Round-the-World Balloon Attempt Jeopardized

It's a fitting testament to the perils of ballooning that this 18th-century technology has never been successfully employed to circumnavigate the globe. But where technical difficulties, bad weather and worse luck have taken their toll in the past, the dark clouds of politics are threatening now as Richard Branson, Steve Fossett and Per Lindstrand approach northern Chinese airspace -- which Chinese authorities insist is off limits.

The veteran balloonists had obtained permission to overfly southern China, but had to change course to avoid Iraq (for obvious reasons) and a storm over the weekend; they are now over the Himalayas, with no landing options in sight, and striving to to steer their craft southward. Meanwhile, their liaison on the ground -- along with the British government and former prime minister Edward Heath -- continues to make appeals to the Chinese. It's par for a rough course: Over the weekend, Libya gave the flight a last-minute reprieve after suddenly withdrawing permission. The hot-air balloon took off from Marrakech, Morocco, on Friday morning, and could reach Europe by New Year's if all goes smoothly. Too bad they didn't take along one of these killjoy politicians, who could probably provide an inexhaustible supply of buoyant gas.