A thousand miles from land and battered by storms, British solo sailor Mike Golding was sitting it out last night, waiting for a break in the weather, after his 60-foot Ecover had been dismasted.

Everton have announced they have agreed to sign Manchester United's Louis Saha, subject to a medical.

THE PLATE

The Blue Riband for sailing solo across the Atlantic was taken from one Frenchman by another yesterday morning when Thomas Coville set a new time of 5d 19hr 29min 20sec, roaring out of the fog and into the record books off the coast of his native Brittany.

Saturday
The last day's flying for GB Airways. From tomorrow all its aircraft and most routes will be taken over by easyJet.

Good and bad luck have trailed Elmore Judd's career in equal measure. When the name was an alias for the north London keyboardist Jesse Hackett, his selling of his debut Angel Sounds on the street outside Camden's Rhythm Records saw him invited in to record the follow-up for Honest Jon's. Damon Albarn took him to play in Mali, and last year's Glastonbury saw Elmore Judd, now a full band, collaborating with the great French-Algerian wild man Rachid Taha. All good.

Just 24 gale-lashed hours stand today between a truly remarkable Frenchman, Francis Joyon, and a truly remarkable record not just for sailing solo round the world, but the second fastest circumnavigation of all time.

Asterix and Obelix, had they existed, might have paid for their mead and other magic potions with gold-silver-copper coins stamped with elaborate images of men and horses.

Seven out of eight members of the same family who contracted bird flu have died from the disease in what the World Health Organisation describes as the "most worrying incident so far".