Ailing Thatcher to stop lecturing

LONDON (AP) -- Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has suffered a series of small strokes and is retiring from the public lecture circuit, her office said Friday.

Thatcher, 76, canceled a speaking engagement at her doctor's instructions Tuesday night after falling ill that morning.

Her office said she had suffered a series of small strokes in recent months and that doctors had told her "to cut back her program at once and in particular to avoid the undue strains that public speaking places on her."