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Students barricaded themselves inside buildings on University of California campuses to protest a 32 percent increase in student fees and budget cuts that have led to slashed programs and lost jobs.Demonstrators at UC Berkeley occupied Wheeler Hall on Friday and hung a sign from a window that read “32 Percent Hike, 900 layoffs,” with the word “Class” crossed out in red.

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Palestinians seek protection from gas Palestinian protesters run from tear gas fired by Israeli troops during a demonstration against Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank village of Nilin near Ramallah, Friday. Israel says the barrier is necessary for security, while Palestinians call it a land grab.

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A group of students also rallied outside the building.Campus police said they had arrested three of the demonstrators inside.

The Daily Californian student newspaper said it received a text message from a protester in the building who put the number still inside at 60 undergraduates and graduate students.The occupiers were demanding the university rehire laid-off custodial workers and give amnesty to anyone arrested in the protest.

PORTLAND, Ore.

Pumpkin shortage reported

The holidays may not be so sweet this year. Nestle — which sells nearly all the canned pumpkin in the U.S. — says poor weather hurt its harvest, creating a potential shortage of its Libby’s pumpkin pie products through the holidays.

The company said heavy rains made it nearly impossible to pick its pumpkins during this year’s harvest. The longer the pumpkins sit in the muddy fields, the more they deteriorate. As a result, the company announced this week that it would not pack any more pumpkins for the season — which means it may be hard to find its canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie filling product until next year’s harvest.

GENEVA

Atom smasher restarted

Scientists switched on the world’s largest atom smasher Friday night for the first time since the $10 billion machine suffered a spectacular failure more than a year ago.

It took a year of repairs before beams of protons circulated late Friday in the Large Hadron Collider for the first time since it was heavily damaged by a simple electrical fault.Circulation of the beams was a significant leap forward.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research has taken the restart of the collider step by step to avoid further setbacks as it moves toward new scientific experiments — probably starting in January — regarding the makeup of matter and the universe.

CHICAGO

Oprah will end talk show

Holding back tears, Oprah Winfrey told her studio audience Friday that she would end her show in 2011 after a quarter-century on the air, saying prayer and careful thought led her to her decision.Winfrey told the audience that she loved “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” that it had been her life and that she knew when it was time to say goodbye.

“Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and feels right in my spirit,” she said.

The powerhouse show became the foundation for her multibillion-dollar media empire but saw its ratings slip 7 percent last season before rebounding in the last couple months.

Winfrey, 55, is widely expected to start up a new talk show on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, a much-delayed 50-50 joint venture with Discovery Communications Inc. that is projected to debut in January 2011.