A gigantic whale-like balloon with pendulous udder-like appendages, designed to mark the centenary of Australia's capital Canberra, has divided opinion, with some branding it an ugly waste of money and others saying it is an inspiration. Skywhale, believed to be the first hot-air balloon commissioned to celebrate a city's 100th birthday, has the flowing form of a giant pink-and-black-hued fish. But its face could be that of a parrot, or a turtle, and the renowned artist who designed it, Patricia Piccinini, refuses to say just what it is.

Five women who were riding in a hot air balloon were found Sunday after being rescued from the Pacific Ocean, while workers searched for two male passengers who are still missing, officials said. "Thank God, we have located five female occupants and we are continuing to search for the two missing men, whom we hope to find alive," Interior Minister Wilfredo Pedraza told reporters on Canete beach south of Lima. The women were spotted at sea and immediately rescued by two helicopters and a patrol, Pedraza said. They were being treated in hospital.

Sao Paulo, April 5 (EFE).- A team of Brazilian scientists plan to use a pair of stratospheric balloons to study the energy produced by explosions on the Sun, the head of the project said. The specially equipped balloons have to reach the stratosphere - 40 kilometers (25 miles) above the Earth's surface - because the frequencies the researchers want to study cannot penetrate the atmosphere, Pierre Kauffmann told Efe.

The bodies of nine Hong Kong people who were among the 19 killed in a hot air balloon tragedy in Egypt last month were flown back to the southern Chinese city Monday. The bodies of the five women and four men have arrived in Hong Kong and will be transferred to a public mortuary, a government spokeswoman said. The balloon was carrying 21 people at an altitude of 300 metres (1,000 feet) during a sunrise flight over Egypt's ancient temple city of Luxor on February 26 when it caught fire.