Opera and Div problem

hi all,

When I remove content of the right and left div, the div itself disappears in Opera 8.01. If I add the content, that part of the div which this content is in there, will show up not all the div. How can I solve this? It is fine in IE6 and firefox 1.06 and NS 7.2 though.

second problem is that Opera adds a gap between two divs, I would like to know how I can remove the gap?

third is that in all browsers (IE6, NS 7.2, FF 1.0.6 and Opera 8.01) content of the left div is exactly on its border with the right div. I would like to have 5px right padding in the left div only. Adding padding:5px or marging:5px to the left div's css won't work.

I really need your help please. Thanks for your input.

here it is the code:colors are for presentation purposes.