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Marwan Barghouti's name evokes strong reactions on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since the Islamist group Hamas forcibly took control of the Gaza Strip in June, there are new calls in Israel and the Palestinian territories to release the 48-year-old jailed Fatah leader.

The Automobile Club of Southern California, the state's fourth-largest provider of auto insurance, says it will now base its rates on driving records and how much customers drive, not on their zip codes. The move could reduce policyholder rates by millions of dollars, and set a national precedent.

One hundred eleven members of the armed services took the oath of citizenship atop the Midway aircraft carrier in San Diego Friday. The active duty service members hailed from 48 countries. Though the

ADAM RAVETCH: "Because they were an animal that could hold me against my will, could knock my head off and suck the very flesh off my bones."

More than 1,000 letters written to Claude Monet are up for auction in Paris. The senders include fellow artists like Renoir, Manet, Cezanne, Degas, and admirers who reached out to "cher Monet." The Artcurial auction house says it expects the letters, many of them previously unpublished, to sell for more than $600,000.

Two of France's most prestigious book awards have gone to American Jonathan Littell for his first serious novel. Written in French, Les Bienveillantes or The Kindly Ones, is in the form of a memoir by a former SS officer who leads a hidden life in a French town. The novel is a huge hit in France.

Maureen Cavanaugh speaks with renowned soprano Dina Kuznetsova and pianist Joseph Kalichstein as part of Summerfest Encounters on KPBS.

Al Oerter, the discus thrower who won consecutive gold medals in four straight Olympic Games from 1956 to 1968, has died of heart failure. After track, he began a career as an abstract painter. He was 71.

Artists in Port-au-Prince are using bits of garbage and flotsam to create works reflecting poverty, voodoo and the urban Haitian experience.

Drummer Dinerral Shavers and filmmaker Helen Hill seemed to come from separate worlds before they were shot a year ago, but their stories are entwined in New Orleans' post-Hurricane Katrina struggle. Friends and fellow artists are still trying to make sense of their deaths.