Margaret Thatcher

In what was billed as their first appearance together since they left power, it was pretty much like old times for the three Cold War-era leaders. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher time and again trumpeted former President George Bush's leadership during the Gulf War--as if she was buttering him up for yet another diplomatic favor.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was the keynote speaker on Sunday night at a benefit dinner for the Jewish National Fund at the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel. Since 1901, the fund has been responsible for afforestation and land reclamation for Israel. During the festivities, real estate visionaries Michael L. Meyer and Henry T. Segerstrom received the agency's Tree of Life Award for their contributions to the community.

Francis Pym, an antagonist of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who served as her foreign secretary during the Falklands War, died Friday after a long illness, his family said. He was 86. Pym served two years as defense secretary during Thatcher's first term as prime minister. In 1982, while Britain was battling Argentina to keep control of the Falkland Islands, he was named foreign secretary after the resignation of Peter Carrington. Thatcher fired Pym after winning the 1983 election, and he became increasingly critical of her policies.

First it was the queen. Now the Iron Lady is getting the British film treatment. Encouraged by the critical and commercial response to "The Queen," London-based producer and distributor Pathe Productions said Tuesday that it had commissioned a film about former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, set during the 1982 Falkland Islands war with Argentina.

Lord Gilmour, 81, a Conservative lawmaker who was a thorn in the side of Margaret Thatcher when she served as Britain's prime minister, died Friday in West Middlesex Hospital, west of London, after a short illness, according to his son David Gilmour. While holding the Cabinet-level post of deputy foreign secretary, Ian Gilmour was fired by Thatcher in 1981 after he warned that her hard-line tactics would lose voters' support.

The son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher flew out of South Africa on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to charges relating to a coup attempt in the small, oil-rich African country of Equatorial Guinea. Mark Thatcher, a businessman, denied any knowledge of, or participation in planning, the coup against the government of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, but admitted he had suspicions that associates may have been plotting mercenary activities.

Margaret Thatcher turned 80 with a posh party attended by Queen Elizabeth II and the former British prime minister's successors, John Major and Tony Blair. Although the "Iron Lady" has grown frail after a series of strokes, she looked healthy as she arrived at the party about 15 minutes late -- a delay that an aide attributed to a congratulatory call from President Bush. She paused for photographs before making her way into the plush Mandarin Oriental hotel near London's Hyde Park.

South African police Wednesday seized Mark Thatcher, the scandal-plagued son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, on charges that he took part in a plot with mercenaries to overthrow the dictatorship of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. An anti-corruption Scorpions unit of the South African police raided Thatcher's luxurious villa in the posh Cape Town suburb of Constantia at 7 a.m., surprising the 51-year-old businessman and former race car driver in his pajamas.

Margaret Thatcher has posted bail for her son Mark, who is suspected of involvement in plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea, an aide to the former British prime minister said. Mark Thatcher denies the allegations. He had been under house arrest at his home in Cape Town, South Africa, pending the posting of a bond set at $300,000.

Margaret Thatcher, the indomitable "Iron Lady" who led Britain through 11 tumultuous years, is retiring from the public stage after a series of small strokes. Thatcher, 76, was resting at home in London, her office said. The office confirmed Friday that the former prime minister had canceled a speaking engagement Tuesday because of another small stroke.