American balloonist heading for Black Sea

The American hot-air balloonist, Steve Fossett, who took off from Saint Louis in the United States on New Year's Eve, is now over Central Europe on his third attempt to fly non-stop around the world.

By flying low, he changed course to avoid Libya, which had initially refused him permission to fly through its airspace.

The authorities in Tripoli later relented, but by then he was heading towards the Black Sea.

A year ago, when Mr Fossett was making a previous round-the-world attempt in another hot-air balloon, he used up too much burner gas in manoeuvres to avoid Libya and was forced to land prematurely in India.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service