The costume itself also can be uncomfortable. Beneath the armor, which breaks down into some 60 pieces, members wear long-sleeved shirts and leggings, plus a swath of fabric around their necks. It takes around 20 minutes to get in costume. Wearers can be a bit clumsy, too, since the helmets obscure peripheral vision.

But owning and wearing the storm trooper suit is the ultimate fan experience, says Los Angeles attorney Lawrence Green, who says he’s “over 30.”

“Some people collect action figures,” he says. “We get to BE action figures.”

Doing charity work began as an afterthought, says Legion founder Albin Johnson, but is now at the core of the group’s activities.

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The Associated Press-Univision Poll of Hispanic adults was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago from March 11-June 3. It is based on a nationally representative random sample of 1,521 Hispanic adults. Data were gathered via mail, the Internet and telephone. The majority of interviews were completed via mail (82 percent); 15 percent were completed by via telephone and four percent via the Internet.

The sponsors and funders of the project include The Associated Press, Univision Communications, Inc., The Nielsen Company and Stanford University. Stanford University’s participation was made possible by a grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Fifty-three percent of interviews were conducted in English and 47 percent were done in Spanish.

All respondents were offered a monetary incentive to complete the study.

The sample of Hispanic households was provided by The Nielsen Company. Nielsen conducts an annual survey of Hispanic households in the United States for its television viewing ratings services. The sample frame for this survey incorporated 3,427 households that were previously contacted by Nielsen and estimated to be Hispanic.

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London – Twenty-first century humanity has mapped oceans and mountains, visited the moon, and surveyed the planets. But for all the progress, people still don’t know one another very well.

That’s the premise of Theodore Zeldin’s “feast of conversations” – events where individuals pair with persons they don’t know for three hours of guided talk designed to get past “Where are you from?”

Mr. Zeldin, an Oxford University dean emeritus who veered into the history of relationships, heads Oxford Muse, a 10-year-old foundation based on the idea that what people need is not more information, but more inspiration and encouragement.

Earlier this month at the View Tube cafe on the site of the London 2012 Olympics, Zeldin oversaw 200 Londoners who “organically” paired up and spoke tête-à-tête. An actual dinner was served. But the real meat was on a “menu of conversation” with topics like, “How have your priorities changed over the years?” Or, “What have you rebelled against in the past?” And “what are the limits of your compassion?”

Humanity, the final frontierTen years ago, Zeldin decided that were he living in the 16th century, he’d want to explore America. If he were in the 20th century, it would be the solar system. Today, the frontier is man.

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ATLANTA – Poverty is perhaps the most important factor in whether inner-city heterosexuals are infected with the AIDS virus, according to the first government study of its kind.

The study, released Monday, suggests that HIV is epidemic in certain poverty-stricken urban neighborhoods. And, more significantly, poor heterosexuals in those neighborhoods were twice as likely to be infected as heterosexuals who lived in the same community but had more money.

Federal scientists found that race was not a factor — there were no significant differences between blacks, whites or Hispanics.

Health officials have long believed poverty drives HIV epidemics, but there have been few studies to back that up. Some research actually contradicts that belief: Studies in Tanzania, Kenya and some other African countries actually found that wealthy people were more likely to be infected than the poor.

“In the United States, we haven’t have a history of looking in depth at the association between poverty and HIV,” said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of HIV/AIDS Prevention for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mermin oversees the CDC team that did the new study.

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GENEVA (AFP) – Sudanese rebel group JEM is to sign a landmark deal with the United Nations this week on the protection of children caught up in the Darfur conflict, mediators said Monday.

“As part of the agreement, the JEM (Justice and Equality Movement) commit to taking all steps necessary to ensure the protection of children in Darfur,” said the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, which brokered the agreement.

“UNICEF will have unimpeded access to all JEM locations to verify compliance with the agreement and the JEM will promise to designate a senior official as the focal point overseeing the agreement’s implementation,” it added.

UNICEF director for Sudan Nils Kastberg will attend the signing ceremony in Geneva on Wednesday, while the JEM delegation will be led by the group’s humanitarian coordinator Suleiman Jamous and spokesman Ahmed Hussein.

Kastberg hailed the move as a “valuable precedent which we hope all parties to the Darfur conflict will follow.”

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