The first serving prime minister in 150 years to father a child

England have

The British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie are celebrating the birth of their baby son who will be called Leo.

He is the first child to be born to a serving British Prime Minister for more than 150 years and was named after Mr Blair's father.

The latest addition to the Blair household arrived at 0025BST and weighed in at 6lbs 12oz, according to Downing Street.

An emotional Mr Blair said he was thrilled at becoming a father again and praised the doctors andmidwiveswho assisted his wife.

He said: "Our baby is fine. He's a gorgeous boy. They are just resting now. It was an ordinary, natural birth, though it was quite a long labour so Cherie is quite tired now."

Congratulations

The proud parents and their new baby returned to Downing Street shortly after Leo's birth at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

Mrs Blair, 45, had been admitted to the hospital during Friday lunchtime, five days before her official due date of 24 May.

The prime minister then joined his wife at the hospital at 2050 BST and stayed with her for six hours before they returned to Downing Street with their new son.

The couple managed to give the hordes of waiting media the slip by leaving the hospital via a back door.

The couple already have two sons, Euan, 16, and Nicky, 14, and a daughter, Kathryn, 12.

The prime minister has said he will not be taking parental leave but intends to scale back his official workload.

Congratulations have already started to pour in following the birth. Mrs Blair's father, actor Tony Booth, said he was "absolutely thrilled and delighted" at the news he had a new grandson.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have sent Mr and Mrs Blair flowers and best wishes, as have Tory leader William Hague and his wife Ffion.

Mr Hague said: "We send our congratulations to them and their children. We know this is a wonderful day for them, and a happy day for the country as a whole."

Liberal Democrat Leader Charles Kennedy said it was important to give the Blairs some breathing space to enjoy their new arrival.

"The most important thing now is that everyone respects their right to privacy and peace for a decent interval."

The ANC, led by Oliver Tambo (above), admitted planting the car bomb in Pretoria four days after the explosion

The explosion happened outside the Nedbank Square building on Church Street at about 1630 hours - the height of the city's rush hour. More than 20 ambulances attended the scene and took the dead and injured to three hospitals in and around Pretoria.

Police sealed off the surrounding area with a barbed-wire fence as emergency personnel sifted through the rubble looking for bodies. Bomb disposal experts were called to the scene to search for a possible second bomb.

The outlawed black liberation group the African National Congress has been blamed for the atrocity.

Bled to death

A huge pall of smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air as debris and bodies were strewn around the scene of the explosion.

It is understood the bomb had been placed in a blue Alfa Romeo car outside the multi-storey building, which houses the South African air force headquarters.

It exploded at the height of the city's rush-hour as hundreds of people were leaving work for the weekend.

Glass and metal were catapulted into the air as shop-fronts and windows were blown out.

Many passers-by had limbsamputatedby the flying debris. Others bled to death.

South Africa's Minister for Law and Order, Louis le Grange, who visited the scene immediately, blamed the attack on the ANC.

He said: "I have no doubt who is responsible for thisdespicableattack."

He said the explosion was the "biggest and ugliest" terrorist incident since anti-government violence began in South Africa 20 years ago.

He added: "Most of the victims were civilians, but some were air force personnel in uniform, black and white. Quite a number of those killed were black.

The ANC is an underground black liberation organisation committed to overthrowing the minority white government.

Oliver Tambo, who is the organisation's acting president while its senior figure, Nelson Mandela, is in prison, said the Nedbank Square building was a legitimate target, although he did not admit carrying out the attack.

General Mike Gedenhuys, Police Commissioner, said: "Many of the victims are so badly mutilated they have not yet been identified."

General Magnus Malan, South African's defence minister, described the explosion as a "cowardly, criminal deed in the Communist war being raged against South Africa."

He said more than 40,000 civilians had died as a result of terrorism in the past five years in Africa and 83,000 armed men had died.

South Africa has nearly five million whites, 21 million blacks, nearly one million Indians and about 2.5 million people of mixed race.

The government's apartheid system denies citizenship rights to blacks except in 10 remote homelands.

The ANC has warned it intends to step up its campaign to bring an end to white minority rule.

midwife:助產(chǎn)士

amputate:to cut off（切除）

despicable:deserving of contempt or scom;ville（卑劣的，可鄙的）