Foster's wholly unique voice has the eerie, tremulous quality of a bowed saw. By contrast, the band attack their acoustic instruments with admirable ferocity.

The bombing of Guernica 75 years ago inspired one of Picasso's best-known works. Now, visitors to this iconic part of Spain's Basque Country will discover a town devoted to peace

Athletic Club de Bilbao are famed for their Basque heritage; only players from the region can represent the team, but the visit of Manchester United tonight will be a celebration of Anglophilia for a club founded by English quarrymen and local students who had studied in England.

Will Unwin traces the links that make Athletic Club more than a Basque stronghold

England coach ignores the critics and backs unchanged side to shock experienced French

Manchester United 2 Athletic Bilbao 3

Swim, golf, surf – or just Basque in the sunshine. The revamped, cliff-top La Réserve is full of patriotic local colour – and don't miss the chef's l'oeuf piperade

It has been a black week for Nicolas Sarkozy. At a pivotal time in the presidential election campaign, he has suffered what one French newspaper described as “une semaine horribilis”.

Several hundred angry protesters booed President Nicolas Sarkozy, forcing him to take refuge in a café protected by riot police as he campaigned yesterday in France's south-west Basque country.

Neither the travelling fans nor the players' clubs will like how France v Ireland has been rescheduled

Every night, after the last visitor to Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum has left, the prestigious art gallery's newest curator flickers into life. The expert is a robot, which has begun the most exhaustive research ever performed on Picasso's renowned masterpiece, Guernica. The mission: to establish the extent of the damage the 75-year-old painting has sustained during its turbulent life.

The England caretaker's new broom will usher out big names today and fast-track youngsters. By Chris Hewett

Caretaker coach to put faith in fresh group of youngsters when he reveals his squad for the Six Nations today

Until now, Bernardo Atxaga's novels and stories, from Obabakoak in 1989 to The Accordionist's Son in 2003, have all dealt with the contemporary history of the Basque Country: its emigration and conflicts. The best-known Basque writer, Atxaga has often expressed frustration at being typecast. Here, in his latest novel, he breaks radically with this subject-matter, though it was written in the Basque language, Euskera, Atxaga's native tongue spoken by no more than a million people. Seven houses in France is set in the Congo in 1903-1904. Atxaga takes it for granted that Belgian imperialism was criminally responsible for this Heart of Darkness. Against this background, his main interest is to explore the feelings and behaviour of the group of white officers confined in the Yangambi garrison.