Man trapped in Chimney in Johannesburg, South Africa

Joburg emergency personnel have battled for two hours to free a man trapped in a chimney.

The 21-year-old became stuck after allegedly trying to make his way into a Yeoville house through an L-shaped chimney on Sunday.

Emergency personnel first tried to pull him out through the top of the chimney. When that didn't work, they broke their way into the chimney from inside the house.

"He was hanging in there and we broke away some bricks to free him," said spokesperson Malcolm Midgley. The injured man was taken to hospital.

Homeowner Gavin Almazien thought it was a joke when a friend told him someone was in his chimney. He later found out it was a man who had lived with him in the house for about six years.
"I asked him to leave as I couldn't handle his behaviour anymore," Almazien said, adding: "He knew he could knock at my door at any time for help."

By Poloko Tau
This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on September 11, 2006

JAPAN WINS AIR GUITAR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR THE FIRST TIME

Air Guitar World Championships took place in Club Teatria, Oulu, for the 11th time. Japan's strong presence produced a world champion and this year Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke gets a chance to spread the gospel of air guitars. Yosuke outplayed the other skillful contestants with his simplistic but extremely classy air guitarring.

The five finalists who had made their way from the Qualifying Round on Thursday were challenged with Michael "The Destroyer" Heffels, the reigning champion, and the winners from national competitions. There were people from Australia, Austria, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, the United States, Germany, France, Japan, Italy, and the Great Britain. After a round of optional songs, the ten best players performed a song chosen by the organisers, "Who's Your Daddy", the latest single release by Lordi, the winner of this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

In addition to fame and prestige, Yosuke received a custom made Finnish guitar called Flying Finn and a special donation from the Queen guitarist Brian May, a VOX BM Special amplifier, designed by the man himself.

The results of the Air Guitar World Championships are:
1. Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke (Japan) 35.4
2. Clay "Bangers" Connolly (Australia) 34.8
3. Christian "Heart Buckboard" Sweep (Germany) 34.6
4. Gabriele "The Hoxton Creeper" Matzeu (United Kingdom) 33.9
5. Takeshi "Takeshi the SAMURI Kongochi" Kongochi (Japan) 33.8
6. Craig "Hot Lixx Hulahan" Billmeier (United States) 33.7
6. Rainer "Le Freak" Fussgänger (Austria) 33.7
8. Romain "Sideburn" Lesaffre (France) 33.4
9. Christian "Der Prettauer" Steinhauer (Italy) 33.1
10. Benjamin "Helmutt" Greaney (New Zealand) 32.7
11. Karita "Rässi Rinsessa" Kivioja (Finland) 16.7
11. Michael "The Destroyer" Heffels (The Netherlands) 16.7
11. Igmar "Iggy Stardust" De Haan (The Netherlands) 16.7
11. Eero "Oulun oma poika" Ojala (Finland) 16.7
15. Max "Max" Heller (Austria) 16.4
16. Kanagawa "Super IQ" IQ (Japan) 16.2
17. Terje "Doc" Stephansen (Norway) 15.7

The chair of the prestigious jury was, for the 11th time now, Juha Torvinen, a legendary Finnish guitarist himself. In addition to Torvinen, the jury included Sami Lopakka, an ex-guitarist from Sentenced; Marzi Nyman, a real guitar virtuoso; Milton Mermikides, a guitar professor of Royal Academy of Music London; and Philipp Brammer, the organiser of the Austrian competition.

As usual, the contestants welcomed everyone to join in as they played their guitars along with the song Rocking in the Free World. Air guitarists believe that all the bad things disappear from the world when everyone plays the air guitar, you know.

The first ever CIRKO Festival: 18th-29th October 2006

The CIRKO Helsinki Contemporary Circus Festival 2006 is an event for all interested in modern circus and the performing arts. During the week and a half there will performances by 13 acts from France and Finland at various venues throughout Helsinki.

The festival, being organised or the first time, is enabled by the tight cooperation between Cirko –Centre of New Circus and Centre Culturel Français, the City of Helsinki, The Cultural Office of the City of Helsinki and 5-3-1 the Festival of New Juggling.

Cirko - Centre for New Circus was established in Finland in the autumn of 2002 for the purpose of gathering together the resources of new circus groups and artists and to promote new circus. In the spring of 2004 the Finnish Cultural Foundation granted Cirko significant three-year funding for a development project, giving Cirko the decisive impetus for starting its activities. Cirko was established as a response to the development of new circus in Finland in the mid-1990s.

A few of the performances include:
From France: Compagnie Pré-O-C-Coupé´s LES KUNZ fascinates, COUNTREPOINT by Les Objets Volants, Compagnie XY
From Finland: Ville Walo and Kalle Hakkarainen´s DISCUSSIONS, Tatu Tyni introduces his production MULTIMAGIGA

For further details of the festival click here.

To visit Helsinki click here.

The only ferry route between Britain and Sweden to be discontinued from the end of October.

Danish shipping company DFDS Seaways is to scrap the only passenger ferry route between Sweden and Britain, with the axing of the Gothenburg-Newcastle route at the end of October.

The company said that "a number of factors" were behind the decision, including rising fuel costs and falling passenger numbers.

DFDS has been running ships between Gothenburg and England for decades, with the Newcastle route the last to close. The company had previously also served ports including Harwich and Immingham.

The company said it would still continue to operate routes to England from Norway and Denmark. The company said it was in the process of purchasing the M/S Fjord Norway from rival ferry company Fjord Line, and would run the ship on a Norway-Newcastle route.

DFDS has faced competition from airlines in recent years on its routes between the UK and Sweden's second city. Ryanair has invested in new lines from Gothenburg, and FlyMe has recently introduced new flights to London.

DFDS Seaways' sister company, DFDS Tor Line, will continue to run shceduled freight ships between Gothenburg and several English ports, although these have limited capacity for passengers.

Published: 6th September 2006 15:11 CET
The Local by James Savage

Image by Kjell Holmner, Goteborg & Co.

The 11th Anniversary taking place in Oulu, Finland.

Tomorrow sees the start of the Air Guitar World Championships in Oulu, Finland. Finalists from 11 countries will be competing for the world title.  The event runs along side the Oulu Music Video Festival.

Following qualifying rounds on Thursday 7 September, The Grand Final will take place on Friday 8 September 2006 at Finland’s biggest rock club, Club Teatria.

During competition intervals there will be performances from the Finnish rock bands The Sweatmaster and The Crash!

Besides fame and glory the winner of the Air Guitar World Championships will be awarded a hand-made Flying Finn electric guitar and the Queen guitarist Brian May's donation, a Signature Vox amp.

The evening will be rounded off with the finalists and their fans gathering to play air guitar together for world peace!

For further information visit the Air Guitar World Championships Site, click here.

Image provided with thanks by wgarcia / Wilfrido García Espinosa , Flickr

Televised debate to be in their second language as it is felt they will be less evasive and will keep it simple.

There can’t be many countries where you could persuade four high-level politicians to turn up for a televised election debate in their second language.

But this is Sweden, and Swedish politicians are as keen as the rest of their fellow countrymen to show-off their English skills – as well as to give people who understand English better than Swedish the chance to hear the issues debated.
That’s why on Wednesday evening SVT will be showing Election 2006, a one-hour debate between representatives of the two blocs competing to form Sweden’s next government.

Presenter Keith Foster says that the main aim of the debate is to give immigrants a better understanding of the election, with four leading politicians discussing issues including unemployment and immigrants’ integration in Sweden.

But the programme should be interesting even for people with a grasp of Swedish and for Swedes themselves.

Doing a debate in English makes it harder for politicians to be evasive, Foster says:

“When politicians are asked questions in a foreign language, it’s harder for them to avoid answering.”

"It also keeps the debate at a basic level - you don't have to have a knowledge of Swedish political history to be able to grasp it," he says.

The debate, pre-recorded last week, will also be unusual for only featuring women: the Social Democrats are represented by sustainable development minister Mona Sahlin and foreign aid minister Carin Jämtin, while the Alliance is represented by Centre Party leader Maud Olofsson and the Moderates’ Ewa Björling.

The debate takes place on Wednesday, 6th September, at 9:30 pm on SVT1.

The Local: James Savage

Image by: R Ryan. Stockholm Visitors Board

Finland continues to make preparations for next years Eurovision contest.

Next years Eurovision contest is to be held in Helsinki following the win by the Finnish band Lordi in Athens earlier this year.

The 2007 Eurovision Song Contest is to take place on 10th May (semi-final) and 12th May (final).

Although there was intense competition from various venues throughout Finland, YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, have chosen the Helsinki Arena (Hartwell) as the location for the event due to ease of access and capacity.  Additional facilities will still have to be built at the Arena to accommodate both the contestants and the media.

It is estimated the event will cost 13 million Euros to stage, a cost that will be met by YLE, Finnish government, City of Helsinki and ticket sales. The City of Helsinki has plans to arrange events throughout the city in the week leading up to Eurovision final to help in creating a festival atmosphere.

A definite date for tickets to go on sale has not yet been set but it will probably be during the autumn.

Within Finland there is a great deal of interest as to who will host the event on the night with many TV personalities, actors and pop stars being mentioned. The name of the hosts will be announced in January. You just know that whoever they choose will delight Mr Wogan!

A Finnish Opera Singer in collision with a squirrel!

A squirrel scampered into the bicycle wheel of an unlucky Finnish opera singer, causing him to fall, knock himself out and break his nose just ahead of the world premiere of a new opera.

Esa Ruuttunen was pedalling his way to the Helsinki Opera House last month when the squirrel ran into his spokes.

The singer ended up concussed and in a local hospital, rather than at his rehearsals for the Finnish opera Kaarmeen hetki (Hour of the Serpent), which opens on September 15.
"He is not yet singing in rehearsals, but thinks he will be able to perform at the world premiere," Finnish National Opera spokeswoman Heidi Almi told Reuters.

The squirrel died in the accident.

Santa will let Finnair do the flying when he visits New Delhi.

Finnish carrier Finnair's soon to be introduced non-stop flights between Helsinki and New Delhi would be accompanied by some happy chortling, with the airline planning to fly Santa Claus from the Arctic Circle to the tropics to promote the service.

The Finnish Santa Claus, who lives above the Arctic Circle in Lapland region and each year receives over 11 million letters from believers across the world, including India, would visit New Delhi shortly after the inaugural flight on October 30.

"It (Santa's visit) will be part of the promotional campaign," Finnair President and CEO Jukka Hienonen said.
Finland already considers Santa Claus as its most important PR person who receives loads of visitors at his home in Rovaniemi in Lapland.

In fact, a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis by the Finnish Tourist Board lists Santa as Finland's unique selling point, besides the country's serene environment.
Santa Claus, who has his own post office in Finland, will take part in the official opening of the airline's services in New Delhi on November nine and will also visit kindergartens and some hospitals in the Indian Capital.

Finnair, more than 40 per cent of whose business is already Asia related, is betting big on the direct India service, which would be scaled up to five a week by summer 2007 from the initial three flights.

For more information about meeting Santa in Lapland this Christmas click here.

August temperatures near record levels

The month of August crowned what has been a phenomenally warm summer in Finland. In the southern and western parts of the country as well as in Lapland, August was the warmest month of the whole season.

In a long-term comparison, the August temperatures came very close to the all-time record levels from 2002 and 1937. 
Apart from the very north of Lapland, the summer's mean temperatures in the entire country ranged between 15 and 18 degrees Celsius. This is a couple of degrees above the 1971-2000 average.

     
In many areas the number of days when the mercury climbed above +25 Celsius was double the norm. 
The most "officially hot" days, 37 in all, were recorded in the municipality of Suomusjärvi in the province of Western Finland. The summer's highest temperature, +32.1 Celsius was measured in Lammi in Southern Finland.
     

The summer of 2006 was exceptionally dry. Helsinki's Kaisaniemi received only 34 millimetres of precipitation this summer. Comparisons with measurements taken since 1845 reveal that this was the lowest reading ever. The previous record, 47 millimetres, was from 1868. 

The capital area as a whole, as well as the Gulf of Bothnia, the northern arm of the Baltic Sea, received less than 60 millimetres of precipitation, which is less than a fourth of the long-term average. 

The longest spell of fine weather started in Kauhava on July 14th, lasting for four and a half weeks. The Kemi-Tornio Airport's five-and-a-half-week record from 1969 remains the longest-ever streak of clear skies in Finland. 

Helsinki's Kumpula district, as well as the islands of Utö and Valassaaret, received a record-breaking 1,000 odd hours of sunshine this summer.

As reported in Helsinki Sanomat.

To visit Finland click here.