2009, with 38 of the claims substantiated.

Prime Minister David Cameron has already branded some reaction to the death of Baroness Thatcher as "pretty distasteful".

As well as "death parties", an online anti-Thatcher campaign has driven sales of the Wizard of Oz song Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead to number four in the official chart.

Asked if he was disappointed about animosity towards the former prime minister, Mr Cameron said: "I think the overwhelming sense across the country ... is that we are mourning the loss of someone who gave a huge amount to this country, that was an extraordinary leader."

Meanwhile, a council leader has joked that his authority should fly a flag bearing "a happy smiling face" to mark Baroness Thatcher's funeral.

The comment in an internal email to Labour colleagues was made by Coventry City Council's leader, John Mutton, as they debated whether to lower the Union Flag to half-mast on Wednesday.

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'We Stand With Allies': US Warns North Korea

US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned North Korea it would defend its allies after holding talks in the South Korean capital Seoul.

Speaking at a joint news conference with South Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Yun Byung Se, Mr Kerry said the US would never accept North Korea as a nuclear power and described rhetoric from Pyongyang as "unacceptable".

He added that a missile test would be another "unwanted contribution to an already volatile situation" and a "huge mistake".

He said: "It would indicate who was being provactive with an exclamation point again.

"We will defend our allies. We will stand with South Korea, Japan and others. We will defend ourselves.

"Kim Jong Un needs to understand, as I think he probably does, what the outcome of a conflict would be."

A US agency believes that Kim Jong Un does have nuclear weapons

Intelligence reports from the Japanese, South Koreans and Americans have indicated that a North Korean missile test could take place at any time, though there has been silence from the leadership in Pyongyang.

The focus in the North Korean capital has been on a weekend of celebrations to mark a year in office for Kim Jong Un, which fell yesterday, and the anniversary of Mr Kim's grandfather, Kim Il Song, the founder of the nation.

The level of rhetoric to emerge from North Korea is unprecedented.

Over several weeks, the regime has declared itself to be in a "state of war" with the South, announced that a mothballed nuclear site is to be reopened and threatened to carry out nuclear attacks against the US.

Mr Kerry arrived in the region as confusion surfaced in Washington over the true status of North Korea's nuclear capability.

North Korea is celebrating a year in office for Kim Jong Un

The broad consensus is that while Kim Jong Un does possess nuclear devices and has crossed the "nuclear threshold", he does not have the capability to launch a nuclear missile.

However, at a congressional hearing on Thursday night, it emerged that one US government agency believes that Kim Jong Un does have nuclear weapons which could be placed inside a ballistic missile and fired.

Republican US Representative Doug Lamborn, quoting from a March 2013 DIA report which was inadvertently labelled "unclassified", said: "(The) Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) assesses with moderate confidence the North currently has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles, however the reliability will be low."

The Pentagon was quick to issue a written clarification on the matter.

Spokesman George Little said: "In today's House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Department of Defence budget, a member of the committee read an unclassified passage in a classified report on North Korea's nuclear capabilities.

Flower displays for the anniversary of Kim Il Sung's death feature missiles

"While I cannot speak to all the details of a report that is classified in its entirety, it would be inaccurate to suggest that the North Korean regime has fully tested, developed, or demonstrated the kinds of nuclear capabilities referenced in the passage."

Washington added it was concerned about unexpected developments linked to the inexperience of 30-year-old Kim Jong Un.

One official said: "Kim Jong Un's youth and inexperience make him very vulnerable to miscalculation. Our greatest concern is a miscalculation and where that may lead.

"We have seen no indications of massive troop movements, or troops massing on the border, or massive exercises or anything like that that would back up any of the rhetoric that is going on."

North Korea has said that it does possess advanced nuclear devices.

President Barack Obama, speaking after White House talks with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, said "nobody wants to see a conflict".

He added: "We both agree that now is the time for North Korea to end the kind of belligerent approach that they've been taking.

"It's important for North Korea, like every other country in the world, to observe basic rules and norms."

This whole crisis stems from Pyongyang's desire to pursue a nuclear programme which it says it needs to defend itself from "American aggression".

By manufacturing this crisis, Kim Jong Un is likely to be demonstrating strength domestically and thus bolstering his legitimacy.

Internationally, he is determined that his country is taken seriously as a nuclear power.

He would want an acceptance from the Americans that he is part of the 'nuclear club' as a pretext to any negotiations to end this crisis.

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Clive Mantle Ear Bite Accused In Court

A man accused of biting off part of former Casualty actor Clive Mantle's ear has appeared in court.

Philip McGilvray, 32, appeared at Newcastle Magistrates' Court charged with wounding with intent.

Mantle was appearing in The Ladykillers in Newcastle

He is accused of attacking Mantle, who has also appeared in the hit US TV show Game Of Thrones, at a Travelodge on Newcastle's Quayside on Sunday, March 24.

The 55-year-old actor had been appearing in a touring production of The Ladykillers in the city and it was believed an incident occurred after he asked other guests to keep the noise down.

McGilvray, who is from Hamilton in Scotland, did not enter a plea and the case was sent to Newcastle Crown Court for a hearing on April 26.

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Driver's Unfinished Text Is Warning To Others

The parents of a driver killed after crashing while texting say they want his final unfinished message to be a warning to others.

Alexander Heit's family have released a photograph of the text which is cut off mid-sentence.

"Sounds good my man, seeya soon, ill tw ... ," it read.

Before he could send it, the 22-year-old University of Northern Colorado student drifted into oncoming traffic, jerked the steering wheel and rolled his car.

He died shortly after the crash on April 3, but his parents and police are hoping the photo of the mundane text on his iPhone will serve as a stark reminder to drivers.

His mother does not want anyone else to lose someone to texting while driving.

"In a split second you could ruin your future, injure or kill others, and tear a hole in the heart of everyone who loves you," Sharon Heit said in a statement.

Witnesses told police the young man appeared to have his head down when he began drifting into the oncoming lane in the outskirts of Greeley.

Police said he had a spotless record and was not speeding at the time of the crash.

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North Korea's Missiles 'In Upright Position'

Visiting Secretive North Korea

Updated: 11:52am UK, Wednesday 10 April 2013

Despite the current tensions on the Korean Peninsula, tourists have been able to travel to North Korea.

A Sky News employee has just returned from a four-day trip. Journalists are strictly banned from the county without visas, which are rarely issued, so we are not revealing her name, but here is her story:

I flew from Beijing to Pyongyang. On the flight with me were lots of North Koreans with plenty of excess baggage: TVs, vegetables and meat.

Nothing felt abnormal. There was no feeling of tension.

Only when I arrived at the Demilitarised Zone were we prevented access to some of the buildings because of the current situation.

Throughout the four-day trip, which was organised by a Chinese travel company, we were assigned two North Korean minders.

One of them was more senior than the other. She watched us and watched her colleague too.

They did not want the war but were also determined to fight if the country decided to start a war. They emphasised to us that they believed in the country from their hearts.

We were not allowed to move freely. We could only do tourist things according to the guidance of the tour "guards".

We were not allowed to take photographs in the car or anywhere without the minder's permission. We were told not to photograph anything that looked bad or makes North Korea look bad.

"Don't bring bad impressions out of Pyongyang," they said.

People were very friendly. There was little traffic, so people would stare at our bus wherever we drove.

People there are very aware of the potential war.

Every time we arrived at the places of interest, the tour guides would always ask us in Korean (the minders would translate into Chinese) about the latest situation and our opinions about the situation, particularly our opinions about the US, as they all believe the tensions are the fault of America.

When we asked the minders what would happen if the war breaks out tomorrow, they said: "If the war breaks tomorrow, until midnight tonight, we are still building the socialist constructions."

We also asked them whether they know where Kim Jong-Un lives and works, as we explained to them that in Beijing, all the top leaders work and live in a place called Zhongnanhai. They all said they had no idea.

The two minders liked to sing. One of the songs they sang was apparently written by a South Korean musician to express his admiration toward Kim Jong-Il.

On one of the days we went to Myohyang San, a North Korean mountain. The six of us on the tour were locked in the restaurant because the North Koreans were so afraid that we would wander around.

There is a museum near the mountain, where gifts from foreign countries are displayed. A lot of them came from Japan.

We asked them how could they receive so many gifts from Japan given that North Korea considers the Japanese as enemies. They told us that the Japanese really admire the leaders, so they gave us many gifts.

We stayed in the Yanggakdo International Hotel, where we could watch international TV channels including the BBC, NHK, (Japanese TV), Phoenix (Hong Kong TV) and CCTV (Chinese TV).

The minders live on a specific floor where they only have three North Korean channels to watch. They never ate with us and when we asked what they had eaten, they always refused to tell us.

We were not allowed to use the local currency, and they never showed us their money. We could use Chinese RMB, US dollars or euros.

There were not many opportunities to see any ordinary North Korean people apart from the shopkeepers, tour guides or waitresses in the hotel.

There is a casino on the underground floor of the Yanggakdo International Hotel, where most of the staff members come from Liaoning Province over the northern border in China, and North Koreans are not allowed to enter.

The casino is managed by people from Macau. The staff there told us it was empty because the tensions mean far fewer people are travelling to North Korea.

Staff at the casino are all Chinese. When we asked to go to the casino, one of the minders said to us: "You must be non-communists, because communist members don't go to casinos."

Wherever we go to visit, they always asked us if we think their places or things are pretty. They only wanted to show us the good side of the country.

As soon as we travelled outside the capital city, it felt very like the real North Korea: rural, no tall buildings, only farmland.

We never felt the tension of war on our trip. On the streets, on our tour, in the hotel and even at a school we visited, the students were studying as normal.

The people we spoke to asked us if it was true that living in Beijing is hard. They think living in North Korea is the happiest thing in the world.

It feels as though those North Koreans who have travelled outside the country have never mentioned what the outside world really looks like.

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Margaret Thatcher: 2,000 Invited To Funeral

More than 2,000 people have been invited to Baroness Thatcher's funeral, although some key players have already said they cannot attend.

Details of who is on the list for what will be one of the biggest funerals in Britain in decades have been released by Downing Street.

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh will head a congregation of former leaders, current politicians and a string of celebrities at the ceremony next Wednesday.

But former Labour leader Lord Kinnock, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan's wife Nancy all cannot attend.

David Cameron, talking to Sky's political editor Adam Boulton, insisted it was right to have such a lavish service and defended its multi-million pound cost.

Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock is at another funeral in Wales

"I think people would find us a pretty extraordinary country if we didn't commemorate with dignity, with seriousness but also with some fanfare ... the passing of this extraordinary woman," he said.

Family, friends, colleagues and aides of the politician during her time in power have all been invited to the ceremonial funeral, where she will also be given full military honours.

All surviving former prime ministers and former US presidents, along with Hillary Clinton, are also on the list.

Tony and Cherie Blair, and Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah, have already confirmed they will attend.

Any members of Lady Thatcher's Cabinet who are still alive are invited, along with the current Cabinet and Labour leader Ed Miliband.

Mikhail Gorbachev, here with Lady Thatcher in 1987, can't make the service

Invites are also being sent to former press secretary Sir Bernard Ingham, European Commission President Manuel Barroso, author Frederick Forsyth and a representative of Nelson Mandela.

No10 said Michael Portillo, singer Shirley Bassey, TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jeffrey Archer are among the guests already confirmed.

FW de Klerk, the last president of apartheid South Africa, will also be there as a guest of the Thatcher family.

Lord Kinnock cannot go because he is at another funeral in Wales. Mr Gorbachev and Mrs Reagan are both not fit enough to travel.

Mrs Reagan's spokesman said: "Mrs Reagan is heartbroken over Baroness Thatcher's death and would really like to be there in person to pay her respects.

Lady Thatcher's ashes will be buried at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea

"Unfortunately, she is no longer able to make that kind of a trip, so will not be attending the funeral."

Argentinian president Cristina Kirchner is unsurprisingly not invited but, in keeping with diplomatic protocol, the Argentinian Ambassador to the UK has been.

The service, which starts at 11am, will involve more than 700 members of the armed forces in recognition of Lady Thatcher's success in the Falklands.

She is not being given a state funeral but the Queen's presence effectively elevates the event to that level.

Preparations for the ceremony and huge security operation have been dubbed Operation True Blue and ministers and organisers are meeting daily to finalise the arrangements.

It has also emerged that Lady Thatcher's ashes will be buried next to her husband Denis' in the cemetery of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea.

The former prime minister was a long-term supporter of the hospital, where the Chelsea Pensioners live, and an infirmary on the site is named after her.

Meanwhile, claims have emerged that Speaker John Bercow and Mr Cameron's own chief whip Sir George Young were against recalling Parliament from the Easter break.

A further row appears to be brewing over arrangements for the funeral, with Mr Cameron pushing for PMQs to be cancelled and the Commons to sit later. 

Mr Bercow is said to have insisted the Government tables a motion to change the timetable, which will now be put to the vote when Parliament returns on Monday.

The Prime Minister led the tributes in the Commons on Wednesday, calling Lady Thatcher an "extraordinary leader and an extraordinary woman".

Choking up with emotion, he said: "She made the political weather, she made history, and - let this be her epitaph - she made our country great again."

Labour leader Ed Miliband hailed her as a "unique and towering figure" who had "defined the politics of a generation", while making clear his opposition to some of her work.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg appeared the most uncomfortable of the three men as he insisted it was possible to reject the tenets of Thatcherism and still respect her achievements.

The Labour benches were sparsely populated for the session, despite the party urging members to attend as a mark of respect, and there were some bitter contributions.

Former minister Michael Meacher said her "scorched earth" tactics had "polarised" the nation, while veteran David Winnick referred to the "immense pain and suffering" she caused to ordinary people.

Labour backbencher Glenda Jackson sparked howls of protest from Conservatives as she launched a full frontal assault on the "heinous" Thatcher record.

"The first Prime Minister of female gender, OK. But a woman? Not on my terms," she said.

In the Lords, speakers included Lord Tebbit who expressed sadness that he had not been able to stop her being ejected from Downing Street in 1990.

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Prolific Shoplifter Jailed For 342nd Offence

By Nick Martin, News Correspondent

A man who is thought to be Britain's prolific shoplifter has been jailed for 18 months after racking up his 342nd criminal offence.

David Archer, 58, of Mostyn, Flintshire, was sentenced for four shoplifting offences, including the theft of a charity collection box.

He also admitted two breaches of an indefinite ASBO (anti-social behaviour order) imposed in 2006 which, among other things, banned him from entering any charity shop in England and Wales and from possessing a charity box.

It comes just a month after he was released from prison on remand for similar thefts.

Prosecutor Julie Jones said he was seen on CCTV burning a piece of string which secured the charity box in aid of carers which was on the counter at the Llandudno Junction store.

Defending, Roger Thomas told Prestatyn magistrates one of the problems facing Archer in the past was that whenever he was released from prison he was given only £40, which he had to spend on essentials, he had nowhere to live and was not entitled to emergency benefits.

"He is known in every shop in North Wales and there was no subterfuge involved," he said.

"He is institutionalised and struggles to cope with life."

At the Bayview shopping centre in Colwyn Bay staff knew Archer well.

Security guard Michael Davies spent the last 12 years trying to prevent Archer from stealing.

"If we ever heard the name David Archer we tended to get quite excited. Ironically David Archer is a legend within himself," he told Sky News.

Mr Davies said Archer had begun to target charity shops more and more over the years.

"He'd lean over the counters and literally feel the weight of the charity box and then if he was happy with the weight he would cut it," he said.

"He had ways and means of cutting the chain or the string and he'd then conceal the box inside and leave the premises."

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Margaret Thatcher's Son: Family Overwhelmed

Baroness Thatcher would be "humbled" that the Queen is attending her funeral, her son has declared as he spoke of her death for the first time.

Sir Mark Thatcher gave a statement on the steps of the former prime minister's home in London after flying in to help arrange next week's ceremony.

He said his mother had been blessed with "a long life, and a very full one" but that her death was "without doubt a very sad moment".

He also expressed gratitude for the messages the family had received "from far and wide", which he said would be a source of strength in the days ahead.

Margaret Thatcher died on Monday

Sir Mark is the first member of the family to speak publicly about Lady Thatcher since she died on Monday at the Ritz in central London.

His statement came moments before a special Parliamentary session allowing MPs and peers to pay tribute began.

In it, Prime Minister David Cameron paid tribute to Lady Thatcher, describing her as an "extraordinary woman".

He said: "She made the political weather, she made history and - let this be her epitaph - she made our country great again."

Lord Tebbit, one of Lady Thatcher's key allies in Cabinet, paid an emotional tribute for the support he received after he and his wife were injured by an IRA bomb in Brighton in 1984.

He said: "She was brought down in the end not by the electorate, but by her colleagues."

More details were released about her ceremonial funeral, which will be held next Wednesday at St Paul's Cathedral.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are breaking with protocol by attending the service, which is not an official state ceremony.

Sir Mark said: "I would like to say how enormously proud and deeply grateful we are that Her Majesty has agreed to attend the service next week at St Paul's and I know my mother would be greatly honoured as well as humbled by her presence.

"By any measure, my mother was blessed with a long life and a very full one. However, the inevitability or the inevitable conclusion may appear of the recent illness that she suffered, it is no easier for us to bear in what is without doubt a very sad moment.

Tony and Cherie Blair will be at the funeral next week

"We have quite simply been overwhelmed by messages of support and condolence of every type, from far and wide, and I know that my mother would be pleased they have come from people of all walks of life."

He said many of the messages contained personal stories related to "the journey of my mother's life".

"We are all enormously grateful for the warmth that these messages convey and they will be a source of encouragement and strength as we face the inevitable days ahead," he said.

Britain's longest-serving prime minister and the only woman ever to hold the role is being given a ceremonial funeral, one below a state occasion.

More than 700 members of the armed forces from all three services, including those with links to the Falklands war, will take part.

A public holiday has been declared on the Falkland Islands next Wednesday to allow people to watch Lady Thatcher's funeral and to attend a memorial service in Stanley.

Members of the Honourable Artillery Company will fire procession minute guns from Tower Wharf at the Tower of London.

Representatives of all three services will also line the funeral route, while three military bands play - their drums draped in black as a mark of respect.

A huge security operation costing millions is expected in central London during the ceremony amid fears of protests and disruption.

Lady Thatcher's estate will contribute but the rest of the money will be provided from the public purse.

Downing Street is refusing to give details of its total cost ahead of the service and ministers have defended the expense.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "The rebate she negotiated for this country from the EU has brought us so far £75bn - which is twice the size of our annual defence budget.

"I think that puts money in perspective ... so I think we can afford to contribute to a funeral."

Plans for the ceremony have been dubbed Operation True Blue and Lady Thatcher is to be given full military honours.

Units linked to the Falklands war will play key roles at the ceremony

Tony Blair and his wife Cherie as well as Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah will be at the ceremony, which will be one of the largest public funerals of recent decades.

Lady Thatcher's coffin will be transferred to the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster on Tuesday ahead of the ceremony.

There will be a short service following its arrival before the coffin rests in the chapel overnight.

The streets will then be cleared for a procession taking the former leader's body from parliament to Church of St Clement Danes, the RAF Chapel on the Strand.

At the church, it will be transferred to a gun carriage drawn by the King's Troop Royal Artillery.

The streets will be cleared for the procession on to St Paul's and members of all three services will line the route, as well as bands from each.

The Gun Carriage will be drawn by six horses, three of which are mounted, with a sergeant riding alongside, an officer riding in front and three dismounted troops on foot.

A Bearer Party made up of all three services will walk alongside the coffin, and will include those from ships, units and stations notable for their service during the Falklands campaign.

Outside St Paul's there will be a Guard of Honour of 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, as well as the Welsh Guards Band.

For the coffin's arrival, there will also be a Step Lining party made up of 18 personnel from all three services.

These will include six Navy, six members of the Blues and Royals, Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, and six RAF, plus Chelsea Pensioners of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Ten members of staff from the Ritz, where Lady Thatcher had been staying since Christmas, have also been invited in recognition of the care she received at the hotel.

The public will not be able to attend the funeral service itself but will be able to line the route of the procession.

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Horsemeat Scare: 50,000 Tons Of 'Beef' Recall

Dutch authorities have recalled 50,000 tons of meat which has been sold as beef across Europe because it may contain horsemeat.

Around 370 different companies in Europe and a further 130 in the Netherlands are affected by the recall because they bought meat from two Dutch trading wholesalers.

Firms have been told to "take it off the market as a precautionary measure" and "verify all products".

The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) has taken the decision to recall the meat because its exact source cannot be established.

As a result, "its safety cannot be guaranteed", it said, ordering the immediate withdrawal of the beef from sale on Wednesday.

The horsemeat scandal has spread across Europe

The statement said there was no immediate suggestion of any danger to human health.

"The buyers have probably already processed the meat and sold it on," it said.

"They, in turn, are obliged to inform their own customers."

The Authority does not know where the meat has ended up, but it may have been used in frozen products.

The Dutch wholesalers involved are Wiljo Import en Export B.V. and Vleesgroothandel Willy Selten B.V.

Officials began a large-scale investigation into the country's meat industry in February following revelations across Europe that horsemeat was being sold as beef.

Inspectors examining Willy Selten's records found that the origin of the meat it supplied was unclear.

This makes it impossible for them to confirm whether slaughterhouses have been acting according to procedure.

"It might contain traces of horsemeat, but we don't know for certain at the moment if this is the case," a spokeswoman for the NVWA said.

Tests have been carried on products for contamination

The Authority has warned its foreign counterparts about the recall via a European rapid alert system.

Sky's Europe Correspondent Robert Nisbet said: "One of these factories that processes meat was raided on February 15.

"Prosecutors at the time said they believed that the management inside was shredding up horsemeat then adding it to beef and selling it on as 100% beef.

"What they (authorities) are saying is that they don't believe that there is horsemeat in all of this 50,000 tons - but they cannot be sure - therefore they want to take it off the shelves and subject it to more tests.

"If you remember the previous horsemeat scandal that was detected from Findus products that was made from Comigel in Luxembourg that was traced back to horsemeat from two Romanian abattoirs. That horsemeat was then sent to another processor in the Netherlands.

"So this would suggest that the Netherlands is an area that people are looking at very closely now in terms of oversight in this massively sprawling industry that runs across Europe.

"Could it be there that many of the problems have originated since this horsemeat scandal blew-up back in January?"

The Europe-wide horsemeat scandal has seen many products pulled from supermarket shelves - damaging confidence in the continent's vast and complex food industry.

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Prestatyn Fire: 'Accused Made Threats To Kill'

By Nick Martin, Sky News Correspondent

The woman accused of starting a fire that killed two adults and three small children had made death threats, a court has heard.

Melanie Smith, 42, denies five counts of murder following the fatal house fire in Prestatyn, north Wales, on October 19, last year.

On the first day of the trial at Mold Crown Court, the jury heard how Smith, who lived in the flat below the victims, had "demonstrated anger and hostility" towards her neighbour Lee-Anna Shiers, 20. 

Five died in the fire on October 19, 2012

Jurors were told she had threatened to set the house on fire following a series of rows with Ms Shiers.  

The court also heard that Smith had accused Ms Shiers of having an affair with her partner.

Prosecuting Stephen Murphy QC said: "The prosecution says that the fire was deliberately started by the defendant who had been drinking heavily on that day and who, over a period of about two months leading up to the 19th October, had demonstrated anger and hostility towards Lee-Anna and also jealousy.

"It is the prosecution's case that on a number of occasions... the defendant made threats to or about Lee-Anna that she would "set your house on fire with you and your kids inside."

Ms Shiers, her four-year-old nephew Bailey and two-year-old niece Skye died in the blaze at their home.

Firefighters managed to rescue Ms Shiers' 15-month-old son Charlie and his father, Liam Trimble, 23, from their first-floor flat, but they both died later in hospital.

A recording was played to the court of Mr Trimble's desperate call to the emergency services. 

Firefighters were unable to save the family

He was heard shouting: "Help, help. Someone has put it on purpose, we're inside the flat... Oh my god, oh my god, we're gonna die."

The prosecution said Ms Shiers, trapped in an upstairs bedroom with the children, called her father, saying: "Dad, there's a fire downstairs, I can't get out."

Some jurors wiped away tears as the tapes were played and some members of the public gallery wept. 

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Level Crossing Death: Network Rail Fined £450k

Network Rail has been fined £450,000 after a woman died when the car she was in was hit by a train at a level crossing.

The firm and one of its signalmen Adrian Maund were found guilty of breaching health and safety laws following the death in the village of Moreton-on-Lugg, Herefordshire.

Maund was fined £1,750 and ordered to do 275 hours of community service.

He was convicted in February of failing to take reasonable care for the safety of those using the level crossing.

Jurors also convicted Network Rail of failing to ensure the safety of non-employees at the crossing.

The victim Jane Harding, 52, died when the car she was a passenger in was hit by a train in January 2010.

Mrs Harding's husband Mark, who was driving the car, suffered serious injuries in the collision which happened when the crossing's barriers were raised by mistake.

Network Rail decided not to install a safety device which would have detected the oncoming train and kept the barriers down, the trial heard.

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'Mild-Mannered' Family Dog Killed Baby Boy

A mother whose eight-day-old son died after being bitten by the family dog has told an inquest of her shock at the attack, saying the Jack Russell was "mild-mannered".

Mikayla Bell, 19, said the seven-year-old dog called PJ had never been aggressive towards children, adults or other dogs.

Miss Bell, whose son was in his cot when he was bitten, said she didn't "blame anyone" for what had happened but that it "was a really tragic accident".

She said that she had been upstairs at the family home in Ketley, Shropshire, while her mother had been caring for her son, Harry Harper, downstairs.

The sales assistant said she had been woken by an alarm at 6.30am on November 20 but shortly afterwards heard her mother, Teresa, screaming and shouting.

In a statement to Telford Coroner's Court, Miss Bell said: "I immediately ran downstairs and saw mum holding Harry over the sink.

"Mum was repeatedly saying 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry' and I heard mum say 'He's been bitten'. I think at some point mum said it was PJ that had bitten him."

Harry was pronounced dead in hospital around 90 minutes later.

Miss Bell said: "I feel angry about what happened but I don't blame anyone. I am shocked to know it was PJ because he wasn't vicious at all."

Her mother said in her statement: "I know it was a tragic accident but I will always wonder if I could have done something differently that morning."

The tragedy happend at the family home in Ketley, Shropshire

The inquest was told that the dog had not followed Miss Bell's mother into the kitchen but remained in the sitting room where he attacked the baby, who was sleeping in a cot.

Detective Inspector Phil Shakesheff told the inquest that the family had an "unblemished history" of caring for dogs over a period of many years and that neither PJ nor the family's German Shepherd had previously displayed signs of dangerous behaviour.

He said: "There is no evidence to suggest that the death of Harry is anything other than a tragic incident that can't be ruled out from occurring in any other dog-owning household where children are present."

The inquest heard dogs had killed six children and two adults around the country since 2007.

Telford's Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Barkley, recorded a verdict of accidental death.

He praised the family for their dignity and said: "One can only hope that if anything positive can come out of what has been a deeply distressing case, it's that the public recognise the dangers associated with babies and small children being around dogs."

After the hearing, the family released a statement saying: "As a family, we remain absolutely devastated by Harry's death.

"Although he was only with us for eight days, he had brought enormous happiness to us all and his loss is a tragedy that we will carry with us forever.

"We will treasure every single moment we enjoyed of him and we will never forget the joy he gave us when he arrived."

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Margaret Thatcher: Funeral Next Wednesday

Baroness Thatcher's funeral will be held at St Paul's Cathedral next Wednesday and attended by the Queen, it has been announced.

Britain's longest serving prime minister and the only woman so far to hold the role will be given a ceremonial funeral with full military honours.

It is the same status as that accorded to the Queen Mother and Diana, Princess of Wales, although some Tories want a full state ceremony.

The funeral will be the first ceremonial funeral for a former prime minister the Queen has ever attended. She attended Sir Winston Churchill's state ceremony in 1965.

The Queen will attend Lady Thatcher's funeral next Wednesday

She will be accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, and other heads of state and foreign dignitaries from around the world are expected to attend.

Lady Thatcher died at The Ritz in central London on Monday morning after suffering a stroke. She had battled ill health for a number of years.

Downing Street said the date of her funeral was agreed at a meeting attended by her family and officials from Buckingham Palace.

The day before the ceremony, Lady Thatcher's coffin will be transferred to the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster.

Newspaper front pages were dominated by the former PM's death

There will be a short service following its arrival before the coffin rests in the chapel overnight.

The streets will then be cleared for a procession taking the former leader's body from parliament to Church of St Clement Danes, the RAF Chapel on the Strand.

At the church, it will be transferred to a gun carriage drawn by the King's Troop Royal Artillery. The streets will be cleared for the procession on to St Paul's.

There the coffin will be met by a guard of honour as members of the armed services and pensioners of the Royal Hospital Chelsea line the steps.

A private ambulance taking Lady Thatcher's body from the Ritz

The public will not be able to attend the funeral service itself but will be able to line the route of the procession.

Parliament is expected to be suspended for the event, which means the first Prime Minister's Questions since the Easter break could be cancelled.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, who is in charge of some of the funeral arrangements, said: "There's already a huge amount of interest.

"There's a guest list and people will be invited over the coming days. It will be a big event. I think there's a huge amount of people - not just in Britain, but around the world - who will want to pay their respects to her."

A flag flying at half-mast over the Houses of Parliament

Some Tory MPs have expressed disappointment that the 87-year-old has not been granted a state funeral, as wartime leader Churchill was.

Peter Bone, MP for Wellingborough, said she should have "the highest kind of funeral that can be allowed".

"I would have thought a state funeral would be very appropriate. She was the first female prime minister. She was also the greatest peacetime prime minister we ever had," he told the Daily Mail.

However, her friends have indicated she did not want such treatment. She did not want to lie in state and thought a fly-past would be a waste of money.

The former PM sitting for a 70th birthday photograph

For a state funeral to be granted to a non-royal, a parliamentary vote would have to be passed to permit the release of public funds.

Parliament is being recalled on Wednesday to allow MPs to voice their tributes, although the decision has angered some MPs.

Labour's John Mann questioned why taxpayers' money was being spent on bringing back MPs when tributes could have been paid next week, when parliament was due to resume.

"It is perfectly valid that, when a prime minister dies, MPs can pay tribute, but this could be perfectly properly done on Monday," the MP said.

Mrs Thatcher in a tank on a British base in Germany in 1986

He added that he would not be attending the session tomorrow, saying: "I will be at the dentist's."

Prime Minister David Cameron, who has already hailed Lady Thatcher as "a great Briton", is expected to give a statement to the Commons, followed by Labour leader Ed Miliband.

Mr Miliband said on Monday that while he "disagreed with much of what she did", he respected "her extraordinary achievements and her extraordinary personal strength".

The former Tory leader was hailed across the world as a towering politician, although there was also jubilation at her death from critics angry at some of her most controversial actions in office.

Flowers outside her home in Belgravia, London

While some mourners laid flowers in tribute outside her home in Belgravia, London, others took to the streets to celebrate her demise.

Some 200 revellers took to the streets in Bristol, where six police officers were injured in a scuffle as bottles and cans were thrown.

There were similar scenes in south London, where more than 100 people gathered in Brixton - the scene of fierce riots in 1981, two years into Lady Thatcher's first term in office.

A crowd of 300 also gathered in Glasgow's George Square, where in 1989 protests at the introduction of the infamous poll tax took place.

Crowds celebrating the death of the former Tory PM in Brixton

Many on the Left have condemned the social impacts of Lady Thatcher's policies encouraging the free market and stripping power from unions during her 11 years in power.

Her death was also welcomed by veterans of the Falklands conflict in Argentina, who blamed her for the deaths of the 649 troops who died during the 74-day war.

But the news was received with "great sadness" by islanders on the Falklands, who flew the union flags at half mast and hailed her intervention 31 years ago.

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Sir James Crosby: Ex-HBOS Chief Forgoes Title

Former HBOS chief executive Sir James Crosby will ask for his knighthood to be removed and give up 30% of his pension after last week's damning report into the bank's collapse.

The 57-year-old said he was "deeply sorry" for what happened at HBOS and the "ensuing consequences" for the bailed-out bank's staff, shareholders and taxpayers.

He had stepped down from his job with private equity firm Bridgepoint on Friday.

The bank's former boss was given a knighthood after leaving HBOS in 2006, but said he believed "it is right that I should now ask the appropriate authorities to take the necessary steps for its removal".

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Youth Crime Commissioner: Paris Brown Quits

Britain's first youth crime commissioner has withdrawn from the role after it emerged she posted a string of offensive comments on Twitter.

Paris Brown, 17, was forced to apologise after appearing to use homophobic, racist and violent language in tweets posted before she took the job.

After police revealed they were investigating whether she had committed any offence, she announced she was not taking the one-year post.

"I have made the decision to decline the offer of the position of Kent Youth Police and Crime Commissioner," she said.

"I have made this decision after a great deal of thought and consultation with my family.

"As I made clear over the weekend, I accept that I have made comments on social networking sites which have offended many people. I am really sorry for any offence caused.

Miss Brown made a tearful statement amid a media storm over her comments

"I strongly reiterate that I am not racist or homophobic. I have fallen into the trap of behaving with bravado on social networking sites. I hope this may stand as a learning experience for many other young people."

She added that she felt the "recent media furore" would continue to hamper her ability to perform the job to the level required.

Kent Police and Crime Commissioner Ann Barnes said: "It is a very, very sad day."

She said Miss Brown was "an extraordinary young person with exceptional skills and a proven track record with working with young people" who has "turned down the position of a lifetime".

"I was not recruiting an angel," she said. "I was not recruiting a police officer. I was recruiting a young person, warts and all. It is personally sad for Paris and her family.

"An enthusiastic young woman with exceptional skills and a proven track record in working with young people has ended up in a position where she has turned down the job of a lifetime for her."

One of Miss Brown's controversial tweets said she was pleased her brother had thumped someone.

In another, she wrote: "Im (sic) either really fun, friendly and inclusive when Im drunk or Im an anti social, racist, sexist, embarrassing a*******. often its the latter."

Other posts seemed to refer to immigrants as "illegals" and gay people as "fags", while others appeared to endorse binge drinking.

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Margaret Thatcher Dies: Tributes Pour In

How Thatcher Changed History

Updated: 3:51pm UK, Monday 08 April 2013

By Adam Boulton, Political Editor

Margaret Thatcher was Britain's first, and so far only, female Prime Minister. She was a transformative leader who reversed conventional wisdom that Great Britain's national decline was inevitable.

She will be remembered for curbing the trade unions, privatising state-owned industries, leading Britain to victory in the Falklands War, and as US President Ronald Reagan's staunch ally in confronting the Soviet Empire.

Mrs Thatcher is now ranked alongside Sir Winston Churchill (her hero) and Clement Attlee as one of Britain's most important 20th century prime ministers, but the "Iron Lady", as she was nicknamed, was a deeply divisive figure, openly hated by many, especially those from industrial heartlands, which she sent to the wall.

She ended her 11-year premiership quite literally in tears, thrown out not by the voters but by the very Conservative MPs she had led to three successive general election victories.

Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on October 13, 1925, the daughter of a grocer and alderman from Grantham in Lincolnshire. She idolised her father but seldom even mentioned her mother.

A clever and ambitious grammar school girl, she won a place at Oxford University to study chemistry, going on to work in industry as a research chemist - working in the team that invented Mr Whippy ice cream.

She had determined political ambitions as well, fighting Dartford for the Conservatives unsuccessfully in the 1950 and 1951 general elections.

Her consolation was to meet and marry Denis Thatcher, a prosperous businessman and Tory activist.

With typical efficiency, Mrs Thatcher gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, Mark and Carol. She did not enter parliament until 1959 as the member for Finchley, a North London constituency she held for 23 years until her retirement.

In 1967 Tory leader Edward Heath invited her to join his shadow cabinet and made her education secretary following his unexpected triumph over Harold Wilson in the 1970 general election.

The rising star told a television interviewer that she did not expect to see a woman prime minister in her lifetime but she attracted less favourable publicity when she cancelled free school milk, becoming known as Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher.

Ted Heath lost the two elections in 1974 and was forced out as leader after a protracted period of party infighting.

Margaret Thatcher only stood against him after her mentor Sir Keith Joseph declined to run. An outsider in many ways, she was nonetheless elected Conservative Party Leader in 1975.

Prime Minister Callaghan took over from Wilson, but Labour's left-right tensions spilt over into protracted industrial unrest.

Mrs Thatcher stormed into Downing Street on May 4, 1979, following a Conservative election campaign which focused on the economic paralysis of the nation during the so-called Winter of Discontent.

On the steps of Number 10 she quoted St Francis and promised to bring unity. But the British economy plunged still further, unemployment trebled to more than three million. London and Liverpool suffered inner city riots.

After two years in office, Margaret Thatcher was one of the most unpopular Prime Ministers ever. She was rescued by Argentina's military junta in 1982.

Against the advice of her ministers and most military commanders she ordered a task force 3,000 miles into the South Atlantic to recapture the Falkland Islands from Argentine invaders. 

The Conservatives returned to power in the 1983 general election with an increased majority.

Mrs Thatcher moved on to confront what she called the "enemy within", eventually defeating a bitter and confrontational year-long miners' strike over pit closures, unwisely called by NUM leader Arthur Scargill without a ballot of his members.

Irish Republican terrorists murdered two of Mrs Thatcher's closest political colleagues Airey Neave and Ian Gow. And in October 1984 five friends and colleagues were killed when the IRA blew up the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the Conservative Party Conference.

Margaret, the wife of her close political ally Norman Tebbit, was among those victims crippled for life.

Yet a year later Mrs Thatcher and her counterpart Garret Fitzgerald signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which would ultimately provide the diplomatic basis for the end of The Troubles.

Mrs Thatcher also became a prominent and pugnacious figure on the world stage. She secured the rebate on Britain's contribution to the European Community and pressed for an open market.

Her decision to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Britain led to the Greenham Common protest but it was also part of the arms build-up which ultimately broke the Soviet Union and brought down the Iron Curtain.

Mrs Thatcher was quick to spot the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as "a man I can do business with". But for his two terms as American President Ronald Reagan was Mrs Thatcher's closest ally - on foreign affairs and on economic and social policy.

Her economic ideology was unswerving. She believed in a smaller state, lower taxes, self-reliance and people being left to spend "their own money".

Her government sold or "privatised" state-owned "nationalised" assets - first council houses then shares in gas, electricity, water and telecommunications and "the big bang" de-regulating banking and the City of London.

She won a third election in 1987 with another huge majority but like many long-serving successful leaders, she began to believe her own publicity, epitomised in her most famous quotation: "The Lady is not for turning".

Domineering and unwilling to listen, she alienated many of her ministers and MPs.

By now Michael Heseltine had resigned from government and established himself as a leader-in-waiting. He exploited growing discontent over two issues: the proposed Community Charge or Poll Tax, and hostility to Europe.

Anti-poll tax demonstrations brought some of the worst street violence in living memory.

Her stubborn opposition to further European integration provoked first the resignation of her chancellor Nigel Lawson, then, fatally, of her deputy prime minister Sir Geoffrey Howe.

She stood down in November 1990, after failing to secure the overwhelming support of MPs in yet another Heseltine-inspired leadership contest on the very night European leaders were celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall.

One of Prime Minister Thatcher's last achievements was persuading the new US President George Bush senior not to "go wobbly" following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.

Mr Heseltine failed to seize the crown and instead the Conservative party united around John Major, Thatcher's relatively obscure preferred successor.

In 1992, Mr Major led the Tories to victory over Neil Kinnock's Labour yet again.

In her retirement, the Queen made Mrs Thatcher a member of the Order of the Garter and appointed her Baroness in the House of Lords. Her husband Denis received a hereditary knighthood.

Sir John Major sometimes complained of "back seat driving" as the former PM relished the movie title "The Mummy Returns".

The next Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair never bothered to hide his admiration for her decisive style of leadership but there was widespread astonishment when the newly-elected Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown invited her back to Downing Street for tea in her honour.

More recently, Meryl Streep won an Oscar for a portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in the Hollywood movie 'The Iron Lady'. But the film also depicted unflinchingly the politician's descent into senile dementia, hastened by the death of her beloved husband, Denis.

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Margaret Thatcher: Falklands Was Defining

When the strutting head of a military junta General Leopold Galtieri invaded the Falkland Islands, most Britons had to rush to their atlases to find out just where the islands were.

The government appeared to be equally taken by surprise - so much so that the Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington resigned.

There followed a frantic round of shuttle diplomacy, brokered by the Americans.

To the astonishment of people in Britain, to the dismay of the Argentinians, and to the amazement of the Americans and the rest of the world, Britain assembled a task force to sail to the South Atlantic.

It looked like Lord Palmerston's Gunboat Diplomacy had returned, that Britain was somehow trying to recapture its colonial past, a final hurrah of an Empire on which the sun had set decades before.

The crisis became a defining moment of Margaret Thatcher's premiership, and changed her image and her political fortunes.

Before April 2, 1982, when the junta in Buenos Aires ordered the invasion of the Falkland islands - called Las Malvinas by the Argentines - opinion polls showed her to be the most unpopular Prime Minister ever.

After British forces recaptured the Falkland islands and South Georgia her popularity soared, allowing her to call a general election in 1983 which she won by a landslide.

Margaret Thatcher and husband Denis in Stanley in 1983

As so often in military conflict, the line between triumph and disaster was thin.

Had things gone wrong, her time in office would have come to a hasty end and modern British political history would have taken an alternative course - leading to a very different present.

Mrs Thatcher established and chaired a small war cabinet, officially called the ODSA Overseas and Defence committee, South Atlantic, to take charge of the conduct of the war.

Within days of the invasion, the ODSA had authorised and dispatched a naval task force to retake the islands.

Despite the effectiveness of the Argentine air force with its Exocet missiles and some serious military setbacks for the British, including the sinking of the Sir Galahad which was carrying the Welsh Guards in San Carlos Water, British troops first took back South Georgia, and then the Falklands.

Fortunately for the British, many of the French-made Exocets failed to detonate.

In bloody night-time hand-to-hand fighting, the Argentine army conscripts proved little match for the highly-trained British Paras and Royal Marine Commandos.

The Gurkhas, in particular, struck terror into the hearts of Argentine troops who were cold, wet, miserable and demoralised, dug in on the windswept Falklands hills.

Argentina surrendered on June 14, and the Union Jack was hoisted in the Falklands capital Port Stanley by exhausted but jubilant troops.

The conflict cost the lives of  255 British servicemen and 3 Falkland Islanders.

Some 649 Argentinians died, half of them after the British nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror torpedoed and sank the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano on May 2 in the most controversial military action of the war.

British troops fighting in the Falklands during the conflict

Mrs Thatcher was criticised in parliament and, famously, on television by a member of the public for the decision to sink the Belgrano, which reports said was sailing away from the Falklands at the time.

She maintained that the Argentine cruiser had posed a threat to British forces.

She was also criticised for neglecting the defence of the Falklands , allowing the Argentinian junta the opportunity to invade in the first place - neglect which led Lord Carrington to resign.

Overall, however, she was perceived as a highly capable, committed, and above all successful war leader, and the "Falklands factor" , along with a bitterly divided Labour Party, undoubtedly paved the way for her subsequent general election victory.

In the years after the conflict, Mrs Thatcher often referred in public and in private to the "Falklands spirit", reflecting her nostalgia not only for her popularity at the time, but also her preference for the streamlined and efficient decision-making of the military and a small war cabinet rather than the drawn-out and often painstaking deal-making of cabinet government in peacetime.

The Falklands revealed many of the qualities that marked Mrs Thatcher's time in office - her determination, her conviction that she was right, and her abrasive dismissal of anyone who questioned that conviction.

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Margaret Thatcher Dies After Stroke

Britain's first and only female prime minister Baroness Thatcher has died at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke.

Lady Thatcher's children Mark and Carol said their mother, who suffered bouts of ill health in recent years, died peacefully on Monday morning.

Downing Street, which joined Buckingham Palace in flying its flags at half mast, said the politician would be given a full ceremonial funeral with honours at St Paul's Cathedral.

Sky sources understand she died at the Ritz in central London where she had been staying since January following a minor operation.

It is believed her Belgravia home was not properly equipped for her recovery and she was invited to stay at the hotel by its owners, David and Frederick Barclay.

Prime Minister David Cameron led tributes from around the world, calling the former Tory leader "a great prime minister, a great leader, a great Briton".

He said: "As our first woman prime minister, Margaret Thatcher succeeded against all the odds, and the real thing about Margaret Thatcher is that she didn't just lead our country, she saved our country, and I believe she'll go down as the greatest British peacetime prime minister.

"Her legacy will be the fact she served her country so well, she saved our country and that she showed immense courage in doing so and people will be learning about what she did and her achievements in decades, probably centuries to come."

The flag at Downing Street flies at half mast

Mr Cameron was in Spain at the start of a European tour to push for a more flexible EU when the news broke but immediately cut short his trip.

It is understood that Lady Thatcher was consulted about details of the funeral arrangements and made clear that she did not want to lie in state.

The streets between Westminster and St Paul's will be cleared for the procession, the date of which is yet to be decided. The route will be lined with members of Armed Forces.

US President Barack Obama said that America would "never forget her standing shoulder to shoulder with President Reagan" and that she had "with moral conviction" helped to shape history.

Floral tributes outside Lady Thatcher's Belgravia home

He said: "With the passing of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend. 

"As a grocer's daughter who rose to become Britain's first female prime minister, she stands as an example to our daughters that there is no glass ceiling that can't be shattered.  As prime minister, she helped restore the confidence and pride that has always been the hallmark of Britain at its best."

Labour leader Ed Miliband, who was launching his local election campaign on Monday, cancelled the party's operations as a mark of respect.

He said: "She will be remembered as a unique figure. She reshaped the politics of a whole generation.

"The Labour Party disagreed with much of what she did and she will always remain a controversial figure. But we can disagree and also greatly respect her political achievements and her personal strength."

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: "Margaret Thatcher was one of the defining figures in modern British politics.

"Whatever side of the political debate you stand on, no-one can deny that as prime minister she left a unique and lasting imprint on the country she served."

Newly elected and in Downing Street with husband Denis

Buckingham Palace added: "The Queen was sad to hear the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher. Her Majesty will be sending a private message of sympathy to the family."

Former Labour prime minister Tony Blair called the ex-PM a "towering political figure" who exercised a huge influence over Britain and the world.

"Very few leaders get to change not only the political landscape of their country but of the world. Margaret was such a leader. Her global impact was vast," he said.

He added: "As a person she was kind and generous spirited and was always immensely supportive to me as Prime Minister although we came from opposite sides of politics.

With David Cameron at Downing Street in 2010

"Even if you disagreed with her as I did on certain issues and occasionally strongly, you could not disrespect her character or her contribution to Britain's national life.  She will be sadly missed."

Former Conservative prime minister Sir John Major described his predecessor as a "true force of nature" and a "political phenomenon".

He said: "In government, the UK was turned around under - and in large measure because of - her leadership.

"Her reforms of the economy, trades union law, and her recovery of the Falkland Islands elevated her above normal politics, and may not have been achieved under any other leader."

Press wait outside a back entrance of the Ritz, where Lady Thatcher died

Lady Thatcher, who made history by becoming Britain's first prime minister in 1979, had become increasingly frail over the last decade.

She suffered several small strokes in 2002 and was advised not to accept further public speaking engagements.

Her apparent fragility when she did appear in public, especially after the death of husband Denis in 2003, led to frequent bouts of speculation about her health.

'Shoulder to shoulder' with US president Ronald Reagan

But MPs and friends who saw her regularly said she remained alert and interested in politics and she was not known to have deteriorated notably recently.

The former leader was admitted to hospital shortly before Christmas where she underwent an operation to remove a growth from her bladder but was allowed to return home before the New Year.

As prime minister from 1979 to 1990, she has been credited with transforming a nation in one decade and putting Britain back among the leading industrial nations of the world.

Loved and loathed in equal measure, she crushed the unions and privatised vast swathes of British industry as she led the Tories to three election victories.

With son Mark (L) and daughter Carol (R) at her husband's funeral in 2003

She was nicknamed the Iron Lady by a Russian journalist in 1976 for her opposition to Soviet communism.

The moniker stuck and privately she was thought to enjoy it. It also became the title of the 2011 biopic for which Meryl Streep won an Oscar.

"To have given women and girls around the world reason to supplant fantasies of being princesses with a different dream: the real-life option of leading their nation; this was groundbreaking and admirable," Streep said.

Lady Thatcher was also memorably described by the then French president Francois Mitterrand with the back-handed compliment that she had the "eyes of Caligula and the mouth of Marilyn Monroe".

But perhaps the defining moment of her career will be the decision to send a taskforce to the Falklands on April 2, 1982 after Argentina invaded.

In Stanley, Falkland Islands, in 1983

Despite her toughness, few will forget the pictures of Lady Thatcher leaving Downing Street for the last time with her husband, Sir Denis - tears in her eyes.

A woman who believed in hard work, she was the daughter of grocer Alfred Roberts and gained a degree in Chemistry at Oxford University, where she became president of the university's Conservative Association.

Her first job was as a research chemist but in February 1951 she was adopted as Conservative candidate for Dartford and at a dinner that day she met the wealthy and divorced businessman, Denis Thatcher. They married later that year.

He supported her during her unsuccessful campaigns for the seat and during her studies to become a barrister. She qualified in 1953, the same year she gave birth to twins Mark and Carol.

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Margaret Thatcher: Obituary Of 'Iron Lady'

By Adam Boulton, Political Editor

Margaret Thatcher was Britain's first, and so far only, female Prime Minister. She was a transformative leader who reversed conventional wisdom that Great Britain's national decline was inevitable.

She will be remembered for curbing the trade unions, privatising state-owned industries, leading Britain to victory in the Falklands War, and as US President Ronald Reagan's staunch ally in confronting the Soviet Empire.

Mrs Thatcher is now ranked alongside Sir Winston Churchill (her hero) and Clement Attlee as one of Britain's most important 20th century prime ministers, but the "Iron Lady", as she was nicknamed, was a deeply divisive figure, openly hated by many, especially those from industrial heartlands, which she sent to the wall.

She ended her 11-year premiership quite literally in tears, thrown out not by the voters but by the very Conservative MPs she had led to three successive general election victories.

Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on October 13, 1925, the daughter of a grocer and alderman from Grantham in Lincolnshire. She idolised her father but seldom even mentioned her mother.

A clever and ambitious grammar school girl, she won a place at Oxford University to study chemistry, going on to work in industry as a research chemist - working in the team that invented Mr Whippy ice cream.

She had determined political ambitions as well, fighting Dartford for the Conservatives unsuccessfully in the 1950 and 1951 general elections.

Her consolation was to meet and marry Denis Thatcher, a prosperous businessman and Tory activist.

With typical efficiency, Mrs Thatcher gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, Mark and Carol. She did not enter parliament until 1959 as the member for Finchley, a North London constituency she held for 23 years until her retirement.

In 1967 Tory leader Edward Heath invited her to join his shadow cabinet and made her education secretary following his unexpected triumph over Harold Wilson in the 1970 general election.

The rising star told a television interviewer that she did not expect to see a woman prime minister in her lifetime but she attracted less favourable publicity when she cancelled free school milk, becoming known as Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher.

Ted Heath lost the two elections in 1974 and was forced out as leader after a protracted period of party infighting.

She became Conservative Party leader in 1975 and won the election in 1979

Margaret Thatcher only stood against him after her mentor Sir Keith Joseph declined to run. An outsider in many ways, she was nonetheless elected Conservative Party Leader in 1975.

Prime Minister Callaghan took over from Wilson, but Labour's left-right tensions spilt over into protracted industrial unrest.

Mrs Thatcher stormed into Downing Street on May 4, 1979, following a Conservative election campaign which focused on the economic paralysis of the nation during the so-called Winter of Discontent.

On the steps of Number 10 she quoted St Francis and promised to bring unity. But the British economy plunged still further, unemployment trebled to more than three million. London and Liverpool suffered inner city riots.

After two years in office, Margaret Thatcher was one of the most unpopular Prime Ministers ever. She was rescued by Argentina's military junta in 1982.

Against the advice of her ministers and most military commanders she ordered a task force 3,000 miles into the South Atlantic to recapture the Falkland Islands from Argentine invaders. 

The Conservatives returned to power in the 1983 general election with an increased majority.

Mrs Thatcher moved on to confront what she called the "enemy within", eventually defeating a bitter and confrontational year-long miners' strike over pit closures, unwisely called by NUM leader Arthur Scargill without a ballot of his members.

Irish Republican terrorists murdered two of Mrs Thatcher's closest political colleagues Airey Neave and Ian Gow. And in October 1984 five friends and colleagues were killed when the IRA blew up the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the Conservative Party Conference.

Mrs Thatcher with US President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1987

Margaret, the wife of her close political ally Norman Tebbit, was among those victims crippled for life.

Yet a year later Mrs Thatcher and her counterpart Garret Fitzgerald signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which would ultimately provide the diplomatic basis for the end of The Troubles.

Mrs Thatcher also became a prominent and pugnacious figure on the world stage. She secured the rebate on Britain's contribution to the European Community and pressed for an open market.

Her decision to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Britain led to the Greenham Common protest but it was also part of the arms build-up which ultimately broke the Soviet Union and brought down the Iron Curtain.

Mrs Thatcher was quick to spot the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as "a man I can do business with". But for his two terms as American President Ronald Reagan was Mrs Thatcher's closest ally - on foreign affairs and on economic and social policy.

Her economic ideology was unswerving. She believed in a smaller state, lower taxes, self-reliance and people being left to spend "their own money".

Her government sold or "privatised" state-owned "nationalised" assets - first council houses then shares in gas, electricity, water and telecommunications and "the big bang" de-regulating banking and the City of London.

She set BT on the road to privatisation

She won a third election in 1987 with another huge majority but like many long-serving successful leaders, she began to believe her own publicity, epitomised in her most famous quotation: "The Lady is not for turning".

Domineering and unwilling to listen, she alienated many of her ministers and MPs.

By now Michael Heseltine had resigned from government and established himself as a leader-in-waiting. He exploited growing discontent over two issues: the proposed Community Charge or Poll Tax, and hostility to Europe.

Anti-poll tax demonstrations brought some of the worst street violence in living memory.

Her stubborn opposition to further European integration provoked first the resignation of her chancellor Nigel Lawson, then, fatally, of her deputy prime minister Sir Geoffrey Howe.

She stood down in November 1990, after failing to secure the overwhelming support of MPs in yet another Heseltine-inspired leadership contest on the very night European leaders were celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall.

One of Prime Minister Thatcher's last achievements was persuading the new US President George Bush senior not to "go wobbly" following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.

Mr Heseltine failed to seize the crown and instead the Conservative party united around John Major, Thatcher's relatively obscure preferred successor.

Leaving Downing Street for the last time in 1990

In 1992, Mr Major led the Tories to victory over Neil Kinnock's Labour yet again.

In her retirement, the Queen made Mrs Thatcher a member of the Order of the Garter and appointed her Baroness in the House of Lords. Her husband Denis received a hereditary knighthood.

Sir John Major sometimes complained of "back seat driving" as the former PM relished the movie title "The Mummy Returns".

The next Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair never bothered to hide his admiration for her decisive style of leadership but there was widespread astonishment when the newly-elected Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown invited her back to Downing Street for tea in her honour.

More recently, Meryl Streep won an Oscar for a portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in the Hollywood movie 'The Iron Lady'. But the film also depicted unflinchingly the politician's descent into senile dementia, hastened by the death of her beloved husband, Denis.

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