php: get latest twitter status

gistfile1

class twitter {

	public $twitter_base = 'http://twitter.com/statuses';
	public $twitter_username = '<-username->'; //Your username here

  function latest(){       

		$url = "$this->twitter_base/user_timeline/$this->twitter_username.xml?count=5";
		$content = file_get_contents($url);

		$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($content);
		$status_item = $xml->status;

		$status =  $status_item->text;
		return $status;

	}

}