Return to Transcripts main page

Your World Today

Gore Earns Nobel Peace Prize; Climate Change Predictions; Phoenix Airport Death

Aired October 12, 2007 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: His war on global climate change earns him a prize for peace. Former U.S. vice president Al Gore shares a new title as a Nobel laureate.
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Making a plea in Pakistan. Hundreds of families call for the release of loved ones they say are being held in secret prisons.

HOLMES: Potential toxins in your purse? A consumer group finds high levels of lead in brand name lipsticks.

GORANI: And a showdown in France. Fans of rugby's powerhouses get ready for a tough weekend in the quest for the World Cup.

HOLMES: 6:00 p.m. in Paris, 9:00 p.m. in Islamabad.

Welcome to our broadcast seen right around the globe.

I'm Michael Holmes.

GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani.

From Beirut to Boston, Ottawa to Oslo, wherever you are watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

Welcome, everyone.

For years he's been sounding the alarm about global warming, calling it a true emergency that demands action now. Well, Al Gore has received perhaps the biggest and most prestigious boost possible for his awareness campaign, the Nobel Peace Prize. The former U.S. vice president will share the award with U.N. experts for their efforts to help counter manmade climate change.

Jonathan Mann has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Al Gore could have been remembered by history for the prize he didn't get, the 2000 presidential election that was decided by a handful of votes, hanging chads and the U.S. Supreme Court. Instead, he transformed himself from former vice president and former candidate into global campaigner, and his campaign to alert the world to the dangers of climate change has now received the ultimate accolade, in a joint prize with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

PROF. OLE DANBOLT MJOS, CHAIRMAN, NORWEGIAN NOBEL COMMITTEE: The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared in two equal parts between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, and Albert Arnold Al Gore, Jr., for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about manmade climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.

MANN: Gore traveled the United States lecturing about global warming, lectures that became the Academy Award-winning film "An Inconvenient Truth" and spread Gore's message around the world. The British government even distributed it to every high school in the country.

Ironically, just before the prize was announced, a British judge ruled that it should come with a warning that it promotes partisan political views and is wrong about some of its facts. But environmentalists, such as 2004 Nobel winner Wangari Maathai, say the Nobel committee gave the prize to entirely the right people.

WANGARI MAATHAI, 2004 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER: I think that this duo (ph) really deserved this prize. They have brought to the fore a very important global issue and I just can't contain myself. I'm so pleased about this prize and the candidates.

MANN: Gore himself said in a written statement, "We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue. It is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level."

Gore said he'll donate his portion of the $1.5 million prize to the Alliance for Climate Protection, but the most important honor will remain his, recognition with arguably the most prestigious prize in the world.

Jonathan Mann, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: As a prominent politician, activist and filmmaker, Al Gore may be earning much of the attention today, but he gets equal billing, as we saw in Jon Mann's report there, with the lesser known Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, known by its U.N. acronym as the IPCC.

Now, the group was founded about 20 years ago by the World Meteorological Organization and the U.N. Environment Program to supply some hard science. Its members are about 2,500 strong. They meet in Geneva to discuss the risk, impact and potential solutions for climate change.

The group's reports this years have called global warming unequivocal and place the blame squarely on humankind. The IPCC warns that rising temperatures could lead to more hunger, water shortages and extinctions of species, and it urges governments to act now before time runs out -- Michael.

HOLMES: All right.

Well, traditionally, this Nobel Prize deals with issues of war, peace, disarmament. So some are wondering, how does global warming fit into that definition?

Well, the Nobel Committee has actually been expanding its interpretation of peace over the years. Today it said climate change is relevant, as it may alter living conditions and availability of resources, as Hala was reporting, and that can increase the chances of conflict.

Let's get more on this now from Miles O'Brien, our correspondent who covers all kinds of issues involving the Earth and the environment for us. He's in New York.

So what do we make of this, Miles?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, when you start talking about this as a security issue, you have to consider what the scientists have said. The IPCC, in its latest report which came out in March, was pretty clear-cut on the consequences it predicts.

It predicts 1.8 to 4 centimeters in -- excuse me, degrees in temperature change in the coming years -- 1.8 to 4 degrees Celsius. Seventeen to 58 centimeters in sea level rise. And as Hala just mentioned and alluded to, 90 percent certainty that human beings are sort of forcing the issue here, hastening global warming.

When you factor that all in and you look at some of the consequences on the ground, what you are talking about here is potentially millions of environmental refugees and diminished resources. And that is a perfect equation for war, for conflict. And hence, why we are talking about the Nobel Peace Prize and not the Nobel prize for science here.

HOLMES: What about the doubters, Miles, the skeptics, those who say it's either phony science or it's been blowing out of proportion?

O'BRIEN: Well, they're fewer and further between, Michael. And what you're finding is that IPCC -- we're talking about 2,500 to 3,000 of the world's leading scientists going through a very strict scientific preprocess, Peer review papers, the vetting that's involved in science, and the natural conservative statements of science, the reticence of science to say anything truly definitive. Because there always is this "on the other hand" component.

When you consider the statements that the IPCC is making in spite of all that, are rather quite dramatic. And the people who are really in the doubting realm -- first of all, the turf that they're standing on is narrower and narrower. They're even at this point admitting that human beings are hastening this whole process. When you look at their funding sources and you consider what is motivating them, frequently you will find yourself right into the hands of the fossil fuel industry.

So, the doubters are still there, but they are a fraction of a minority now. It's really no longer a scientific debate.

HOLMES: All right, Miles. Thanks.

Miles O'Brien there.

O'BRIEN: You're welcome.

HOLMES: So, what about your opinion of this year's recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize? Send us your thoughts, CNN.com/yourviews, or to yourviews@CNN.com. We'll real read some of your responses a little later in the program.

GORANI: Well, today's peace prize announcement caps a week's worth of Nobel Prize winners.

Monday, it was announced that the prize for medicine would go to a trio of stem-cell researchers for their work in gene targeting. That involves turning off certain genes to better understand what they do.

Tuesday, it was the turn for physics. The physics Nobel Prize went to a pair of hard disk pioneers. They discovered a way to squeeze large amounts of data into smaller and smaller spaces.

Wednesday's chemistry award went to Gerhard Ertl of Germany. There he is. He won for his studies that help us to understand why iron rusts and how fuel cells function.

And Thursday it was the prize for literature. That went to the British author Doris Lessing, there. She's written dozens of works, most notably the 1962 feminist classic "The Golden Notebook".

And following today's peace prize announcement, there's one more prize to come. The winner of the award for economics is due to be announced on Monday.

And we will bring you that, of course.

CNN has obtained exclusive new details about the night a woman mysteriously died at a U.S. airport.

HOLMES: Just ahead, hear what the victim's husband told authorities and what they failed to tell him.

And then...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM LANTOS (D), CALIFORNIA: The Turkish-American relationship is infinitely more valuable to Turkey than it is to the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP) GORANI: A Holocaust survivor in the U.S. Congress downplays warnings from Turkey amid allegations that country committed genocide, but will a U.S. resolution ruin the relationship between America and Ankara?

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back now to a CNN exclusive. We have audio tapes of a telephone call form the night a South African-born woman died while being held at the Phoenix International Airport.

The husband of Carol Gotbaum was frantically calling the airport's emergency services to warn them his wife was suicidal and an alcoholic. But as Alina Cho reports, neither police nor the dispatcher told him his wife was already dead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What you're about to hear is the desperate voice of Noah Gotbaum, frantically trying to get in touch with police to tell them his wife Carol was emotionally disturbed and needed to be treated with kid gloves. What he didn't know at the time was that Carol, his beloved wife, had already died, shackled and alone in a holding cell. In fact, by the time her husband was calling, she had already been dead an hour.

NOAH GOTBAUM, CAROL ANN GOTBAUM'S HUSBAND: They're waiting for her down in Cottonwood at...

COMMUNICATIONS: OK.

GOTBAUM: ... at the rehab center down there...

COMMUNICATIONS: OK.

GOTBAUM: She is suicidal. Obviously, she has been... alcohol abusive...

COMMUNICATIONS: Uh-hum...

GOTBAUM: But she is also in deep depression and the police have to understand that they're not dealing with someone who's been just drinking on flight and acting rowdy. That's not what's going on here.

COMMUNICATIONS: OK. Yeah, I think somebody talked tot the other dispatcher on that earlier and we passed along that information.

GOTBAUM: Well, but, again, I have not heard anything back.

COMMUNICATIONS: Yeah. I don't know. You know, unfortunately.

GOTBAUM: It concerns me, Mike, that they have not called me. That they're just dealing with her, that she is all alone.

COMMUNICATIONS: Uh-hum.

GOTBAUM: OK. Because she should not be.

CHO: At this point, the airport and police both knew Carol Gotbaum was dead, but they weren't telling Noah anything. Phoenix police tell us that's because proper protocol is to finish their preliminary investigation before notifying next of kin.

Now, also this morning, for the first time, the family of Noah Gotbaum is speaking out extensively about who she was, what led to her alcoholism and depression, and how they believe she was manhandled by police.

DOUG MULLER, BROTHER-IN-LAW OF CAROL GOTBAUM: What I think is that Carol must have been so desperate, so desperate. And in my heart what I believe is that it was a cry for help. She believed she needed to get onto that airplane for the sake of her children, to get help for the struggles she was going through. And she was prepared to do that at any cost.

CHO: Police have maintained Gotbaum accidentally strangled herself while trying to escape from the handcuffs. Exactly how she died is still a mystery.

Alina Cho, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: The U.S. military says some 15 Iraqi civilians were killed in a military operation north of Baghdad. An Iraqi official in Salah Ad Din province where the attack took place puts the death toll at 20. Most of them, according to him, women and children. The U.S. says it was targeting al Qaeda leaders in the air strike and the terrorists put the civilians in harm's way.

HOLMES: Turkey is warning of serious repercussions if U.S. lawmakers take further action on a controversial resolution. Ankara recalled its U.S. ambassador after a House panel approved the measure which brands the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks some 90 years ago "genocide". Democratic lawmakers are vowing to move ahead with the resolution.

The question, why now?

Dana Bash searches for the answers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Mass killings of Armenians by the Turks took place nearly a century ago. So why is the House moving to label it genocide now?

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: Because now -- there's never a good time. And all of us in the Democratic leadership have supported -- are reiterating Americans' acknowledgement of a genocide.

BASH: Defiant Democratic leaders say they view this as part of their mandate, restoring America's moral authority around the world.

LANTOS: When the Turkish government says there was no genocide of Armenians, we have to set them straight.

BASH: For Foreign Affairs chairman Tom Lantos, fighting for human rights is personal.

(on camera): You escaped two labor camps in Hungary?

LANTOS: Yes.

BASH: And you were how old?

LANTOS: Well, by that time I was 16.

BASH (voice over): He is the only Holocaust survivor in Congress.

LANTOS: I feel that I have a tremendous opportunity as a survivor of the Holocaust to bring a moral dimension to our foreign policy.

BASH: Lantos pushed the symbolic resolution calling Armenian killings genocide despite intense pressure against it from the Bush administration. He dismisses Turkish warnings this could jeopardize U.S. relations with Turkey, a critical Mideast ally that insists the Armenian deaths were not genocide.

(on camera): What if it says you're not going to be able to use our air space anymore, or you're not going to be able to use our country to get critical supplies to the men and women who are fighting in Iraq?

LANTOS: Well, with all due respect to the Turkish government, the Turkish-American relationship is infinitely more valuable to Turkey than it is to the United States. The Turkish government will not act against the United States, because that would be against their own interests. I'm convinced of this.

BASH: But the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee disagrees. CNN obtained this letter from Congressman Ike Skelton to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In it, he warns the resolution could actually hinder the Democrats' chief goal, bringing troops in Iraq home, because Turkey is a key transfer point for bringing troops out of Iraq.

Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Turkey is already in the headlines, of course, after some serious saber rattling directed at Kurdish rebels in Iraq. The military is continuing to reinforce the border area, and on Friday, the prime minister of Turkey said the government is willing to pay the price for a raid into northern Iraq. The ruling party is asking the Turkish parliament to allow it to take military action against the Kurdish rebels who have long been a thorn in the country's side and that Turkey says are hiding out in northern Iraq, in friendly territory there.

HOLMES: All right. Just when you thought the mystery surrounding the death of Anna Nicole Smith was settled...

GORANI: Think again. Ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY, what are authorities looking for as officials execute more search warrants?

HOLMES: Also ahead, parents are not the only ones worrying about lead content in toys. Now women must think twice before dipping into their makeup bags.

We'll explain that one.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Welcome, everyone, to our viewers joining us from all over the world and this hour the United States. I'm Hala Gorani. And this is YOUR WORLD TODAY. Here are the top stories we are following.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore will share this year's Nobel Peace Prize with U.N. experts on climate change. The award announcement said Gore is the single individual who has done the most worldwide to increase awareness of man-made global warming and how to combat it.

Also in the headlines we are following, a new U.S. military report says Blackwater guards fired on fleeing civilians in last month's shootout in Baghdad. A source familiar with the report tells CNN that the first U.S. soldiers to arrive at the scene say they found no weapons among the civilian casualties.

America's top military man called his Turkish counterpart this week to try to ease building tensions between the NATO allies. Turkey has recalled its ambassador to the United States to protest a congressional measure blaming Ottoman Turks for genocide against Armenians in the early part of the 20th century.

HOLMES: Let's go back to our top story now.

It may seem odd that an American environmentalist would share the Nobel Peace Prize with a U.N. climate change panel, but it is not the first time the Norwegian committee that makes the Nobel awards has expanded the meaning of what constitutes working for global peace.

In 2004, Kenyan environmentalist, Wangari Maathai, won a prize for her work on deforestation. She organized women to plant trees and fight soil erosion and water pollution. And last year, Bangladeshi economist, Muhammad Yunis, and his Brahmine (ph) Bank won the prize for making micro loans to the country's poor. It is not unprecedented. Awareness of global warming is growing even as one thing is shrinking -- ice. There's less of it in Arctic. Becky Anderson takes us to a place that's getting smaller all the time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTL. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A vast ocean of ice, an expanse of untouched wilderness. This is Spitsbergen, an island located within the Arctic Circle. Quite literally, the top of the world. The Arctic is one of the largest unspoiled regions on Earth. But it's a region that's rapidly changing.

(On camera): While the impact of climate change is already visible here in the Arctic, ice caps or glaciers like these are shrinking, as parts of the polar region warm twice as fast as the global average.

(Voice over): NASA scientists say in just one year, between 2004 and 2005, the Arctic ice that survives summer shrunk by 14 percent. Three quarters of a million square kilometers, more than a quarter of a million square miles, an area the size of the state of Texas. One study published in the journal, "Geo Physical Research Letters", even suggests that the Arctic could be free of all summer ice as early as 2040, an event that could have major consequences.

DAVID CARLSON, DIR., INTL. POLAR YEAR: We think of the bears and the seals, but there's a whole ecosystem that's part of that, the fish. And so when that ice changes, when it's not there in the summer, that whole ecosystem comes apart. We don't know whether organisms like bears can adjust in four or five generations. It's a very short time.

But the fisheries, the big animals, the hunters that depend on those big animals, that, that whole system seems to come apart.

ANDERSON: Well, on my recent trip there we didn't get to see polar bears but in the future, with sea ice melting earlier and forming later, the sights of one of these photogenic beasts may become even rarer, as their food resources dwindle. And if global temperatures keep on rising there's every chance that this Arctic archipelago could also change from one of the most powerful picturesque locations I have ever visited, to just another barren island and just another ocean. Becky Anderson, CNN, Spitsbergen, above the Arctic Circle.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. So, what's your opinion on this year's recipients of the Nobel peace prize? Send us your thoughts, CNN.com/yourviews or yourviews@cnn.com. We will read some of your responses a little later in the program.

GORANI: Well, from Berlin, a signal that Germany will be staying the course in Afghanistan. Its lower house extended the deployment there of 3,000 German troops and six reconnaissance jets for another year. The overwhelming approval came despite growing public sentiment for bringing its troops home.

It is a victory for Chancellor Angela Merkel. Most of Germany's 2,800 troops in Afghanistan patrol the relatively peaceful north. Germany has resisted pressure to send them to the heavier fighting south.

Pakistan has been a key ally in the U.S. war on terrorism, but some Pakistanis say they're living in terror because of it. They say their loved ones have been rounded up and put in secret prisons. Dan Rivers has more on those accusations and what the government has to say about them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN RIVERS, CNN INTL. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Doctor Ibrahim Manier (ph) leaves a Pakistan court under heavy security. He's charged with espionage, but that's good news for his family. At least they know he's alive. For almost a year, they didn't. He was arrested and simply disappeared, held without charges, one of hundreds they claim are languishing in secret Pakistani prisons.

Amina Masood's husband is another of them. He ran a technical college until he disappeared two years ago.

AMINA MASOOD, WIFE OF ACCUSED: I never heard his voice ever since. I have never been told why, where, when, never, ever. I want my husband back. Why? Why our rights are being violated like this?

RIVERS: Pakistan's government acknowledges there are people unaccounted for, but denies holding any of the missing.

MALIK MOHAMMED QAYYUM, PAKISTANI ATTORNEY GENERAL: We have not sure whether they are in Pakistan, or gone out of Pakistan, and wherever they are, but no stone is being left unturned to trace those people.

RIVERS: But the families' lawyers couldn't disagree more.

ASMA JAHANGIR, LAWYER: Well, hundreds of people have been disappeared for years. They are picked up by intelligence agencies of various forms, and we have several of them, and then they are kept -- they are tortured.

RIVERS: Families of missing say President Musharraf uses the war on terror as an excuse to round up anyone deemed a political threat. They claim President Musharraf has copied and adapted America's system of extraordinary rendition, and has secret Guantanamo Bay-style detention camps inside Pakistan.

It's where these families think their loved ones have ended up, more than 400 people are missing. They cling to their precious photos on the steps of the supreme court, hoping for justice.

(On camera): These are the faces of Pakistan's disappeared, people that Amina believes were abducted illegally by the intelligence agencies and security services and held for months, or even years. (Voice over): But denying responsibility, the government promises to investigate. And act.

QAYYUM: If somebody is being held by any of the law enforcing agencies without any lawful authority, he will be released forthwith.

RIVERS: But Fizza Youssif (ph) is overcome with anger and frustration. Like the other women here, she's been waiting for news about her son for years. They all just want to know what's happened to their disappeared, and why. Dan Rivers, CNN, Islamabad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Now to the war in Iraq, the U.S. military has filed a preliminary report on that Blackwater shooting that left 17 Iraqis dead. A source is telling CNN there is no evidence that the private security guards were even fired upon. Jim Clancy has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTL. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A U.S. military source tells CNN in Baghdad that an incident report was filed by the first U.S. troops to reach the scene in the Noosurs (ph) Square that day. Troops who routinely patrol the area arrived about 20 minutes after the shooting subsided.

According to the U.S. military source, what they wrote in their preliminary report included finding spent cartridges, specifically made for U.S. weapons, like those used by the military or private contractors. This video, obtained by "Newsweek" magazine clearly shows what appears to be some of those casings lying on the ground.

They did not find similar evidence that Iraqi police or insurgents had opened fire. They also found that the position of vehicles in the square suggested that some Iraqis had turned their cars around and were trying to flee the area at the time they were engaged by gunfire.

It largely corroborates diagrams and findings in an Iraqi report obtained by CNN. The military source also told us that the report assessed the situation as an excessive use of force, and that there was no evidence Blackwater's team had been fired upon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: All right. Well, my colleague, Jim Clancy, joins us now live from Baghdad.

Jim, fundamentally, and Iraqis are up in arms about what happened in that Blackwater incident, you are getting criticism also from all sides, but is it going to change anything on the ground realistically?

CLANCY: Well, it may, indeed, because we're hearing tonight, according to the Associated Press, quoting a sermon that was delivered this day at the close of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid al-Fitr, a sermon from no one less that the highest Shia cleric in the country, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, saying there is nothing -- saying, rather, Iraqi blood is now the cheapest thing in Iraq today. Not asking, Hala, demanding that the parliament take action.

And so it would appear that with that kind of religious backing that there may be a move by lawmakers, they haven't been able to get much else done, but if they get something done on this front it would certainly win them popular support. They may see that it's a very popular issue and maybe one that all of the politicians can agree on. So change on the ground could be coming.

GORANI: Finally a unifying issue in Iraq. Thank you very much, Jim Clancy live in Baghdad.

Michael.

HOLMES: All right, want to show you some pictures that just came in, just moments ago. And that is the docking at the international space station, a Soyuz craft carrying the international space station's first female commander. And also Malaysia's first space traveler. You can see them there going through the hatch. As the Soyuz craft docked.

The commander, Peggy Whitson, also on board, Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko, and space flight participant Sheikh Muzaphar Shukor, as we said, the first Malaysian. Interesting, he's an observant Muslim, and was given special permission by clerics at the highest level to not have to adhere to the last few days of Ramadan, which would require fasting during the day, and other observances. He said he was going to try to do it anyway. That docking taking place today.

We're going to take a short break, be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Welcome back, everyone.

Add this to the already long list of things to worry about. Mothers, already concerned over reports of lead-based paint in their children's toys, now women may have a concern of their own, for themselves. A new study by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has found lead in several top brands of lipstick. One third of the products tested surpassed the Food and Drug Administration's limits for lead in candy. Experts say the levels aren't dangerous for healthy women, but that pregnant women should use caution and be reticent to re-apply lipstick throughout the day.

OK?

HOLMES: What next? All right.

Rugby now, we can always go back to rugby. That's a good thing. Maybe you're a dedicated fan.

GORANI: Or, or ...

HOLMES: Or? GORANI: Maybe all you know is that it involves people in colorful uniforms constantly running around, bashing into each other.

HOLMES: That's what you think.

GORANI: I have the ball, I have the ball.

HOLMES: I know that's what you think. You don't want to get hit by one of those guys, trust me.

GORANI: No.

HOLMES: There's no disputing that many people are excited about it. Hala, unless you've got a prop (ph) forward running at you. Let's see how excited. Here's what some of you have been telling us in your I-Reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw the thing where you were asking for films about the World Cup and I thought this might be something a wider audience might be interested in.

I was working next to the Eiffel Tower on a giant inflatable rugby ball project that New Zealand has put there to promote the Rugby World Cup in 2011. All Kiwis that built it were actually inside watching the game. It looks like a permanent bar, but in fact, it's a temporary fitting (ph). And this ball is going to move around the world.

We had hopes quite high for (INAUDIBLE) to win this one. We were all pretty shocked when the French beat us. It was unbelievable. When the game was finished, I heard this roaring outside. I went outside, and that's what I saw. I had my camera with me. And there was just a huge crowd of French rugby fans all the way up Champs Elysees to the Eiffel Tower, just so jubilant. It was very high spirited, that -- they weren't malicious at all. They were having a great time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Certainly were. Send us your pictures and video showing how you're celebrating the tournament. For more on the Rugby World Cup, go to our special Web site cnn.com/rugby and you can find all the latest news there about the tournament, profiles of the team, all that good stuff.

GORANI: This is what I love about any sporting event, it's the excitement that people are feeling. It's very, very fun to watch those I-Reports so keep them coming.

Also, what do you think about Al Gore sharing the Nobel Peace Prize this year? Some your answers coming up.

HOLMES: Also, there are political implications to this decision or are there? We'll speak to a Republican strategist.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLE DANBOLT MJOS, CHAIRMAN, NOBEL COMMITTEE: Al Gore has for a long time been one of the world's leading environmentalist politicians. He became aware at an early stage of the climatic challenges the world is facing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Praise there for the former U.S. vice president as the Nobel committee announced this year's peace award. Al Gore has campaigned not only against global warming but also against the environmental policies of the president, George Bush. Who incidentally beat Gore, of course, in the 2000 election, a narrow victory. So, how do Mr. Bush's fellow Republicans feel about Gore's award? Joining us now is Cheri Jacobus, a Republican strategist in Washington.

We've been reading reaction from Republicans all morning, Sherry, and really it looks like a lot of eye-rolling coming from the Republicans. You, yourself, told one of our producers this is political, it's not merit-based. Why?

CHERI JACOBUS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: There are too many questions first around is global warming man made, or still is it just a part of how the world is supposed to work, over the course of hundreds and thousands of years. But more importantly, there are too many questions surrounding Al Gore's movie.

And as you know, the British courts, in fact, ruled that there has to be a disclaimer, in fact, before his flick is shown in classrooms, basically because so much of it is false, or can't be proven at this time. It's a little bit irresponsible that he would get the Nobel Peace Prize. And it does look like it's blatantly political.

So, while the White House is being very gracious in their response, others such as myself can be a little more straight forward, in terms of as you put it rolling our eyes because this does besmirch the Nobel Peace Prize.

GORANI: Cheri, now you said two things that I can immediately contradict. First, that there is still widespread debate about whether or not human kind is responsible for global warming. Scientists, and even those who are disputing it before now, agree that's the case. Secondly, that same British court who said that it was a partisan, you said it was broadly accurate, but that there's a tiny disclaimer there. Before that "Inconvenient Truth" movie. So, I mean, Republicans need to admit this, right?

JACOBUS: I'm not saying every single thing in the movie was wrong, but there are enough questions raised that you can -- you can pick apart the movie, you can like the movie, you can like parts of it, you cannot like the parts of it. That's not the point here. The fact of the matter is for this man to be given -- for Al Gore to be given the Nobel Peace Prize for this movie when there are still so many questions? That really raises a lot of questions about the procedure, and about the committee itself. I think that the originators of the Nobel Peace Prize would be very unhappy that it's being used in this way.

GORANI: Now, is the Republican Party essentially unhappy about this because they're seeing this, after Jimmy Carter, a very fervent Bush critic, in 2002 won the Nobel Peace Prize. This year Al Gore wins the Nobel, are they seeing this as slap in the face against the Bush administration and its policies? Is that what is irking them so much?

JACOBUS: I think what it really is, is that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee would like to get -- they like getting this international attention, they like getting press, just like anybody else.

And I think to prove that point here in the United States our press, what we're talking about today is what does this mean for potential Al Gore presidency because of all of the publicity. Not on the merits of his movie, not on the honor of receiving the prize itself, but what does this mean in terms of elevating him in the press so that he can possibly run for president?

GORANI: Cheri, Cheri -- If I'm hearing you correctly, you are saying that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee is -- is politically motivated in the sense that it will give the prize to Al Gore so that it gives him more credibility to run for president in the U.S., is it that cynical and that political?

JACOBUS: I think what the Nobel Committee likes is the attention for itself, so to go in to an area that's very controversial, and the claims made by Al Gore in the movie where many cannot be proven or can be disproven. And to give this man the prize, I mean, he can be lauded in other areas, where those who agree with him and he can be disagreed with in the proper areas as well.

But for the Nobel Peace Prize Committee to choose him as the winner of this shows they very much like the attention. I don't even think I would go completely as far as to say that they want to help Al Gore's political career. I think this is for the sake of the committee because, let's face it, outside of Jimmy Carter, now Al Gore, how many people can right off the bat just tick off the names of Nobel Peace Prize winners over the years? They can't. This gives the committee a little bit of a spotlight on them, and I think that's one thing they are after right now, quite frankly.

GORANI: All right. With the Republican view, Cheri Jacobus, thanks for joining us live there from Washington.

JACOBUS: Thank you.

HOLMES: Which brings us to the question of the day. We have been asking you this:

GORANI: What is your opinion about this year's Nobel Peace Prize recipients?

HOLMES: Let's start with Magnus from Sweden who says, "Al Gore lost the election but won the whole world. Not other living individual deserved the Nobel Peace Prize more."

GORANI: Mike from California says, "Giving Al Gore this award is an embarrassment to intelligent people. Everyone agrees that the earth is warming...but, who can dismiss all the evidence that the sun, not just humans, is a central cause?"

Ayodele from Nigeria writes, "Al Gore deserves the award after working hard to bring the message of climate change to the world. Also, if Gore won the 2008 presidency, the U.S. would take a leading role when it comes to saving the environment."

GORANI: Please tell us what you think. Keep on sending us your e-mails, at yourviews@cnn.com.

HOLMES: That will do it for this hour. I'm Michael Holmes.

GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani. A lot more ahead on CNN. Stay with us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com