“I do have a few bottles of Bud Light but I’m saving it for the landing.”Bud Light sponsored Fossett’s successful attempt.As an official fax from Fossett’s capsule rolled into the mission control, applause broke out and team members finally exchanged hugs.Even before he crossed the finish line, Fossett drew early congratulations from pals Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of England, who together in 1999 became the first balloonists ever to succeed in a round-the-world quest when they traveled over the Northern Hemisphere.”We are very excited that this time seems to be the good one,” Piccard told Fossett. American adventurer Steve Fossett drifted into aviation history today, as he became the first man to fly a balloon solo around the world.
Flying through the darkness over the ocean south of Australia in his silvery Spirit of Freedom balloon, Fossett crossed east of 117 degrees longitude, the line from which he set off two weeks ago.The Chicago investment millionaire covered more than 19,263 miles on the trip, finally succeeding in his sixth attempt at the record.”Steve has crossed the finishing line,” said mission controller Joe Ritchie.Speaking by satellite telephone, a calm sounding Fossett said: “It is a wonderful time for me.”He couldn’t immediately break open champagne in his cramped capsule.”I cant do very much celebrating here,” Fossett said. The latest protest is a hunger strike, which entered its eighth day yesterday.. If convicted, they will probably be deported.Detainees at Woomera have staged several protests against conditions at the centre.

Hore has disrupted public events such as the Australian Open tennis tournament and the funeral of the rock star Michael Hutchence.Twenty recaptured asylum-seekers also appeared in court, charged with escaping federal custody, and were remanded to reappear in court in Adelaide later this week. “It defies logic that you break these people out and then just leave them there,” he said.Three people have been charged with assisting an escape, and yesterday Peter Hore, said to be a “serial pest”, appeared in court for the same offence. Police inspector Des Bray said they were dropped off hours after the break-out by the protesters, who promised to come back to collect them. When they were found, they had been huddled around a campfire for two nights.

The two women drove off.Another group of 13 detainees was abandoned on an isolated stretch of highway without food or water. The asylum-seekers fled in darkness across an area pitted with unmarked mineshafts after the vehicle in which they were travelling – a van painted with flowers – was stopped at a police roadblock. Immigration officials say all those who escaped have had applications for asylum rejected and were being held pending the outcome of appeals.South Australian police said they were looking for two young women believed to have left 10 asylum-seekers near the opal mining town of Coober Pedy, 180 miles north of Woomera. Night-time temperatures have since plunged below zero, and some detainees were suffering from exposure when recaptured.Thirty-five people, from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq broke out of the centre after protesters used cars to demolish a perimeter fence.

Police accused activists yesterday of dumping asylum-seekers in the Australian desert without food or shelter after encouraging them to break out of a remote detention centre.
Fears are mounting for the safety of 10 men, including two boys aged 12 and 14, who are still on the run after escaping from the camp at Woomera on Thursday evening. Everyone says that their parents are dead.”Another nurse, Sher Mohammed, said he heard that scores were dead and injured.. The villagers brought these children and they have no parents. Most of the dead and injured were women and children, they said.”We have many children who are injured and who have no family,” nurse Mohammed Nadir said “Their families are gone. Other coalition aircraft opened fire on the target and at least one bomb went astray.One survivor, Abdul Qayyum, told reporters at the Mir Wais Hospital in Kandahar that the attack began about 2 am and continued until 4 am, after which US special forces ground troops were in the area.”The Americans came and asked me ‘who fired on the helicopters’, and I said ‘I don’t know’ and one of the soldiers wanted to tie my hands but someone said he is an old man and out of the respect they didn’t,” he said.Hospital officials said a number of wounded were being brought to Kandahar. There were reports that as many as 120 people, including many children were killed or hurt in the two–hour onslaught.In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman said an air reconnaissance patrol that was flying over Uruzgan province reported coming under anti-aircraft artillery fire. US helicopter gunships and jets attacked a house in southern Afghanistan today while a wedding was underway, killing and injuring scores of people, witnesses and hospital officials said.
The attack occurred inthe village of Kakarak in Uruzgan province, where special forces and other coalition troops are searching for al–Qaida and Taliban fugitives.