28/03/2011

Available for over a year

MARIA AMELIE Maria Amelie is an illegal immigrant who's become big news in Norway. Her parents fled from the Russian Republic of North Ossetia after facing persecution there. When Maria was fifteen years old, they settled in Norway. Their application for asylum was rejected, but they managed to stay in their adopted country. Maria did well at school and even studied at university. But after telling her story in a book called "illegally Norwegian" she was deported. Maria tells Matthew Bannister why she hopes, one day, to return to Norway. ALBIN JOHNSON - INTERNATIONAL STORMTROOPER There are many ways to react to losing a leg in a car accident. But surely one of the most unusual ones is to start dressing up as a Stormtrooper - one of the white, armour-clad soldiers that defends Darth Vader in the film Star Wars. That's exactly what Albin Johnson from South Carolina in the USA did. And what started as a way of cheering himself up has now become a world wide phenomenon. He's the leader of the 501st legion - otherwise known as "Vader's Fist" - an organisation which now has more than five thousand members all over the world.