Pharmaceutical giants Merck and GlaxoSmithKline are gearing up for a bruising showdown with America's religious right after the US medicines regulator approved a new blockbuster cervical cancer vaccine last week.

A SKYDIVING ant has won the accolade of being the only wingless insect known to be capable of controlled flight. Scientists found that when they tossed worker canopy ants out of a tree they gracefully glided back to the same tree with incredible accuracy.

As a dozen or so friends and well-wishers cheered and clapped, Scott Duncan and Pamela Habek edged their boat from its pier in San Francisco and set off to circumnavigate the world - an intrepid enough challenge for any sailor but especially daunting for two who are legally blind.

Cuba severed diplomatic relations with Panama on Thursday over a decision by the Panamanian President, Mireya Moscoso, to pardon four Cuban exiles who had been convicted for their part in an assassination attempt on the Cuban President, Fidel Castro.

Sophistication makes its annual appearance on a Newmarket racecourse this week with the advent of the July meeting on the July course, the antidote to the spartan surroundings of its bastard cousin, the Rowley Mile, just up the road.

PANAMA WILL soon have full sovereignty over its territory and the crowds came out to cheer yesterday. The Spanish King Juan Carlos, six heads of state and beribboned dignitaries from all over Latin America gathered in the isthmus to witness the ex-US president Jimmy Carter hand over the Panama Canal.

Cuenca, Ecuador

A year ago, the sailing ship `Fantome' tried to outrun one of the most powerful hurricanes this century. None of the 30-man crew on board that day has ever been found. Simon Worrall tells their tragic tale

Cutting costs

They went digging for their fortunes. But most found only poverty, mud, cholera and racial hatred. One hundred and fifty years later Sasha Abramsky reveals how the Californian Gold Rush of 1849 shaped modern America

"THE WORLD'S greatest living masterpiece", the Chelsea Flower Show, comes into bloom again today. For all its slightly studied attempts to retain the elegance of its pre-Great War origins (the show dates back to 1913), the show remains deservedly popular because it displays some surprisingly modern and pluralistic features.

MONDAY EVENING's Lamacq Live (Radio 1) featured The Stereophonics playing some convincing rock direct from the BBC Hippodrome Theatre at Golders Green. Steve Lamacq has the wisdom on these occasions to leave his guest acts alone with an appreciative audience and allow them to get on with the show uninterrupted. The result is invariably a session heard as the musicians want it to be heard, and The Stereophonics made good use of their allotted time. A powerful performance included the new single "Just Looking" and the much-overlooked "Local Boy in the Photograph". Lead singer Kelly Jones has a fine voice reminiscent of Jake Burns from Stiff Little Fingers, a band still going strong 20 years after they first emerged. With any luck, The Stereophonics will still be flying the flag into the next century.

Gadget of the Week

A hair-raising flight over forests and mountains deposits you in the remote Colombian town of Capurgana, an undiscovered paradise on the edge of the last great wilderness