No go for trip to disputed isles

A Chinese man was rescued by the Japan Coast Guard after a failed attempt to land a hot-air balloon on islands at the centre of a bitter dispute between Tokyo and Beijing, a Japanese official said yesterday.

Japan calls the islands the Senkakus and China calls them Diaoyu.

The 35-year-old took off from China's Fujian province on Wednesday morning. A Japanese rescue helicopter found the balloon 22km south of the islands, the official said.

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