Cannes honors

"The Class," a French movie about classroom life that featured real students and teachers from a junior-high school, took the top honor, the Palme d'Or, at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday. Director Laurent Cantet shot the film in a raw, improvisational style as he tracked a year in the life of the school. The decision of the nine-member jury was unanimous, said jury chairman Sean Penn.

Benicio Del Toro took best-actor honors for "Che," Steven Soderbergh's four-hour-plus epic about Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara. Sandra Corveloni, of Brazil, was named best actress for "Linha de Passe," in which she plays the mother of four brothers in a Brazilian slum. Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan was named best director for "Three Monkeys," about a father who takes the rap for his employer's crime in exchange for financial support for his wife and son.

The jury awarded special prizes to Clint Eastwood, whose film "Changeling," starring Angelina Jolie, was a Cannes competitor, and Catherine Deneuve, who appeared in two of this year's Cannes films.

People

Sen. Inouye weds

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, the third most senior member of the Senate, married Irene Hirano in a small private ceremony in Beverly Hills, Calif. The 83-year-old Hawaii Democrat and Hirano were wed Saturday in Honolulu and then left for Carmel, Calif., for their honeymoon. Irene Hirano is president of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. Inouye's wife of nearly 60 years, Margaret, died in 2006 of complications from colon cancer.

Can you dig it?

Camels roamed Arizona

A fossilized bone fragment discovered at the site of a future water-treatment facility in Gilbert, Ariz., in March is now believed to come from the left distal humerus — upper arm bone — of the ancient Camelops, an extinct species of camels. "It probably looked a heck of a lot like a modern camel," paleontologist Robert McCord said. "A really big modern camel though." The camel grew to about 7 feet tall at its shoulders and appeared in the late Pliocene epoch, which extended from about 5 million years ago to nearly 2 million years ago. It survived until about 10,000 years ago, during the Earth's last ice age. "People probably saw these [camels]," McCord said.

Passages

Bob Florence, 75, a Grammy Award-winning bandleader and music arranger whose elegant harmonic stylings brought him a devoted following in jazz circles, died May 15 of pneumonia in Los Angeles.

Today in History

1868: The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ended with his acquittal on the remaining charges.

1960: U.N. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge accused the Soviets of hiding a microphone inside a wood carving of the Great Seal of the United States that had been presented to the U.S. embassy in Moscow.

1981: 14 people were killed when a Marine jet crashed onto the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off Florida.

1998: The Supreme Court made it far more difficult for police to be sued by people hurt during high-speed chases. The Supreme Court ruled that Ellis Island — historic gateway for millions of immigrants — is mainly in New Jersey, not New York.

Today's Birthdays

Actor James Arness, 85. Singer Stevie Nicks, 60. Actress Pam Grier, 59. Actor Philip Michael Thomas, 59. Country singer Hank Williams Jr., 59. Former astronaut Sally K. Ride, 57. Actress Margaret Colin, 51. Actress Genie Francis, 46. Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, 46. Singer Lenny Kravitz, 44. Actress Helena Bonham Carter, 42. Actor Joseph Fiennes, 38. Actor-producer-writer Matt Stone, 37.

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