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WASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Call it Al Gore's revenge. The Nobel Peace Prize he won on Friday was a blow to U.S. President George W. Bush and his widely criticized environmental policy and will long be savored by the man who lost the bitter 2000 presidential election by a whisker. The honor was bestowed jointly on the former vice president and the U.N. climate panel for campaigning against the threat of global warming, in a not-so-subtle swipe at Bush, a latecomer to the battle against climate change. It may also be interpreted as a part of an international backlash...

NEW YORK -- Cable television said it offered to match DirecTV's deal for the ''Extra Innings'' package of out-of-market games, but Major League Baseball claimed the proposal fell short. When baseball announced its $700 million, seven-year deal with DirecTV on March 8, it gave the other incumbent carriers until the end of the month to match the deal. In Demand, owned by affiliates of the companies that own Time Warner, Comcast and Cox cable systems, said Wednesday it was agreeing to the terms and that its partners would carry The Baseball Channel when it launches in 2009 to at least...

DirecTV Extends MLB Package Deal NEW YORK — Satellite provider DirecTV Group Inc. and Major League Baseball said Thursday they extended for seven years a contract to distribute out-of-market games for viewers. The deal also includes plans to launch a new MLB Channel, in 2009, as part of DirecTV's basic package. DirecTV will be a minority partner in the new channel. Both companies have also agreed to allow the Dish Network and In Demand to carry the "MLB Extra Innings" subscription package for the same rate and carriage requirements as DirecTV. If both providers decide not to match DirecTV, the...

War Power Game The coming constiutional crisis While other House Democrats were pretending that their nonbinding resolution against the Iraq troop surge was of great import, antiwar champion Rep. John Murtha spoke the truth. It is not “the real vote,” he said in a webcast for the left-wing MoveCongress.org. That comes with Murtha’s imminent attempt to hamstring President Bush’s conduct of the war that may well spark a constitutional crisis. There is a straightforward way for Congress to end a war: Cut off its entire funding. Congress has the power of the purse, the most important lever of legislative influence...

France flip-flops over Saudi air tanker deal PARIS – French officials scrambled on Monday to avoid a rift with one of the world's biggest arms buyers after prematurely announcing a deal to supply Saudi Arabia with refuelling tanker planes. The French defence ministry announced that Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and Saudi Crown Prince Sultan Abdul-Aziz had signed the strategically important agreement to supply Airbus MRTT tankers in a deal worth 350-400 million euros. Less then two hours later it released a second statement, changing course: “Discussions between France and Saudi Arabia relating to the contract for MRTT are continuing.” MRTT...

DaimlerChrysler cuts EADS stake Berlin - German-US auto giant DaimlerChrysler agreed on Friday to cut its stake in European aerospace giant EADS to 15%from 22.5%, ensuring a balance between French and German shareholders. The agreement is set against a background of tense wrangling for months over the role of German and French interests in the European Aeronautics Defence and Space Company (EADS). DaimlerChrysler said in a statement it would sell a 7.5% stake in EADS, the parent company of aircraft maker Airbus, to a consortium of public and private investors. DaimlerChrysler said it had signed an agreement to this effect...

The Long Shot Compulsion Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, jumped into the presidential race yesterday with an appearance on Meet the Press and a speech at the National Review Institute's Conservative Summit. He plans to file papers today forming a presidential exploratory committee and then head off to Iowa to begin campaigning. Huckabee starts in a hole that he seems ill equipped to dig out of. His strategy thus far seems to be to deflect serious questions with folksy charm (not to mention malapropism; Huckabee seems to think that "emulate" means "venerate"). A former pastor, Huckabee peppers his speech...

Arkansas Returns HOPELESS Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee loves to joke about coming from the same hometown as former President Bill Clinton. Given that they both have proven to be prone to ethical lapses in office, perhaps Huckabee -- who announced his intention to run for the Republican nomination for the presidency yesterday -- should stop trying to draw attention to his shared, humble, Arkansas roots. Huckabee once joked that his state was a "banana republic," and he certainly appeared to run his state like one. In all, Huckabee has been investigated 14 times in 14 years for ethics violations...

Airbus on Friday toned down expectations of an immediate solution to the technical glitches which delayed its A380 superjumbo project, saying wiring problems had been solved for the first aircraft only. A German news report last week said that Airbus had solved the wiring installation problems, which delayed A380 deliveries by an average two years and drove the planemaker into the red. Aviation watchers and some investors cheered the report, saying it closed the worst chapter in Airbus's 30 year history. Gerhard Puttfarcken, head of Airbus's German operations, said Airbus had passed a key milestone in completing wiring for the...

Gun found near scene of couple's shooting NEW CASTLE (AP) - State police have discovered a gun that had been dumped in a lake near the scene of a roadside shooting that killed a neighbor of Bill and Hillary Clinton and wounded the woman's husband. Westchester County police have conducted ballistics tests on the weapon, Deputy Police Safety Commissioner Monty Long said. Long wouldn't say what the tests revealed and referred questions to the New Castle Police Department. A message left Saturday with the detective investigating the Nov. 18 shooting of Carlos and Peggy Perez-Olivo wasn't immediately returned. Police divers...

Naval Academy acknowledges delay in steroids tests BALTIMORE -- U.S. Naval Academy officials waited more than two months to give urine tests to five football players who acknowledged early last year that they had used steroids, a disclosure prompting lawmakers to call for a congressional probe into the matter, The Sun reported Saturday. Experts told the newspaper that the delay acknowledged Friday by academy officials would have allowed any trace of the banned drugs to disappear. "I think it's very important that we know who made the decision to test these young folks two months after we had good cause...

COLMAR, France (Reuters) - A French court on Tuesday found Airbus and Air France liable for damages over a 1992 plane crash that killed 87 people near the eastern city of Strasbourg but cleared six people of criminal responsibility. The court ordered the companies to pay compensation to the relatives of those killed. The amount of damages, however, had yet to be determined. A long investigation failed to single out one particular reason why the Air Inter Airbus A320 smashed into a mountain as it approached Strasbourg airport on January 20, 1992. Only nine people survived the crash. Air Inter...

Kerry cancels Mankato appearance The dueling rallies scheduled for Mankato today on behalf of Republican congressman Gil Gutknecht and Democratic challenger Tim Walz lost some of their pizzaz Tuesday night when Sen. John Kerry pulled out of the Democratic rally. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the front-runner for the 2008 Republican nomination for president, is the star attraction at a rally at the Midwest Wireless Civic Center for Gutknecht and Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee pulled out of the DFL event, which will still be held, as the result of a controversy over comments he made...

Airbus A380 a bit too superjumbo Passenger plane is 5.5 tons overweight, customer reports By JAMES WALLACE P-I AEROSPACE REPORTER The Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner is not the only jetliner in development that needs to go on a diet. The double-decker A380, the 555-passenger giant from Airbus that has been delayed for up to two years by what Airbus has said are wiring problems, is about 5.5 tons overweight, a senior executive with an airline that has ordered the plane disclosed Friday. Airbus has not previously acknowledged that its flagship new jet is significantly heavier than customers were promised. Tim...

LONDON (AFX) - Emirates airline has cancelled a 2003 order for 10 long-range Airbus A340-600 planes plus the option of 10 more worth a total of 4.2 bln usd, its president Tim Clark said today. Clark said the decision had been taken because the Dubai-based carrier believed the A340 lacked the technology offered by more up-to-date planes, an Emirates spokesman said. Clark added that the order had been taken up by a third party, the spokesman said. Cancellation of the order came after Emirates had in April asked Airbus to delay delivery of the planes that had been planned for...

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday the price of oil should not fall below $60 a barrel, two days after the OPEC country cut its production to stem price declines. Oil has tumbled more than 20 percent from peak levels of close to $78 per barrel in July, sparking concerns among some producer nations of a prolonged slump in oil prices. Chavez said he had ordered Venezuela's cut of 50,000 barrels per day because oil prices had fallen to $65 a barrel, in an apparent reference to world crude prices -- as opposed to Venezuela's...

Airbus begins installation of A380 wing reinforcements By Max Kingsley-Jones in Filton Airbus has begun to install a strengthening package on to the wing of a completed A380 as an interim solution after the static-test specimen suffered a premature rupture during its ultimate load test. Meanwhile, Airbus UK is working on a long-term redesign of components. “We have devised a small modification package while we go through the analysis to understand [the rupture] in detail and devise a long-term solution, to present that to the European Aviation Safety Agency [EASA],” says Airbus UK head of A380 wing engineering Phil Hamblin....

(CBS) A federal indictment alleges that Vice President Cheney's now-former chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby committed perjury during, among other things, a conversation he had with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper. Cooper says he's not so sure. Libby resigned Friday after he was indicted by a grand jury, accused of obstructing its two-year investigation of the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame and lying about an effort to blow Plame's cover. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said the CIA leak investigation is substantially complete, though "it's not over." Fitzgerald wouldn't comment about the possible involvement in the case of...

Katrina Takes a Toll on Truth, News Accuracy Rumors supplanted accurate information and media magnified the problem. Rapes, violence and estimates of the dead were wrong. BATON ROUGE, La. — Maj. Ed Bush recalled how he stood in the bed of a pickup truck in the days after Hurricane Katrina, struggling to help the crowd outside the Louisiana Superdome separate fact from fiction. Armed only with a megaphone and scant information, he might have been shouting into, well, a hurricane. The National Guard spokesman's accounts about rescue efforts, water supplies and first aid all but disappeared amid the roar of...

WASHINGTON - A small group of Democrats agreed Thursday to force House and Senate debates on Election Day problems in Ohio before letting Congress certify President Bush (news - web sites)'s win over Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) in November. While Bush's victory is not in jeopardy, the Democratic challenge will force Congress to interrupt tallying the Electoral College (news - web sites) vote, which had been scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. EST Thursday. It would be only the second time since 1877 that the House and Senate were forced into separate meetings to consider electoral votes....