Once derided as sounding like `two skeletons copulating on a tin roof', the harpsichord has made a remarkable comeback. By Nick Kimberley

Mark Dion

THE ARCHAEOLOGISTS knew there were relics of the glass-making history of St Helens to be found when they began digging beneath a cone- shaped building that was once the hub of the town's industry. But they did not foresee the discovery of the remains of what is possibly the oldest glass-making furnace in the world.

Ceramicists are firing up for the new era with Chinese hares and nuclear `relics'.

A SILK flag and a compass used by Captain Robert F Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton in their historic polar explorations were bought last night by the National Maritime Museum.

`Sometimes it seems to me the entire intelligence business is just one gigantic practical joke'

Queen's Park 1 Whelan 45 Forfar 1 Taylor 29 Half-time: 1-1 Attendance: 818

LISBETH ESCALANTE was lounging on the bonnet of her uncle's car in Mexico City when she saw a minor miracle: an apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Though hoodlums tried to scour the image off the windscreen with bleach and petrol, it has remained indelible, and every night worshippers flock to the spot to light candles and present roses in front of the car.

IN THE Middle Ages many pilgrims set out on foot and by boat for Jerusalem. Their goal was to reach the holy city. Next Sunday nine latter- day Christian pilgrims will set out on a relatively modest 670-mile walk from Iona in Scotland to London's Trafalgar Square.

BORIS GODUNOV BOLSHOI OPERA AT THE COLISEUM LONDON

Angola will pay dearly in the future for leaving its young people destitute, writes Peter Moszynski

THE GREAT thing about human prehistory is that it changes at such a rapid pace. If it's the thrill of the new that you want, the relics of our distant ancestors are certainly a better bet for excitement than the music industry or the literary scene. Genuinely new waves in the arts are few and far between, and the froth whipped up instead is a poor substitute. It is extremely rare to encounter an artistic work which makes the world look really different. Yet the shape of the prehistoric world will bend almost as one watches it, and dramatic discoveries are announced every few months.

THE TEXAS Governor, George W Bush, early favourite for next year's Republican presidential nomination, has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn over campaign spending in the first serious mis-step of his month- old bid for the White House.

FINALLY, AFTER 4,000 years in the ground and almost two months of wrangling over it, the central oak stump of the Seahenge Bronze Age memorial was excavated from a Norfolk beach yesterday.