Australia: Dead Nurses 'Tied To Tree For Days'

An inquest into the death of two nurses who were found bound and beaten in a Queensland bush four decades ago has heard how they were tied to a tree for days.

A second inquest into the 1974 killings of hitch-hikers Lorraine Wilson, 20, and Wendy Evans, 18, has reopened.

In one of the country's most shocking unsolved crimes - the women's skeletal remains were discovered near the town of Murphy's Creek in 1976.

Their skulls were crushed and their bones tangled with cord from venetian blinds.

Betty Staid, who gave evidence via phone, said one of the key persons of interest - now deceased, Donald "Donny" Laurie - lived with her for five weeks in the 1970s and made some shocking admissions at the time.

While they were watching a crime show about the murders, she said Mr Laurie told her he had wanted to give the women water when they were tied to a tree for two or three days.

"I was in shock and said: 'How did you know that, Laurie?'," said Ms Staid. "He looked at me like he'd said too much and said: 'I hear things.'"

Ms Staid said her housemate once offered to take her to the crime scene but she refused.

Two of the only three surviving persons of interest in the case - who were named for the first time last year - have given evidence at the inquest while the third, Desmond Roy Hilton is due to take the stand.

Allan Neil "Ungie" Laurie, 63, and Terrence James "Jimmy" O'Neill insisted they had nothing to do with the murders.

The inquest was told the men had a habit of abducting women, taking them to the bush, beating them and raping them - which they also deny.

Trevor Hilton, the uncle of key suspect Wayne "Boogie" Hilton, said his nephew and his friends would ambush young women in Toowoomba's main street on a weekly basis.

Mr Hilton said the group of men, which included now deceased Allan John "Shorty" Laurie, Donald "Donny" Laurie, and Larry Charles, were notorious about town.

Ms Wilson and Ms Evans were last seen leaving a relative's home in the Brisbane suburb of Camp Hill in October 1974 to hitch-hike to Goondiwindi where they were to pick up a car and drive to Sydney.

An inquest held in 1985 found the women had met foul play, but no charges were laid.

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Thatcher Football Silence Idea 'A Disgrace'

By Paul Kelso, Sports Correspondent

Calls for a minute's silence at football matches to mark the death of Margaret Thatcher have been dismissed as "a disgrace" by the Hillsborough Family Support Group.

Two Premier League chairmen, Reading's John Madejski and Wigan's Dave Whelan, have called for the former prime minister's death to be commemorated this weekend.

But Margaret Aspinall, chair of the group that campaigned for more than 20 years for justice for the 96 Liverpool fans who died in 1989, said it would be wholly inappropriate.

Monday sees the 24th anniversary of the disaster, and the first since an independent inquiry revealed the extent of a cover-up by South Yorkshire police that sought to blame Liverpool fans for the deaths.

Wigan Athletic owner Dave Whelan also wanted a minute's silence

The Hillsborough Independent Panel report, published last autumn, also revealed Lady Thatcher's reluctance to endorse criticism of the police despite the government being aware of "damning" evidence of their role.

Adding to sensitivities around the issue, Liverpool play at Madjeski's Reading on Saturday, where a minute's silence for the victims of Hillsborough is already planned.

Mrs Aspinall, whose teenage son James died in the tragedy, told Sky News a silence at any fixtures would be "an insult".

"I think if they have a minute's silence for her at any football ground it would be an insult to all fans. We all know that Margaret Thatcher was no friend of football, everyone knew her feelings," she said.

"I do not want to speak ill of the dead because we have to consider the feelings of her family, but she was part and parcel of what we [the bereaved families] have gone through.

"I think it is a disgrace that they would want to have a minute's silence for her, an absolute disgrace."

Margaret Aspinall (R) lost her son in the Hillsborough disaster

Despite Mr Madjeski and Mr Whelan's comments, the Premier League and the FA have said there will not be silences either at league fixtures or the two FA Cup semi-finals staged at Wembley.

An FA spokesman said there was "no precedent" for silences following the death of prime ministers and that it wanted the games to remain apolitical.

The FA and Premier League position has been endorsed by the Football Supporters' Federation.

Chairman Malcolm Clarke said: "We believe the football authorities have made the right decision in not holding minute's silences this weekend.

Margaret Thatcher's death has been recognised across the world

"I think that most fans will be more concerned with marking the Hillsborough anniversary than the passing of Margaret Thatcher."

Privately, the football authorities also doubt that any silence would be respected given the antipathy that existed between the Thatcher government and football during the 1980s.

She was in power when hooliganism was at its height but her attempts to curb it, most notably the football ID cards scheme, were deeply unpopular and eventually rejected.

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Prestatyn Fire: 'Accused Made Threats To Kill'

By Nick Martin, North of England Correspondent

Court hears a woman accused of starting a fire in a flat that killed two adults and three small children had made death threats.

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

Lee Anna Shiers, 20, her 15-month old son Charlie, her nephew Bailey Allen, aged four and her niece Sky Allen, two, and partner Liam Trimble, 23, died as a result of the fire.

Five died in the fire on October 19, 2012

Ot the first day of the trial at Mold Crown Court, the jury heard how Smith had "demonstrated anger and hostility" towards her neighbour Ms Shiers. 

Jurors were told Smith had threatened to "set the house on fire and everyone inside" following a row with Ms Shiers over noise and cigarette butts left on the front step of the property.

More follows...

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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.

And it followed a release of fresh details 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.

"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,

Tony and Cherie Blair will be at the funeral next week

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

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 ahead of the service.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "The rebate she negotiated for this country from the EU has brought us so far £75 billion - 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.

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 cermony.

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.

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

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 to her funeral as thanks for the care she received.

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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Margaret Thatcher: Critics Party In Brixton

Police were called to Brixton in South London after people celebrating the death of Margaret Thatcher gathered in the streets.

Some revellers climbed onto the Ritzy cinema building and rearranged letters on its film listings board to spell out the words: "Margaret Thatchers (sic) dead LOL".

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

Other critics gathered in Windrush Square celebrated with cheers of "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, dead, dead, dead".

A banner celebrating Margaret Thatcher's death hangs from the Ritzy cinema

The area was the scene of fierce riots in 1981, two years into Lady Thatcher's first term in office.

Pictures of anti-Thatcher graffiti scrawled on walls in Brixton also appeared on Twitter, with one reading: "You snatched my milk! & our hope"

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said extra officers were brought in to control the crowds, who "caused low level disorder" and threw "a small number of missiles" at officers.

There were no reports of any arrests and the group dispersed in the early hours of the morning, acccording to police.

Some revellers sprayed champagne as they celebrated in Brixton

A spokesman for Ritzy said there was some damage to its building, adding that staff helped clear up the streets after the demonstration.

Meanwhile in Glasgow, up to 300 people gathered in George Square, 24 years after poll tax protests were held there.

Some anti-capitalist campaigners wore party hats and launched streamers into the air, while a bottle of champagne was sprayed.

Earlier, David Hopper, general secretary of Durham Miners' Association, said he was celebrating on his 70th birthday after learning of Baroness Thatcher's death.

"She was a heartless woman who tore the heart out of the mining communities of the North," he said.

George Galloway, the Respect MP for Bradford West, wrote on Twitter: "Thatcher described Nelson Mandela as a 'terrorist'. I was there. I saw her lips move. May she burn in the hellfires."

Parliament is being recalled on Wednesday for a special session to allow politicians to pay tribute to Lady Thatcher.

A full ceremonial funeral will take place at St Paul's Cathedral next week.

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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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North Korea: Japan Deploys Missile Defence

By Mark Stone, on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea

Japan has deployed missile-defence systems in its capital as North Korea warned foreigners in the South to take evacuation measures in case of war.

The interceptors were set up as a precautionary measure, and the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun reported that North Korea would launch a missile test on Wednesday.

Two Patriot Advanced Capability-3 surface-to-air missile launchers were stationed at the defence ministry in Tokyo before dawn, and other batteries are to be installed in the semi-tropical island chain of Okinawa, officials said.

The deployment isn't unusual. Japan has responded to North Korea tests in the past by positioning interceptor missiles.

"The government is making utmost efforts to protect our people's lives and ensure their safety," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.

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

A Musudan missile, pictured in 2010

North Korea's latest warning to foreigners intensified the threat of an imminent conflict, keeping up the fiery rhetoric employed for weeks by officials in Pyongyang.

"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching close to a thermo-nuclear war," said the statement by the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee.

"Once a war is ignited on the peninsula, it will be an all-out war, a merciless, sacred, retaliatory war waged by the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)," it went on to say.

"We do not wish harm on foreigners in South Korea should there be a war."

Last week, the North Korean government told embassies in the capital it could not guarantee the safety of their staff.

However, US and South Korean defence officials have said they have seen nothing to indicate that Pyongyang is preparing for a major military action, in which it would be heavily outgunned.

North Korea has also suspended its operations at the Kaesong industrial complex, its last major economic link with the South, and recalled all 53,000 of its workers.

North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong-Un, is seen as unpredictable

The work stoppage at a key source of hard cash for the North suggests Pyongyang is willing to hurt its own shaky economy in order to display its anger with South Korea and the US.

Amid rising tensions on the peninsula, the US and South Korea have also raised their defence postures.

North Korea is believed to have moved two missiles - possibly the medium-range Musudan - to its eastern coast on the Sea of Japan, loading them on to mobile launchers.

The Musudan missile has a range of about 3,000km (1,800 miles), meaning it is capable of reaching South Korea and Japan and perhaps also the US territory of Guam in the Pacific Ocean.

There has been speculation that Pyongyang might schedule a missile launch to coincide with the birthday of the country's late founder Kim Il-Sung - the current leader's grandfather - in mid-April.

Foreign Secretary William Hague has said the threat posed by North Korea must be treated "very seriously" and the US has delayed the testing of an intercontinental ballistic missile in an effort to defuse the situation.

US Secretary of State John Kerry visits Seoul this week

North Korea is furious at UN sanctions imposed after Pyongyang conducted its third nuclear test in February, and at joint military exercises between the US and South Korea, with B-2 stealth bombers dispatched from US bases.

Seoul and Washington say those exercises are routine but Pyongyang has unleashed a torrent of threats against the allies.

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Weatherman Fred Talbot Held Over 'Sex Abuse'

TV weatherman Fred Talbot has been arrested by police investigating historic sexual abuse at a school where he taught.

The 63-year-old is being held on suspicion of three counts of indecent assault and four counts of inciting a child to commit acts of gross indecency.

The alleged offences relate to his time as a biology teacher at Altrincham Grammar School for Boys in Trafford, Greater Manchester, between the early 1970s to early 1980s, where four alleged victims were pupils.

Mr Talbot's home in Bowdon, Cheshire, was raided by police last December while he was out of the country.

He is best known for his colourful appearances on the weather map for ITV's This Morning programme when hosted by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan at Liverpool's Albert Dock.

Mr Talbot remains the weatherman on the station's North West regional news programme Granada Reports.

The school at the centre of sex abuse allegations

Detective Chief Inspector Sellars said: "Since allegations were made to police in December, we have made good progress with this investigation and with tracing and speaking to former pupils of Altrincham Grammar school.

"However, as part of our ongoing enquiry I am eager to trace anyone who attended the school between the early 1970s and 1980s, who feel they may have information to assist the police investigation."

Mr Talbot remains in police custody.

The police inquiry was prompted following media reports of another probe into historic sexual abuse at a Catholic boys' school in Altrincham.

Last month, a 63-year-old former teacher at St Ambrose College in Hale Barns was held on suspicion of indecent assault of an ex-pupil and possession of indecent images dating back to the early 1980s.

He was later bailed pending further inquiries.

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Margaret Thatcher Dies After Stroke

How Thatcher Changed History

Updated: 2:45pm 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.

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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