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Republican presidential candidate John McCain courted Latino voters yesterday, when he spoke to the annual meeting of the National Council of La Raza in San Diego. Democratic presidential hopeful Bara

Real life French teacher François Bégaudeau plays an on-screen version of himself in "The Class/Entre les murs" (held over at Landmark's La Jolla Village Theaters), based on his book about his own classroom experiences. We discussed the film on last month's Film Club but I also wanted to highlight the film on my blog. Director Laurent Cantet (who also made "Time Out" and "Heading South") collaborated with Bégaudeau to bring his story to the screen. The ressult is a documentary style portrait of teaching in a contemporary French school. Cantet chose to shoot multiple improvised takes using real students and multiple cameras to chronicle what happens in a single classroom of middle school age students. The film was nominated this year for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and took home the Palm D'Or at Cannes. While there were definitely more worthy films to pick as the best of the year, the Cannes Award is telling because it reflects France's need and maybe desire to try and come to terms with its increasing multi-ethnice make-up, a fact that's been harder to ignore inlight of recent riots and protests.

Peter Morgan's play "Frost/Nixon" premiered in London in 2006 and in what seems like a miraculously short turnaround, "Frost/Nixon" (opening December 12 in select theaters) now arrives on the big screen. The film version also turns to the original stage actors Michael Sheen and Frank Langella (who won the Tony for his performance) to reprise their roles as the British talk show host and former president. Morgan based his play and the screenplay on the series of televised interviews that former President Richard Nixon granted David Frost in 1977. The interviews famously ended with a tacit admission of guilt regarding his role in the Watergate scandal.

British playwright Harold Pinter, who juxtaposed the brutal and the banal in such works as The Caretaker and The Birthday Party and made an art form out of spare language and unbearable silence, won the 2005 Nobel Prize in literature Thursday.

Strummer died in 2002 of a heart attack. Temple never interviewed Strummer for the film, but he amasses a number of audio and video interviews so that Strummer still essentially has a chance to tell his own story. Temple attempts to hook up with not only his fellow Clash band members but other friends from the past and associates from his work in the film world. He avoids almost entirely standard talking heads style interviews. Instead he gathers some of his subjects around a campfire (something Strummer apparently liked to do) and chats with them informally in this outdoor venue. The whole thing feels like an impromptu reunion where people drink and reminisce about old times and Strummer. But Temple's choice to not identify anyone that he interviews can grow annoying, and if you don't know the players, you may get lost. Even if you are familiar with some of the people in Strummer's life, a number of them have aged to such a degree that you must do a double take to recall who they are. The end result is a documentary that feels very insider and exclusive, as if it were made for that circle of friends around the campfire.

Former Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed surrenders to U.S. military officers in Mosul following weeks of negotiations. People who negotiated on Ahmed's behalf say U.S. authorities agreed not to prosecute him. American officials say they promised to treat him with respect and hear his story. Hear NPR's Emily Harris.

In his victory speech Sunday evening, newly elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he wanted to reach out to "his American friends." Analysts say relations between the U.S. and France could improve with the election of the pro-American Sarkozy.

Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy is the new president of France. He easily defeated Socialist Segolene Royal in a runoff vote Sunday. Sarkozy ran on a platform of economic and social reform. Minor protests greeted news of his win.

Tenet Healthcare says it will try to sell Alvarado Hospital to another operator, in hopes of keeping the facility open as an acute care facility. As part of a settlement with federal prosecutors, Tene

Why do some people read the obituary page as a hobby? What should an obituary say about a person? How has the Internet changed how people view obituaries? We speak to a celebrity obituary writer who t