Evening Edition

China called the award in Oslo a “political farce.”

President Barack Obama, a Peace Prize laureate last year, called for the prompt release of 54-year-old Liu, who was jailed last year for 11 years for subversion.

Democracy campaigner Liu, who was jailed late last year for 11 years for subversion, was represented at the award ceremony in the Norwegian capital Oslo by an empty chair after China prevented friends and family from attending.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he regretted Liu and his wife were denied the chance to attend the ceremony,

The latest step to raise the reserve requirement ratio (RRR), aimed at mopping up excess cash in the economy, had been widely expected after Beijing announced a shift to a “prudent” monetary policy from the previous “moderately loose” stance earlier this month.

China earlier reported strong trade figures for November that could fuel fresh criticism of Beijing’s exchange rate regime, and ahead of data on Saturday that is expected to show another pick-up in inflation, already running at its fastest clip in more than two years.

Component suppliers for the U.S. company are gearing up for a new round of production in the first quarter, these sources said on Friday.

A smaller iPad would be a departure as Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs has publicly rejected the idea of such a device in October.

Thousands of students, furious at government plans to raise the cap on tuition fees almost threefold, fought running battles with police throughout the center of the capital on Thursday.

At one point the protesters surrounded a limousine carrying Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth’s oldest son and heir, and his wife Camilla, kicking the doors, cracking a window and throwing white paint on the car. The couple escaped unhurt.

The automaker’s chief executive, Dan Akerson, told the Washington Economic Club that he would meet with the Obama administration’s acting special paymaster, Pat Geoghegan, later on Friday to discuss the matter.

“We have to be competitive and attract and retain great people. We’ve been able to do that. But we’re starting to lose them,” Akerson said.

Obama said any effort to streamline the multilayered U.S. tax code would be challenging but if successful, it could set the stage for more robust growth.

Tax reform is an idea backed by many in the business community who say the current corporate tax structure puts American firms at a competitive disadvantage.

Earlier on Friday, European central bankers had told euro zone governments they could not count on the ECB alone to solve a debt crisis which has forced bailouts of Greece and Ireland, and heaped pressure on countries like Portugal and Spain.

At a news conference in the southwestern city of Freiburg, Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy presented a united front ahead of a crucial summit next week where EU leaders are expected to agree the terms of a permanent rescue mechanism for the bloc.

Flames roared, and thick, toxic gray smoke billowed from the single-story, wood-framed “bomb house” as the long-planned controlled incineration began shortly before 11 a.m. local time, touched off by remote control.

The structure was engulfed within minutes, and five gunshot-like bangs rang out, accompanied by intermittent, loud popping and crackling sounds, before the most intense phase of the fire died down within 35 minutes.

Most companies have no protection at all against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which put computer servers out of action by overwhelming them with requests — and most will never become targets.

But for those who are attacked, the consequences can be huge — the loss of a single day’s pre-Christmas sales could easily cost hundreds of millions of dollars for an online retail giant like Amazon, which has been targeted by activists this week.

Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked the legislation, which would have lifted the military’s 17-year-old ban on openly gay troops. The measure was tucked into a broader defense policy bill and had passed the House last spring.

It failed in a 57-40 test vote, falling three votes short of the 60 needed to advance.

Democrats have objected to the deal on grounds it is too generous to the rich, especially its provisions cutting estate taxes for the wealthiest Americans. House Democrats voted in a closed-door meeting Thursday not to allow the package to reach the floor for a vote without changes.

Asked about those objections, Obama said there will be talks between House and Senate leaders about the package’s final details.

It was the first time in 74 years the prestigious $1.4 million award was not handed over, because Liu is serving an 11-year sentence in China on subversion charges for urging sweeping changes to Beijing’s one-party communist political system.

China was infuriated when the 54-year-old literary critic won, describing the award as an attack on its political and legal system. Authorities have placed Liu’s supporters, including his wife, Liu Xia, under house arrest to prevent anyone from picking up his prize.

The buyer was identified by the auction house Sotheby’s in New York as an American private collector. Frayed, torn, and with possible bloodstains, the flag had been valued before its sale at up to $5 million.

Since 1895, the 7th U.S. Cavalry flag – known as a “guidon” for its swallow-tailed shape – had been the property of the Detroit Institute of Arts, which paid just $54 for it.

“It made him realize he was no longer in the graces of the gods, that things could go wrong,” said Ray Manzarek, the band’s keyboard player. “Jim had a great line – in that year we had a great visitation of energy. We had the mandate of heaven. And I think at that moment, he lost the mandate of heaven.”

An arrest warrant was issued for Morrison four days after a March 1, 1969, concert at the Dinner Key Auditorium. He turned himself in, was tried the next year and convicted on two charges. Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida’s Cabinet members pardoned Morrison of those convictions Thursday.

If successful, the two-week Cancun meeting will create a fund of $100 billion a year for developing countries threatened by altered weather patterns, and give them the technology to leapfrog old petroleum-based economic development in favor of clean energy.

“This is a crucial day, not only for the process but for the climate,” said Joke Schauvliege, a leader of the European Union delegation.

The records are in such disarray that the FAA says it is worried that criminals could buy planes without the government’s knowledge, or use the registration numbers of other aircraft to evade new computer systems designed to track suspicious flights. It has ordered all aircraft owners to re-register their planes in an effort to clean up its files.

About 119,000 of the aircraft on the U.S. registry have “questionable registration” because of missing forms, invalid addresses, unreported sales or other paperwork problems, according to the FAA. In many cases, the FAA cannot say who owns a plane or even whether it is still flying or has been junked.

The 74-year-old leader faces a no-confidence vote next week that will determine the fate of his government. Just weeks ago, it appeared Berlusconi had little chance of winning after his biggest ally withdrew his backing – effectively depriving him of the votes he would need to survive Tuesday’s challenge.

But the wily billionaire media tycoon, who has shaken off countless crises in the past, has battled back, gaining support as he argues instability would hurt Italy at a time of economic crisis. The comeback includes ingredients of typical Berlusconi-style political drama: backroom deals, mudslinging, vote-buying rumors.

Riding a wave of popularity that has transformed a striptease genre into a cleaned-up and clothed version for fitness clubs around the world, Judd and dozens of the world’s top pole dancers – male and female – gathered in Tokyo this week for the International Pole Dancing Championships, a premier event in the budding sport.

As always – the championships are in their third year – it was a colorful field.

Gunfire ripped through post-earthquake shanties near the ruins of the national palace on Thursday afternoon, killing at least one man and injuring several more, witnesses said. Third-place candidate and carnival singer Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly blamed the attack on supporters of government-backed candidate Jude Celestin, who is edging him out by less than 1 percentage point for a spot in a January run-off.

The provisional electoral council announced a seeming compromise on Thursday afternoon with a re-count of tally sheets at which international observers and the three leading candidates – Celestin, Martelly and first-place vote-getter and former first lady Mirlande Manigat – could attend.

Whether it worked in the trial of five current or former New Orleans police officers in the shooting death of a man outside a strip mall is open for debate. One was convicted Thursday of manslaughter, another of burning the body, a third of lying about the incident. But two others were acquitted, and no one was found guilty of murdering 31-year-old Henry Glover.

The next test of Katrina’s effect on police accused of crimes could come in June, when a trial is scheduled for officers charged with gunning down two people and wounding four others on a bridge less than a week after the August 2005 storm.

Many months before delivering the farewell address in which he famously warned about the strength of the American “military-industrial” complex, Eisenhower weighed various ideas for the speech, but concerns about the military were always central to his remarks.

The Eisenhower Presidential Library on Friday unveiled previously unseen drafts of the speech that were found recently in a cabin owned by Eisenhower speechwriter Malcolm Moos.

Across the South, preparations are under way for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. And while many organizations are working to incorporate both the black and the white experience, there are complaints that some events will glorify the Old South and the Lost Cause while overlooking the fundamental reason for the war: slavery.

“It’s almost like celebrating the Holocaust,” said Benard Simelton, president of the Alabama conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “Our rights were taken away and we were treated as less than human beings. To relive that in a celebratory way I don’t think is right.”

The report, titled “Hitler’s Shadow: Nazi War Criminals, U.S. Intelligence, and the Cold War,” was authored by historians hired by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. It was sent to Congress late Thursday.

The report draws from an unprecedented trove of records on individuals and clandestine operations that the CIA was persuaded to declassify, and from over 1 million digitized Army intelligence files that had long been inaccessible.

Hazardous material officers plan to gently assess the danger of the charred property that was set ablaze Thursday morning in a controlled burn after nearby residents were evacuated. They also will analyze the leaves of trees for toxins.

Then they will scrape 2 to 6 inches of dirt off the half-acre lot to ensure there is no dangerous residue left.

In California and throughout the country, farmers open up their land to tourists, set up roadside stands and travel the farmers market circuit, but they also moonlight as mechanics, pool cleaners and even authors. They make jam and paint landscapes, work at banks and own businesses in order for the farm to survive.

Farmers such as John Mesrobian, 62, who grows grapes near Fresno, Calif., said he’d like to farm full time but still must spend much of his time at his document shredding business.

One of the judges is Chief Judge Edith Brown Clement of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, who was on President George W. Bush’s short list for a Supreme Court nomination in 2005. The others are the current and prior chief judges for the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Alice Batchelder and Danny Boggs.

The three judges are board members of the Montana-based Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, or FREE. The group advocates voluntary action to protect the environment instead of government regulation. It receives most of its money from foundations and corporations but says it uses no corporate money for seminars it runs for federal judges, law professors and others, usually at Western resorts.

Facing GOP objections, Democrats put aside the so-called Dream Act and said they’d try again to advance it before year’s end. They’re short of the 60 votes needed to do so, however, and critics in both parties quickly said they won’t change their minds in the waning days of the Democratic-controlled Congress.

“This is mainly a political exercise rather than a serious attempt to deal with our broken immigration system,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

In a major security breach, demonstrators set upon the heir to the throne’s Rolls Royce as it drove through London’s busy West End on its way to a theater. A group of up to 20 struck it with fists, sticks and bottles, breaking a window and splattering the gleaming black vehicle with paint.

In the frenzy, some chanted “off with their heads!”

National Right to Life held a strategy conference this week in Arlington, Va., to offer its state affiliates guidance for the 2011 legislative session. Indiana, Iowa and Kentucky lawmakers have already started drafting bills similar to Nebraska’s law, and abortion opponents are pushing lawmakers in Kansas, Maryland and Oklahoma to do the same.

“What Nebraska did was fantastic,” said Margie Montgomery, the executive director of Kentucky Right to Life. “That makes us more excited about it. Now we can point to it – it’s already a law in Nebraska. That’s really good for us.”

But defense lawyers said the incident was a fight spurred by an accidental bump, not bias.

Eddie Crespo, an officer with a transportation police force, and friend Albert Melendez were charged Thursday with robbery and assault, both as hate crimes.

Amber Yust, 23, said the clerk at the department’s San Francisco office processed her application for a license with her female name in October.

She received the letter addressed to her old name, David, four days later. It identified the writer as the person who processed Yust’s application.

“This is tough, tough work, but it’s desperately needed,” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Thursday.

Most of the schools fired their principals and changed their entire approach to learning this school year, while others replaced much of the staff. Yet Duncan said “there’s been no drama about it. Folks have moved with an urgency that’s sort of fantastic to watch.”