US balloonist Steve Fossett was soaring over the Atlantic in his Solo Spirit balloon yesterday, well on his way to South Africa, officials at his mission control centre reported.
The millionaire's fourth attempt to be the first to circle the globe non-stop in a hot-air balloon was "doing very well", said a spokeswoman at Fossett's mission control at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri.
The Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes, has been appointed a member of the Order of Merit, Buckingham Palace announced yesterday.
Hughes OBE (68) has been Poet Laureate since 1984 and composed works for the Queen's 60th birthday and the Queen Mother's 90th birthday.
The Order of Merit, founded in 1902 by King Edward VII, is awarded to individuals of exceptional distinction. Other members include Baroness Thatcher, Dame Joan Sutherland, Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, and Sir John Gielgud. President Nelson Mandela of South Africa is an honorary member.
It's taken them 35 years and a dozen world tours, but Mick Jagger and co were gearing up yesterday for their first Moscow show, a generation after being rebuffed by a Soviet leadership who knew it was only rock 'n' roll but didn't like it.
As some 400 stage hands and technicians prepared the 70,000capacity Luzhniki stadium in central Moscow for today's gig, Jagger (55) took time out from sightseeing to explain why Russia has had to wait so long for satisfaction from the Rolling Stones.
"It was completely political," the lead singer recalled. "The regime in those days didn't want rock bands in."
As legend would have it, the Soviet authorities of the 1960s and 1970s took a particular dislike to the Stones.