Margaret Thatcher in Hospital

CNN.com/Europe

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was taken to the hospital Friday evening after falling ill at her home, a Conservative Party spokesman said.

Thatcher, 82, was admitted to St. Thomas’ Hospital near Westminster Palace for tests, the spokesman said.

“Her condition is stable and she is speaking to the medical staff who are caring for her,” a hospital spokeswoman told the BBC.

Thatcher is expected to stay overnight for observation, the hospital said, according to The Associated Press.

Britain’s first and only female prime minister retired from public life after a stroke in 2002.

She suffered several smaller strokes after that.

Nicknamed the “Iron Lady” by the Soviet press after a 1976 speech criticizing communism, Thatcher enjoyed a close working relationship with President Ronald Reagan, with whom she shared similar conservative views.

 

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Absent Children in an English School Feared to be Forced into Arranged Marriages

From Foxnews.com

More than 30 children have been absent for at least two months from school rosters in an English city and officials fear they may have been forced into arranged marriages, The Daily Mail reported on Wednesday.

The 33 students have been absent without explanation from schools in Bradford, northern England, which The Mail reports has a substantial Asian population.

“It is a serious concern when any child, any single child, becomes unaccounted for,” said Children’s Minister Kevin Brennan, who on Tuesday released the findings before the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, which is probing forced marriages in at least 14 other areas of the country.

A spokesman for the department of children, schools and families said forced marriages have been reported in Bradford, but there is no evidence the children in question had been forced to wed, The Daily Mail reports.

A Bradford schools spokesman said it is possible the children’s families had moved away and their parents failed to register them at their new schools, the story reports.

 

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