◇Margaret Thatcher, Britain's Iron Lady, dead at 87

LONDON (AP) − Margaret Thatcher, the combative "Iron Lady" who transformed her country by a ruthless dedication to free markets in 11 remarkable years as prime minister, has died. She was 87 years old.

Her spokesman, Tim Bell, said Thatcher died from a stroke on the morning of April 8 at the Ritz hotel in London.

As flags were flown at half‐staff at Buckingham Palace, Parliament and Downing Street, praise for Thatcher and her leadership poured in from around the world.

Between 1979 and 1990, her governments sold a string of nationalized industries into private ownership, crushed the once‐mighty labor unions, and defeated Argentina in the Falkland Islands war.

"We have raised Britain in the respect of the world from what it was − broke, bankrupt, unwilling to defend itself properly," Thatcher declared in 1987. "We have, I think, transformed Britain."

Educated at Oxford, the grocer's daughter became Europe's first female prime minister in 1979, four years after the Conservative Party surprised itself by making her its leader.

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