Self-identified Republicans are less likely than Democrats to say global warming concerns them, but while Democrats'has remained relatively steady, Republicans' worry is climbing. In 2011, just 30 percent of Republicans said they worried a "great deal" or "fair amount" about climate change. This year, that number reached 40 percent.

The poll queried a random sample of 1,022 adults, weighted to match national demographics. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The new numbers show Republican concerns reaching levels that haven't been seen since since 2009, when 35 percent said they worried about global warming. Three-quarters of Democrats currently say they worry about global warming a great deal or fair amount. []

Republicans have also become more likely to say that global warming's effects have already been felt, the poll found. In 2011, only 32 percent of Republicans said climate change effects were already happening, a number which rose to 39 percent in 2013.

More than half (52 percent) of Republicans now agree that most scientists think global warming is occurring, up from a low of 37 percent in 2011. But there's a big party split in opinions on causes: 78 percent of Democrats blame human activities compared with only 39 percent of Republicans. Half of Democrats think global warming will pose a serious threat in their lifetimes, compared with just 18 percent of Republicans. (Independents tend to fall between Democrats and Republicans on all of the poll questions.)

High-profile cases like the "Climategate" scandal involving leaked emails between climate scientists may have contributed to Republican skepticism over the past few years, Gallup reported. Now that those news stories have faded, climate-change belief is recovering.

The findings track with a recent poll analysis released by Gallup that found, overall, more Americans arethan in the past. That polling found that 58 percent of Americans worry a great deal or fair amount about climate change, up from 51 percent in 2011.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on and . Follow us , & . Original article on .

The start of the campaign came as Sunday services resumed at St. Jude Thaddeus Church.Parishioners were also collecting cards and well wishes to give to families.

"God is working in and through all of life's circumstances," a message seeking donations said on the church's website. "Thank you for your prayers and concern and for answering God's call."

Police said Lawrence Capener stabbed three people on April 28 as Mass was ending because he thought a choir leader was a Mason. He has been charged with aggravated battery and was being held on $250,000 bail.

Santa Fe Archbishop Michael Sheehan re-consecrated the Albuquerque church on Wednesday by sprinkling holy water and spreading incense through the building. The move was part of a Catholic ritual required after a sacrilege has been committed at a church.

St. Jude Thaddeus' pastor, the Rev. John Daniel, said he believes parishioners have already forgiven Capener and continued to pray for him and his family.

"What can you do? This is what we are taught to do," he said.

Capener, 24, told police that he also tagged the Sandoval No. 76 Masonic Lodge in Rio Rancho with spray paint just before the stabbing attack, authorities said.

Police later found red and blue spray paint on signs, outside walls and a door. Investigators said he also left the message, "I hope you guess who I am."

Parishioners said they rarely saw Capener attend services but were aware that his mother is active in the church, which is on the city's Westside.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia committed to long-term plans to buy up to 100 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 Joint Strike Fighters as part of its new defense strategy on Friday, easing concerns about the future of the controversial fighter from a major foreign buyer.

Canberra, a close U.S. ally, would also buy 12 Boeing Co EA-18G electronic attack planes, modified versions of the 24 Super Hornets already equipping Australia's air force, as a stopgap until the F-35 is delivered.

Defence Minister Stephen Smith announced the decisions as he released a new defense white paper, which is the first reassessment of Australia's military priorities since 2009, and since the U.S. pivot to the Asia-Pacific, which included U.S. marine rotations through northern Australia.

"This important decision will assure a first-class air combat capability for Australia through the transition period to the Joint Strike Fighter (F-35), which will proceed on its current schedule," Smith said.

Australia's first two F-35s are due in 2014-15.

Canberra's decision reinforces positive steps for the F-35, coming on the heels of a decision by Norway to buy six F-35s a year earlier than planned, and the Dutch parliament's decision not to reassess F-35 rivals to replace aging F-16s, despite cost overruns and development delays.

Australia decided to stick with the F-35, initially buying 14 F-35s, followed by three operational F-35 squadrons, of around 75 planes, with the first squadron in service from 2020.

The government also holds the option of buying a further 25 F-35s from 2030, to replace the Super Hornets when they are withdrawn from service, bringing the total of F-35s to 100.

The paper makes no commitment to build a fourth advanced air warfare destroyer, part-built by BAE Systems and Spain's Navantia, but opts to replace two ageing supply ships.

Smith also said the government would proceed with plans for 12 new conventional submarines but he ruled out buying the submarines off the shelf, opting instead for new designs to be built in Australia.

With Prime Minister Julia Gillard's minority Labor government under pressure to find Budget savings to respond to collapsing revenues, Australia's net defense budget has contracted to around 1.56 percent of GDP, or A$24.2 billion. As a percentage, spending is at the lowest level since 1938.

The new white paper makes no commitments on defense spending, but says the government remains committed to a target to increase defense funding to 2.0 percent of GDP, but when the economic circumstances allow.

(Additional reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by Paul Tait and Michael Perry)

OTTAWA (Reuters) - A European Union plan to label crude from the Alberta oil sands as dirty is unfair and could damage Canada's bid to find new export markets, the Canadian resources minister said at the start of a mission to lobby against the idea.

As part of a plan to cut greenhouse gases from transport fuel, the EU's executive commission has developed a Fuel Quality Directive that would single out oil from Alberta's tar sands as more polluting than conventional crude.

Canada, whose oil sands are the world's third-largest proven reserves of crude, strongly opposes the move.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, speaking at the start of a week-long trip to Paris, Brussels and London, said the directive should be changed to ensure it does not discriminate against crude from the oil sands.

"We think that's critical as an alternative to what we view as a flawed and ineffective approach that's proposed by the commission," he told Reuters in an interview from Paris.

Extracting crude from the clay-like Alberta oil sands requires more energy than conventional oil production. Environmentalists say that increases greenhouse gas emissions, making the oil sands a top target for the green movement.

Ottawa is unhappy the directive would not penalize Russia, which both burns and releases natural gas while extracting oil. Oliver said this means Russian crude extraction produces at least as many emissions as tar sands oil, if not more.

"If you're giving a free pass to a high emitter who happens to be one of the biggest exporters into the Union, then how are you achieving your objectives? This is all very logical, it's hard to argue against," he said.

Last year, amid heavy Canadian lobbying, the EU held an inconclusive vote on the directive and then decided to assess the full impact of the plan. That assessment is due in the next few months, paving the way for another vote.

Although Canada sends almost no crude to the EU now, that could change if proposals to create pipeline capacity from Alberta to Canada's East Coast are successful.

"We're not exporting to the EU at the moment but we don't want to see our crude oil stigmatized, which could possibly have implications elsewhere," said Oliver, adding that Canada did not oppose the goals of the fuel quality directive.

"What we want is a scientific fact-based approach that makes its judgment based on the scientific realities and not sort of a preconceived idea ... that our oil should be treated differently," he told Reuters.

Canada sends 99 percent of its oil exports to the United States. But a glut of supply and full pipelines are cutting prices, a problem that underlines the Canadian industry's need to find new markets.

The EU vote on the directive last year ended in stalemate amid misgivings from Britain and the Netherlands. Both nations have stakes in Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which operates in the oil sands, as does France's Total SA.

Oliver is meeting senior executives from both companies during his mission, as well as officials from the European Commission and industry groups. He declined to predict how successful his trip would be.

"I've got this great hand but the final results aren't yet in. We're arguing from logic and we're arguing from equity, in all fairness. You hope that prevails," he said.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Peter Galloway)

MOSCOW, May 1 (Reuters) - Russian basketball officials, impressed by the college game's huge popularity in the United States, hope to imitate their former Cold War adversaries by creating a Europe-wide student league.

Formed last September with the help of Russia's second-largest bank VTB, the International Students Basketball League (ISBL) has quickly grown into a top-notch competition, with 26 collegiate teams from the Baltics to the Far East taking part.

"We have teams from Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan and even China competing," ISBL chief and VTB senior vice-president Andrei Peregudov told Reuters in an interview.

"Next season, we're adding teams from Belarus and Latvia. We hope Finland and Sweden will also take part. We also negotiating with schools from Serbia and Spain about their participation.

"Japan and South Korea have also expressed interest in joining the ISBL's division in the Far East. In all, we think 30 or 32 teams would be an optimal number."

Officials and business people in several sports, such as soccer, have recently announced plans to create a joint league, bringing neighbouring countries together.

In December, several top Russian soccer clubs, including champions Zenit St Petersburg, big-spending Anzhi Makhachkala and CSKA Moscow, unhappy with the way the domestic game is run, unveiled a plan to break away from Russia's top flight and start a joint venture with neighbouring Ukraine as early as next year.

Peregudov said he has a different idea.

DYNAMIC GROUP

"As a bank, as a business, we obviously don't want just to spend money, we want to get something in return, that's why we have targeted colleges and universities," he said.

"Students are a young, dynamic group of people, many of whom will become political and business leaders in their respective countries in the future. We want to be associated with such an audience."

College basketball is a billion-dollar business in the United States. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship, culminating with the Final Four, draws thousands of fans, with millions glued to their TV sets.

The ISBL's inaugural Final Four, staged at the Tallinn University of Technology over the weekend, was a much smaller affair, with the hosts beating the Moscow Academy of Physical Culture in the final in front of a few hundred spectators.

"Well, the NCAA championship is what you call a benchmark for us in terms of a business structure," said Peregudov, who has a first-hand knowledge of North American sports after working in Canada for several years.

"I've even played basketball in one of Canada's amateur leagues so I know their model pretty well. Ours is a bit different. It's more suited for Europe. We want the ISBL to resemble basketball's Euroleague, but for students."

All of the ISBL's expenses are covered by VTB and other commercial partners while teams only pay for their travel.

The league is also discussing a plan to allow professional players to participate, hoping such a move would significantly improve its level of play.

"We're not talking about top international players. I don't think our league would be of much interest to them. But those third-fourth line players who usually spend time warming the bench would get enough playing in our league," Peregudov said.

"Of course, all of them must be active students." (Reporting by Gennady Fyodorov; Editing by Ken Ferris)

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Global internet retailer Amazon.com could be facing its first strike in Germany by warehouse workers seeking better pay and benefits.

Amazon employs around 9,000 people across Germany and has come under fire from trade union Verdi for refusing to implement a collective agreement on employment conditions, in keeping with the country's other mail order and retail firms.

The union is also pressing for higher basic pay and bigger supplements for night shifts.

Amazon workers in the eastern city of Leipzig voted in favor of strike action earlier this month and staff at Bad Hersfeld, a town in central Germany where 3,700 are employed, joined them on Monday.

Verdi said almost 98 percent of those taking part in the ballot at Bad Hersfeld voted in favor of strike action.

"Amazon's management should ... finally start talks on a collective agreement," the union's negotiator Bernhard Schiederig said.

A strike, which would delay deliveries to customers, could come within weeks, Schiederig told Reuters, although no date has been set.

Schiederig also told Reuters he thought a site visit by Peer Steinbrueck, the opposition Social Democrat candidate for chancellor, to Bad Hersfeld on Monday, where he met Amazon Germany boss Ralf Kleber and labour representatives, had gone well.

But he said management had again refused to enter negotiations on a collective agreement, though said they were happy to hold further talks with Verdi.

In Leipzig, the union is calling for starting pay of 10.66 euros ($13.89) an hour, compared with 9.30 euros now. In Bad Hersfeld, they want pay of 9.83 euro to be increased to 12.18.

Amazon Germany was not immediately available for comment on Monday. It has previously said that it pays wages that are competitive.

The online retailer hit headlines in Germany in February after it employed security staff from a company linked to a neo-Nazi group who were bullying its employees.

Amazon has since terminated the contract, saying it regretted the events.

($1 = 0.7676 euros)

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan and Anneli Palmen; Edited by Stephen Brown, John Stonestreet)

Within seconds of the fracas, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 145 points (see the graphic below) before picking itself back up a few minutes later.  took a close look at how the nosedive was implicated by technology — sophisticated computer-trading software that monitors news headlines, corporate announcements, and yes, even social media to make buy or sell decisions in fractions of a second. Welcome to the world of algorithm-based decision-making.

The Journal's Geoffrey Rogow and Telis Demos :

The technology has been around for several years, but it is increasingly finding adherents among financial firms, including hedge funds, investment banks, and even long-term investors such as mutual-fund companies. Experts say traders use the data for just about every kind of investment around the world, from U.S. stocks to the Korean won. []

Once Dataminr's distress signals were received, the firms' proprietary software exploded into action, ready to sell. The whole process occurred in the blink of an eye. 

— which publishes The Journal — claims these "elementized" news feeds "cut execution times and perform deeper analysis" than traditional methods. In addition to scanning hundreds of millions of tweets and headlines, they take into account several additional factors, including the reputation of a news source (in this case a tweet from the AP's confirmed account) and a tweet's geo-location. Media firms, including Dow Jones, Bloomberg, and Reuters, have been using elementized news feeds in some capacity since 2006.

And while it may feel gratifying to point fingers at the machines' mathematical inability to preemptively sniff out a hoax, The Journalthat Dataminr's computers were quick to right a wrong. A second alert warning clients that the initial news may not have been accurate was sent out almost immediately, even before the AP had a chance to announce it had been hacked. Five minutes after the fake White House explosion sent the market into free fall, "shares rebounded across the board, and the blue-chip index ended the day with gains greater than before the incident."

View this article onGetIssues of The Week

Other stories from this section:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama received rare words of praise from a senior House of Representatives Republican on Thursday, with the head of the tax-writing committee saying Obama has "evolved" by explicitly pledging not to raise total corporate taxes as part of a tax overhaul.

Speaking at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp again pledged to pass a broad tax bill this year in his committee.

While not seeking higher corporate taxes, Obama's budget proposal unveiled on Wednesday for fiscal 2014, which begins October 1, did call for tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans. Obama's plan is unlikely ever to win approval in Congress but could add momentum toward a broad tax overhaul.

Camp praised some elements of Obama's budget plan, and said he is happy the president vowed not to raise additional revenue from corporations.

"Certainly I'm pleased that the president put revenue-neutral corporate reform in his budget - that is a good step," Camp said. "The president's position has evolved."

For his own part, Camp adhered to his long-standing opposition to raising new revenue through tax code changes - a goal that Obama and many fellow Democrats have insisted on.

Camp also ruled out possibly doing business-only tax reform, calling it "technically impossible."

Obama proposed a $3.77 trillion budget that combines cuts to social safety net programs with the tax increases on the wealthy.

His budget included proposed cuts in Social Security, the pension program for retirees, and in Medicare, the health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. While Obama has made these proposals before, their prominence in the budget plan was designed to demonstrate his seriousness about negotiating with Republicans.

The proposal revives Obama's call that wealthier people help more with deficit reduction. It would require those making $1 million a year or more to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes, after gifts to charity.

Obama's budget also included proposals to cap tax breaks for wealthier taxpayers, increase the estate tax and end the tax break for the "carried interest" income of fund managers like those who run private equity and other investment firms.

(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Will Dunham)

"It's such a huge honor. I'm still in shock, actually," the playwright said from London, where he's helping ready a new production of "Disgraced" at the Bush Theatre. "I feel very fortunate and very grateful."

"Disgraced" had its world premiere at Chicago's American Theater Company in 2012 and then ran at Lincoln Center Theater's Claire Tow Theater.

The lead character, Amir Kapoor, a Pakistani-American corporate lawyer, lives on the Upper East Side in an apartment described in the script as "spare and tasteful with subtle flourishes of the Orient." Amir loves the New York Knicks and the Magnolia Bakery and his elegant $600 shirts with their "ridiculous thread count."

The dinner party at the heart of the play brings together two couples and several religious and ethnic identities over pork tenderloin and chorizo. When chitchat touches on Islamic and Judaic tradition, the Quran and the Talmud, racial profiling and Sept. 11 and the Taliban and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Benjamin Netanyahu along with the requisite alcohol intake chaos is achieved.

"I really wanted to write a play that was going to have a legitimately tragic dimension for a contemporary audience," Akhtar said. "I wanted the play to have immediacy and aliveness of engagement that harkened back to a tragic form but a mass form, something that would have audiences gasping."

The Columbia University's prize board on Monday said the 42-year-old playwright's work beat out finalists "Rapture, Blister, Burn" by Gina Gionfriddo and "4000 Miles" by Amy Herzog.

Akhtar, a 42-year-old New Yorker, also wrote the novel "American Dervish" and co-wrote and played the lead in the film "The War Within." His "Disgraced" got a celebrity gloss in New York when the lead character was played by Aasif Mandvi, the very funny correspondent on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show."

The drama award, which includes a $10,000 prize, is "for a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life," according to the official guidelines. The production must have opened during 2012 to be eligible for this year's award.

Last year's winner was Quiara Alegria Hudes's play "Water by the Spoonful," about an Iraq war veteran struggling to find his place in the world. Previous playwrights honored include August Wilson, Edward Albee, Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams.

Akhtar, the child of Pakistani immigrants, grew up in Wisconsin, and studied at Brown University and at Columbia University's film school. In addition to "Disgraced," he also wrote the hostage thriller "The Invisible Hand," which had its world premiere at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis last year.

___

Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

The 89-year-old died after 12 days of medical treatment, state news agency Xinhua said, citing Shanghai health authorities.

Cases of the virus, confirmed in well over 100 people, have spread to several new provinces in recent days, including Fujian and Hunan.

Last week a man in Taiwan became the first case of the flu outside mainland China. He caught the flu while travelling in China.

The World Health Organization has called the virus "one of the most lethal", and said it is more easily transmitted than an earlier strain that has killed hundreds around the world since 2003.

Chinese scientists have confirmed that the bird flu strain has been transmitted to humans from chickens, but officials say there is as yet no evidence of human-to-human transmission of this virus.

(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Alison Williams)