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The Facebook campaign aims to make the song No. 1 most downloaded song this week. Within the first 24 hours, the song was in the top ten downloads in iTunes and No. 2 in Amazon, reports the Hollywood Reporter.

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For decades, Thatcher's gender provided some public relations cover for her most noxious politics. That was true even today in the White House's statement on her death, which included the following treacly sentence: "As a grocer’s daughter who rose to become Britain’s first female prime minister, she stands as an example to our daughters that there is no glass ceiling that can’t be shattered."

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Her former spokesman, Tim Bell, said that the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher had died Monday morning of a stroke.

To her fervent admirers, battling Maggie was an icon, a national savior who ended Britain's post-World War II cycle of confrontation and decline — eclipsed as a 20th-century British leader only by Winston Churchill.

Her vehement critics, however, saw her as a bellicose figure at home and abroad, a destroyer of industries and, with it, a way of life.

She was a sharply divisive figure even within her Conservative Party, especially on the issue of European integration; the party declined into a bickering shambles after she fell from power.

Between 1979 and 1990, her governments sold a string of nationalized industries into private ownership, crushed the once-mighty labor unions, defeated Argentina in the Falkland Islands war and preached military readiness to the Western alliance.

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International researchers analyzed the country's rates of sickness and death from 1990 to 2010 in comparison to those of 15 other Western European countries in addition to Australia, Canada and the U.S. Experts described the U.K. results as "startling" and said Britain was failing to address underlying health risks in its population, including rising rates of high blood pressure, obesity and drug and alcohol abuse.

"It's incredibly surprising," said Dr. Christopher Murray, who studies health metrics at the University of Washington in Seattle and is the lead author of the latest report.

"We all think of the U.K. as having a great health system and as one of the most sophisticated medical research communities in the world," he wrote in an email. "Nobody would have really expected that the U.K. would be toward the bottom."

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The British drink much more than previously estimated, according to a new study by researchers at University College London, the Guardian reported.

The researchers compared official surveys of British drinking patterns, which are based on respondents’ estimates of how much they drink, with sales figures, BBC News reported. Some 40 percent of the alcohol sold was unaccounted for in the official consumption figures.

If the missing alcohol is included in estimates of British drinking, the percentage of women regularly exceeding the recommended daily limit of two to three units of alcohol rises from 54 percent to 80 percent, the researchers said, according to the Guardian. Men who down more than the recommended three to four units of alcohol daily rises from 56 percent to 75 percent.

According to BBC News:

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Prime Minister David Cameron and other senior British officials threw their support behind a gay marriage bill ahead of a key Parliament vote on the divisive topic.

The bill enables same-sex couples to get married in both civil and religious ceremonies, provided that the religious institution consents. The proposals have divided opinion among members of Cameron's Conservative Party and dozens of them are expected to vote against the bill later Tuesday.

In a last-minute statement, Cameron -- who did not attend the debate -- said passing the bill is "an important step forward" for Britain.

"I am a strong believer in marriage. It helps people commit to each other and I think it is right that gay people should be able to get married too," he said. "This is, yes, about equality. But it is also about making our society stronger."

Despite stronger-than-expected opposition within the Conservative ranks, the bill is expected to pass with support from most lawmakers in the left-leaning Labour Party and Liberal Democrats party.

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Commissioned by Prime Minister David Cameron in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal at the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World tabloid, the independent judicial probe by Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson had a multi-million dollar budget and an all-star cast with performances from the likes of Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller.

The investigation delivered its findings on Nov. 29. As with most modern movies, it was too long, featuring 378 separate testimonies. But it had a riveting plot with startling revelations about the pervasive influence of Britain's press, and witness performances that ranged from tear-jerking to hilarious.

Ultimately, just like the latest movie releases, it failed to deliver what it promised. Its inconclusive ending left audiences feeling dissatisfied and opened up the depressing possibility of a sequel.

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The long-simmering scandal has already led to scores of arrests and some criminal charges. Dozens of cases have been settled out of court after victims of press intrusion sued. Here are some of the cases the Leveson inquiry has investigated:

MILLY DOWLER

The 13-year-old girl was abducted and murdered in 2002. In July 2011, it was reported that employees of Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid had hacked into her telephone while police were still searching for her, giving her parents false hope that she was alive. Her mother, Sally Dowler, told the inquiry that when she could again leave a message on her missing daughter's phone, she shouted: "She's picked up the voice mails! ... She's alive!" Outrage over this case prompted Prime Minister David Cameron to commission the Leveson inquiry.

KATE and GERRY McCANN

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In a brief statement outside BBC headquarters, George Entwistle said he decided to do the "honorable thing" and step down after just eight weeks in the job.

"The wholly exceptional events of the past few weeks have led me to conclude that the BBC should appoint a new leader," he said.

It was a rapid about-face for Entwistle, a 23-year BBC veteran who earlier Saturday had insisted he had no plans to resign despite growing questions about his leadership and the BBC's integrity in the wake of the scandals.

Lawmaker John Whittingdale, who chairs a parliamentary committee on the news media, said Entwistle had no choice but to go, as the BBC's management appears to have "lost their grip" on the publicly funded organization.

"I think that what has happened in the last few days has immensely weakened his authority and credibility," Whittingdale said. "It would have been very difficult for him to continue in those circumstances."

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In the first photographs released by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham since she arrived from Pakistan on Monday, Malala Yousafzai appeared with her eyes open and alert as she lay in a hospital bed.

It was a series of positive developments since the shooting, which was a brazen bid by the Taliban to silence the girl, who has been an outspoken advocate for girls' eduction rights.

Still, doctors said she shows signs of infection and faces a long, difficult recovery with uncertain prospects.

"She is not out of the woods yet," hospital medical director Dr. Dave Rosser said. "Having said that, she's doing very well. In fact, she was standing with some help for the first time this morning when I went in to see her."

He said Malala had agreed to the release of medical information and photos and that she wants to thank people throughout the world for their interest and support in the difficult days since she was gunned down in Pakistan.

He said her bullet wound has become infected.

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Fourteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai was shot in the head by the Taliban last week as she was returning home from school in Pakistan. She was airlifted Monday to Britain to receive specialized medical care and protection from follow-up attacks threatened by the militants.

Medical Director Dr. Dave Rosser of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham stressed Tuesday that security was "under control" at the hospital after the overnight incident. He said several people had turned up at the hospital claiming to be the girl's relatives but didn't get very far.

He said the people were arrested, but police said they had only been questioned.

"We don't believe there's any threat to her personal security," Rosser told journalists, explaining the hospital did not believe the suspects were related to Malala. "We think it's probably people being over-curious."

Police would not immediately confirm the details of the incident.

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McKinnon has admitted to breaking into Pentagon and NASA computers but insists he was only looking for information on UFOs. Nonetheless, in 2002 Paul McNulty, the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, called McKinnon's activity "the biggest military computer hack of all time."

Tuesday's extradition block was not a judgment on McKinnon's guilt, but according to British Home Secretary Theresa May, was based on human rights considerations. May said that since McKinnon has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and suffers from depressive illness, "there is such a high risk of him ending his own life that a decision to extradite would be incompatible with his human rights."

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"Taking drugs does not always cause problems, but this is rarely acknowledged by policymakers. In fact most users do not experience significant problems, and there is some evidence that drug use can have benefits in some circumstances," the 173-page study from the United Kingdoms Drug Policy Commission (UKDPC) states.

Professor Colin Blakemore, former head of the British Medical Research Council, who contributed to the report told the Guardian that drug policy needed to adapt to evidence: "Medicine has moved past the age when we treated disease on the basis of hunches and received wisdom. The overwhelming consensus now is that it is unethical, inefficient and dangerous to use untested and unvalidated methods of treatment and prevention. It is time that policy on illicit drug use starts taking evidence seriously as well."

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The attack on 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai as she was returning home from school in Pakistan's northwest a week ago has horrified people across the country and abroad. It has also sparked hope the government would respond by intensifying its fight against the Taliban and their allies.

Malala was targeted by the Taliban for promoting girls' education and criticizing the militant group's behavior when they took over the scenic Swat Valley where she lived. Two of her classmates were also wounded in the attack and are receiving treatment in Pakistan.

The Taliban have threatened to target Malala again until she is killed because she promotes "Western thinking."

Malala was flown out of Pakistan on Monday morning in a specially equipped air ambulance provided by the United Arab Emirates, said the Pakistani military, which has been treating the young girl at one of its hospitals.

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Judy Garland wore the shoes in the 1939 film in which she played a Kansas farm girl on a magical journey. The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History announced the rare loan of its popular slippers Thursday.

They will be shown with Dorothy's blue-and-white gingham dress in "Hollywood Costume," an exhibit opening Oct. 20 in London. Curators say it's the first time Dorothy's dress and shoes have been together since the movie was filmed.

To make the slippers, a designer dyed the shoes red and attached netting to cover them with red sequins.

The Smithsonian plans to hold a departure ceremony Tuesday.

© 2012 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS.

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