Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 28 Februari 2015 | 20.24
28 February 2015Last updated at 08:02
A dress "resembling" the $150,000 (£97,000) outfit worn by actress Lupita Nyong'o at this year's Oscars that was stolen this week has been recovered, Los Angeles police have said.
It was found in a bathroom of the same Hollywood hotel where it was taken.
Police were tipped off by gossip site TMZ, who said they were contacted by a man claiming to be the thief.
He said he had returned the dress after learning the pearls studding the dress were fake.
The custom Calvin Klein-designed gown is coated with 6,000 natural pearls, but the purported thief said he took two of them for testing and were told they were not real.
Detectives are working with the owners of the dress to confirm if it is the dress.
But Michael White of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said he believed it was. No arrests have been made.
''Whether the jewels on the dress are fake or real... we still have a burglary and we still have a grand theft,'' Mr White said.
Nyong'o won best supporting actress in 2014 for 12 Years a Slave and was a presenter at Sunday's ceremony.
Speaking about the dress's design, the 31-year-old said: "We talked about it being fluid and liquid. I wanted it to be an homage to the sea."
The slowdown in the US economy at the end of last year was more pronounced than previously thought, official figures have shown.
The world's largest economy grew at an annual pace of 2.2% between October and December, against a previous estimate of 2.6%, the Commerce Department said.
The downward revision was due to a slower rise in business inventory investment than previously estimated.
The US economy grew at an annual pace of 5% in the previous quarter.
The slowdown in growth from the third quarter was caused by a rise in imports and a downturn in government spending.
The second estimate of US growth is based on a more complete source of economic data.
Investors initially took the revised figure in their stride, with the Dow Jones opening unchanged, but the index slipped in afternoon trading to end the day down 0.5% at 18,133.
"The reason for the lack of concern is that the slowdown was due in part to a far smaller than previously estimated inventory build-up, in turn thought to be partly due to port strikes", said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.
"The weaker stock build-up late last year bodes well for first quarter growth."
Flexible rates
Economists are pretty upbeat about the general state of the US economy, despite the slowdown in the fourth quarter.
Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of economic growth, is strong, thanks in part to dramatic falls in the price of petrol, giving consumers more money to spend on other things.
Unemployment is coming down and with negative inflation, the Federal Reserve has little choice but keep interest rates at close to zero for the time being.
Earlier this week, Fed chair Janet Yellon said the US economy was improving, while the employment market remained fragile. In her twice yearly address to Congress, she said there was still a good degree of flexibility as to when rates could be increased.
Most analysts expect a rate rise some time late in the summer or in the autumn.
Cuban and US diplomats say they have made progress in talks in Washington to restore full relations between the two countries.
At issue is the opening of embassies in the two capitals and Cuba's hope it will be removed from a US terror list.
The Cuban delegation was optimistic that problems could be overcome.
Likewise the head of the US delegation said she hoped that the embassies issue could be resolved before a regional summit in Panama on 10 April.
It is hoped that Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro will shake hands in a symbolic sign of improved relations at the summit.
This is the second round of talks between the two countries since a rapprochement in December.
The two presidents made a surprise announcement saying they would seek to re-establish diplomatic ties, ending more than 50 years of ill-will.
In April, Cuba will attend the Summit of the Americas for the first time.
The Obama administration wants to see a US embassy opened in the Cuban capital in time for the summit. It also wants Cuba to take steps to improve human rights and internet access, stop human trafficking and take steps to improve civil aviation.
However, Cuban negotiators want to see their country removed from the United States' list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Remaining on the list makes it impossible for Cubans to conduct banking and other business transactions in the US.
Cuban official Vidal Josefina Vidal, who heads the Cuban foreign ministry's US division, said her delegation was told the issue was being considered and representatives of both countries would be in "permanent connection" on multiple sticking points in the next few weeks.
US delegation head Roberta Jacobson said she was optimistic that the embassies issue could be resolved in time for the Summit of the Americas.
Officials in Washington say they are reviewing Cuba's status, but have yet to make a decision. They have warned that many disagreements still remain.
Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry drew a line between the opening of embassies and the presence of Cuba on the terror list.
Claiming that it supported the Basque separatist group Eta and Colombia's Farc rebels, the US labelled the island nation a sponsor of terror in 1982. A recent report issued by the US State Department notes that these ties are weaker than they previously were.
"The state sponsorship of terrorism designation is a separate process. It is not a negotiation," Mr Kerry said.
"It is an evaluation that is made under a very strict set of requirements, congressionally mandated, and that has to be pursed separately."
In the wake of December's deal, the US has relaxed some trade and travel restrictions, but a major economic embargo remains in place.
Analysis by Thomas Sparrow, BBC Mundo, Washington
The US delegation is trying hard to shift attention away from some of the more substantive political issues that it will have to resolve before it can fully normalise relations with Cuba, such as the presence of that country on its terrorism list.
For now, US officials have stressed that they are "entirely" focussed on working out the mechanics and the paperwork needed to open embassies, which could make this second round of negotiations "disappointingly workman-like in their nature," they say.
For them, having diplomatic ties precedes negotiating on some of the thorny issues between both countries, such as Cuba's human rights' record.
Cuban officials, on the contrary, have gone beyond the embassy logistics and have reiterated some of their long-standing demands, which include being removed from the terrorism list before "significant progress" can be made.
The fugitives standing between the US-Cuba embrace
The US Homeland Security Department has avoided a partial shutdown as Congress passed a one-week funding extension, hours before a midnight deadline.
The House of Representatives voted 357-60 in favour of the short-term bill after it had been passed in the Senate.
President Barack Obama, who said he would back a short-term deal to avert a shutdown, signed it shortly afterwards.
It ensures the department's 250,000 employees will be paid while a longer-term funding agreement is discussed.
The two-thirds majority vote was reached about two hours before the midnight (05:00 GMT Saturday) deadline.
Earlier, Republicans had rejected a similar three-week extension after provisions against President Obama's immigration plan were dropped.
The one-week deal was backed by a majority of Democrats despite many of them voting against the earlier bill in the hope that a longer-term deal could be agreed.
The move came shortly after President Obama had spoken by phone to Democratic leaders in a bid to avert the partial department closure.
The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for securing US borders, airports and coastal waters.
About 200,000 "essential" department employees would have continued to work without pay if the agency's funding had not been secured.
Effects of a Homeland Security shutdown
Airport security agents required to work without pay
Employers would not have the ability to use a programme called E-Verify to check if new employees are authorised to work legally in the US
No grants made to local and state authorities, including for training and new equipment
Secret Service will not be able to hire agents to protect 2016 presidential candidates
Civil rights and civil liberties complaint lines and investigations will be shut down
Some Republicans had wanted to use the funding of the department, which includes immigration officials, as a bargaining chip to force President Obama to end policies on immigration.
Last November, Mr Obama used his executive powers to protect about five million undocumented immigrants from deportation. Republicans say Mr Obama overstepped his powers in doing so.
A separate ruling by a federal judge has blocked those policies from starting while a lawsuit by more than two dozen states goes forward.
Some Republicans senators had expressed a desire to fight the executive actions in the courts, rather than threaten the department's funding.
The BBC's Naomi Grimley in Washington says many on Capitol Hill feared a public backlash if the funding had been thrown into doubt at a time of fears about "lone wolf" terrorists.
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Will undocumented people come forward amid uncertainty?
On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson urged Congress to pass full funding.
"A short-term continuing resolution exacerbates the uncertainty for my workforce and puts us back in the same position, on the brink of a shutdown just days from now," Mr Johnson said.
Last week, the White House said Mr Obama would prefer a full funding bill but would sign a short-term measure to prevent a shutdown.
Indiana could be the first US state to introduce baby boxes - anonymous drop-off points designed to prevent the deaths of abandoned infants.
Many states allow parents to hand over infants at public facilities, but the boxes have not been used in the US.
The boxes offer people who will not give up a child in person an alternative to abandonment or infanticide, proponents say.
But they have been criticised in Europe and Asia, where they are more common.
Elizabeth Throssell, a spokeswoman for United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, urges countries to provide family planning and other support to address the root causes of abandonments, like poverty, instead.
Other concerns over baby boxes include the need for medical care provided at safe haven sites like hospitals or police stations. The involvement of a trained professional at the point of handover can also help assess whether the mother simply needs financial support or other help.
Since 1999, a number of US states have passed "safe haven" laws that allow parents to surrender newborns at hospitals, police stations and other facilities without fear of prosecution, so long as the child hasn't been harmed.
Republican politician Casey Cox, who authored the bill, says baby boxes are a natural progression of such laws. The Indiana House overwhelmingly passed the bill this week. It is now being considered by the state senate.
Supporters of the bill hope that about one hundred boxes could be deployed by July. According to Save the Abandoned Babies Foundation, nearly two-thirds of those illegally abandoned die.
Baby boxes, also known as baby hatches or angel cradles, originated in medieval times when convents were equipped with revolving doors known as "foundling wheels".
Baby hatches are so popular in Asian countries in particular that they have even become the subject of a new documentary called "The Drop Box," which follows the efforts of a pastor in Seoul, South Korea, to address child abandonment.
In China local authorities have been so overwhelmed by abandonments in recent years that they have restricted the use of the boxes or closed them entirely.
Google has changed its mind about forcing sexually explicit blogs on its Blogger platform to become private.
Earlier this week, the firm warned bloggers that blogs containing sexually explicit images and videos would be made private on 23 March.
After "a ton of feedback" the firm has decided to continue with its current policy instead, it says.
Explicit blogs must continue to identify themselves as "adult".
This means a warning page is shown before readers are transferred to the site.
Google also reserves the right to add an "adult" tag to Blogger blogs if it feels the description is appropriate.
The "acceptable use" policy link currently redirects users to a posted message which reads:
"We've had a ton of feedback, in particular about the introduction of a retroactive change (some people have had accounts for 10+ years), but also about the negative impact on individuals who post sexually explicit content to express their identities.
"So rather than implement this change, we've decided to step up enforcement around our existing policy prohibiting commercial porn."
As long as bloggers have correctly identified their adult blogs they need take no further action, the message adds.
Google had originally proposed forcing existing explicit blogs to go private from next month, and said it would potentially take down blogs created after its 23 March deadline.
Attorney General Eric Holder says he will try to change the standard needed to bring federal civil rights cases in his last few weeks in the job.
In an interview with Politico, Mr Holder said "if we adjust those standards, we can make the federal government a better backstop".
His comments come after his department said it would not bring such charges in the Trayvon Martin case.
Mr Holder is set to leave after his successor, Loretta Lynch, is confirmed.
Ms Lynch, a US prosecutor in New York, was approved by a Senate committee panel on Thursday and must be confirmed by the wider Senate in the coming weeks.
Mr Holder, who has spoken out strongly about minorities communities relations with law enforcement, said he would use his last days as the US' top lawyer to talk about how the justice department decides to bring civil rights cases.
"I think some serious consideration needs to be given to the standard of proof that has to be met before federal involvement is appropriate, and that's something that I am going to be talking about before I leave office," he told Politico.
The US justice department's civil rights division often opens up investigations separate from local law enforcement when they believe a person has been killed specifically because of their race, but bringing charges requires a high legal standard involving intent of the suspect.
Earlier in the week, the justice department announced it had finished its investigation into the death of Martin, an unarmed black teenager killed by a volunteer neighbourhood watchman, George Zimmerman in 2012.
Mr Zimmerman was found not guilty of murder charges in 2013. The justice department said its investigation into Martin's death did not meet the "high standard" needed for federal civil rights charges against the Florida man.
A similar investigation into another high-profile case, the killing of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer is expected to be completed soon.
When asked if the legal standard should be lower in such cases, Mr Holder told Politico there needed to be an adjustment.
"I think that if we adjust those standards, we can make the federal government a better backstop - make us more a part of the process in an appropriate way to reassure the American people that decisions are made by people who are really disinterested," he said.
"I think that if we make those adjustments, we will have that capacity."
It is unclear if Mr Holder will be successful in making any changes with a short time left in office, but he told the website he was proud of what he was able to accomplish during his tenure as attorney general, including civil rights charges against police departments as a whole for discriminatory practices.
Eight people are dead and one person has been injured after a series of shootings in south-central Missouri.
Police made the discoveries on late Thursday at five different homes in or near the small town of Tyrone after an emergency call.
Officials found Joseph Jesse Aldridge, 36, dead of a self-inflicted gun wound in a vehicle near one of the crime scenes.
At least four of the victims have been identified as his family members.
Police are continuing to investigate Aldridge's motive.
Residents reported that police went door-to-door on Friday warning them to secure their homes.
On Friday afternoon, police identified four of the dead as Garold Aldridge, his wife Julie Ann Aldridge, Harold Aldridge and his wife Janell.
They were cousins of the gunman, police said. Joseph Aldridge's mother, Alice, was found dead of natural causes in the course of the investigation.
All the family members lived within three sq miles (5 sq km) of each other, police said.
Around 22:15 local time (4:15 GMT) on Thursday, officers from the Texas County Sheriff's Department responded to an emergency call from a young woman claiming she heard gunshots in a home.
Police found two people dead in the house.
As they continued searching, they found six others dead and one injured across four other residences.
"This is a horrific tragedy, and our hearts go out to the victims of these senseless acts and their families," Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said in a statement.
Aldridge was discovered in vehicle in nearby Shannon County. He died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Texas County Coroner Tom Whittaker told The St Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper his mother had been found dead at her home, apparently of natural causes.
She had been under a doctor's care and appeared to have been dead for at least 24 hours, Mr Whittaker told the newspaper, adding all the victims were adults.
Authorities took the injured victim to a nearby hospital. They will not be identifying the three other victims until their next-of-kin has been notified.
Residents of the rural area were in shock.
"We've never had anything of this magnitude before," said County Clerk Don Troutman, a resident of 36 years.
Scott Dill, superintendent of the school district that serves Tyrone, said the community was "holding our breath...to find out specifics".
"We want to help people make sense of this tragedy," he said.
The first full-scale Hyperloop, a new transportation method dreamed up by entrepreneur Elon Musk, will be built in central California next year.
The five-mile (8km) test track will be built halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The system uses depressurised tubes, as well as magnets and fans, to propel up to 28 people at a time at high speeds.
This model will be slower and shorter than the full-sized near-supersonic system envisioned by Mr Musk.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies announced the agreement with the developers of Quay Valley, California, a planned community that emphasises sustainability.
The system will be built alongside the Interstate 5 freeway in central California, and the developers claim that it will be the first passenger-ready Hyperloop to be built in an urban area.
Mr Musk - who founded companies like Paypal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors - first announced the idea of a Hyperloop in a 57-page white paper in August 2013.
In his original envisioning, Mr Musk imagined the system transporting people between Los Angeles and San Francisco- a distance of about 400 miles (645 km) - in 30 minutes.
Shortly after the announcement he handed the concept over to the public for anyone to develop, saying that he was too busy with other projects.
Since then hundreds of engineers have contributed ideas to the project during their spare time.
Mr Musk has described the design as a cross between Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table.
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The BBC's David Sillito looks back at the life of Leonard Nimoy
President Obama has led tributes to Leonard Nimoy, the US actor who played Mr Spock in the cult sci-fi series Star Trek, who has died aged 83.
"I loved Spock," said Mr Obama.
Nimoy died in Los Angeles on Friday. His son Adam said he died of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is often caused by smoking.
His career took in acting, directing, writing and photography, but he was best known for portraying the half-human, half-Vulcan character Spock.
Obama said in a statement: "Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy.
"Leonard was a lifelong lover of the arts and humanities, a supporter of the sciences, generous with his time and talents.
"And of course, Leonard was Spock. Cool, logical, big-eared and level-headed, the centre of Star Trek's optimistic, inclusive vision of humanity's future."
Obama's approach to politics has been described as Spock-like. He greeted Nimoy with a four fingered Vulcan salute when the pair met in 2007.
Among the torrent of tributes on Twitter was a message from Nasa crediting Nimoy and Star Trek as an inspiration.
Other Star Trek cast members gave their praise too. William Shatner, who as Captain Kirk acted alongside Nimoy for years in Star Trek, said he loved the actor "like a brother".
George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu said "he was an extraordinarily talented man but he was also a very decent human being."
Zachary Quinto, who played Spock in a Star Trek prequel, said: "My heart is broken."
More than a Vulcan
Nimoy played the Spock in all three of the original series of the programme and later in several big-screen spin offs.
He did have success outside of his Spock costume, in both acting and directing, and he pursued music, painting, and photography.
After the end of Star Trek's initial run, he played master of disguise Paris in the hit adventure series Mission Impossible.
Later he directed two of the Star Trek films, The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home, and in 1987 helmed the hit comedy Three Men and a Baby, one of the highest-grossing films of that year.
Written By Unknown on Jumat, 27 Februari 2015 | 20.24
27 February 2015Last updated at 01:39
A US federal judge has ruled that NFL running back Adrian Peterson should be reinstated following his suspension for beating his four-year-old son.
The Minnesota Vikings star was suspended without pay by the NFL in November.
His ban came days after he reached a plea bargain with prosecutors over a charge of recklessly assaulting his child.
Peterson had been accused of lashing the young boy with a tree branch.
The incident resulted in cuts and bruises to the boy's back, buttocks, legs and scrotum, local media reported.
He avoided jail after entering a "no contest" plea in court - a legal device used in some US states whereby a defendant neither admits nor denies a charge.
Peterson, 29, was put on probation and fined $4,000 (£2,500).
Following his court appearance, the NFL ordered Peterson's suspension until at least 15 April.
The suspension was based on a new players' conduct policy introduced by league bosses in August last year.
Under that policy, players involved in domestic violence could be banned for up to six games.
But the NFL Players' Association (NFLPA) then filed a lawsuit arguing that the new policy did not apply to Peterson as he assaulted his son before the August rule change.
As a result of this lawsuit, the suspension was overruled by a judge on Thursday.
The executive director of the NFLPA, DeMaurice Smith, said in a statement the decision was a "victory for the rule of law, due process, and fairness".
"This is yet another example why neutral arbitration is good for our players, good for the owners, and good for our game,'' Mr Smith said.
Peterson has expressed some uneasiness about returning to the Vikings, telling ESPN in a recent interview he felt betrayed by the team.
A knife-wielding mob has hacked to death a US-Bangladeshi blogger whose writing on religion had brought threats from Islamist hardliners.
Avijit Roy, an atheist who advocated secularism, was attacked in Dhaka as he walked back from a book fair with his wife, who was hurt in the attack.
No-one has been arrested but police say they are investigating a local Islamist group that praised the killing.
Hundreds of students gathered in Dhaka to mourn the blogger's death.
Mr Roy's family say he had received threats after publishing articles promoting secular views, science and social issues on his Bengali-language blog, Mukto-mona, or Free Mind.
He defended atheism in a recent Facebook post, calling it "a rational concept to oppose any unscientific and irrational belief".
The website was inaccessible on Friday.
The killing in early 2013 of another secular blogger, Ahmed Rajib Haider, which was blamed on religious hardliners, sparked protests from free-speech supporters and counter-protests from Islamists.
The police said the attack on Mr Roy was similar to the 2013 murder.
A group of men ambushed the couple, who live in the US and were visiting Dhaka only to attend the book festival, as they walked toward a roadside tea stall.
Avijit Roy
Founded Mukto-Mona - "Free Mind" - blog site which was set up in 2000 to champion secular and humanist writing in Muslim-majority Bangladesh
Bangladeshi-born US citizen who was on a visit to Bangladesh
Engineer by profession
Had received recent death threats from Islamist radicals for his writings, his family said
"He was a thinker, he was a man of great knowledge, he was a scientist, he was an engineer", said close friend and Dhaka University professor Anwar Hossain
At least two of the attackers hit them with meat cleavers, police chief Sirajul Islam told the AP news agency.
The attackers dropped their weapons and ran away, disappearing into the crowds.
The police told the BBC they were investigating a local hard-line religious group that had praised the killing in an online message.
Death threats against atheist writers and bloggers are nothing new in Bangladesh.
Prominent writer Taslima Nasreen had to leave Bangladesh after she received death threats from hard-line Islamists in the mid-1990s.
She wrote on her blog: "Avijit Roy has been killed the way other free thinker writers were killed in Bangladesh. No freethinker is safe in Bangladesh.
"Islamic terrorists can do whatever they like. They can kill people with no qualms whatsoever."
Police in Arizona are investigating a data cut that disrupted internet and telephone service across northern Arizona for much of Wednesday.
Technicians discovered a cut in a fibre-optic cable that authorities are attributing to an act of vandalism.
Calls to emergency services were limited, credit card transactions were not possible, and weather reports inaccessible for over six hours.
An estimate of the number of people affected has not been released.
Services - which also included mobile phones and television operability - became unusable around midday local time (19:00 GMT) and were not restored for six-and-a-half hours.
A spokesman for CenturyLink, the company that provides data services to the area, said technicians had to inspect the line "mile-by-mile" to find the fault, which they eventually located in a riverbed.
'Moderately annoying'
Police say that the line had been cut through, which left over 68,000 residents of Flagstaff - one of Arizona's largest cities - unable to carry about their daily business.
"It's moderately annoying, but it's not going to ruin my day," Jessie Hutchison said after realising a local ice cream shop could not accept credit card payments and cash machines were not working.
In other towns, authorities relied on radios and alternate phone networks to carry out emergency operations and were unable to access law enforcement databases.
Internet services are designed to have multiple connections that allow for redundant connectivity should cables be cut, but this is not always the case in remote areas.
26 February 2015Last updated at 18:01By Jane WakefieldTechnology reporter
New rules on how the internet should be governed have been approved by the Federal Communications Commission.
In what is seen as a victory for advocates of net neutrality, the commission voted in favour of changes proposed by chairman Tom Wheeler.
Three commissioners voted in favour and two against.
The US Telecommunications Industry Association said that broadband providers would take "immediate" legal action over the rule changes.
The main changes for broadband providers are as follows:
Broadband access is being reclassified as a telecommunications service, meaning it will be subject to much heavier regulation
Broadband providers cannot block or speed up connections for a fee
Internet providers cannot strike deals with content firms, known as paid prioritisation, for smoother delivery of traffic to consumers
Interconnection deals, where content companies pay broadband providers to connect to their networks, will also be regulated
Firms which feel that unjust fees have been levied can complain to the FCC. Each one will be dealt with on a case by case basis
All of the rules will also apply to mobile providers as well as fixed line providers
The FCC won't apply some sections of the new rules, including price controls
Ahead of the vote, commissioners heard from a variety of net neutrality advocates, including the chief executive of online marketplace Etsy and a TV drama writer. Web founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee also contributed via video link.
Columbia Law School Prof Tim Wu, who originally coined the phrase net neutrality, welcomed the ruling.
"It is a historic day in the history of the internet," Prof Wu said. "Net neutrality, long in existence as a principle, has been codified in a way that will likely survive court scrutiny. More generally, this marks the beginning of an entirely new era of how communications are regulated in the United States."
"I think both the Obama Administration and the Federal Communications Commission can consider the rule a legacy achievement."
'Misguided'
But broadband provider Verizon said that the rules being adopted by the FCC were "written in the era of the steam locomotive and the telegraph".
"Today's decision by the FCC to encumber broadband internet services with badly antiquated regulations is a radical step that presages a time of uncertainty for consumers, innovators and investors," it said in a statement.
"History will judge today's actions as misguided".
Scott Belcher, chief executive of the Telecommunications Industry Association, said that the "onerous set of rules" was an "over-reaction from the FCC".
He predicted a two-pronged response from the broadband providers.
"They will take legal action right away and they will continue to work in Congress to get legislation to address these rules," he told the BBC.
US broadband providers are estimated to spend around $73bn (£47bn) a year on upgrading infrastructure. Net usage is expected to double over the next 10 years and data transmissions to increase eight-fold.
"The internet is built on infrastructure. Even to keep at a steady state providers are going to have to invest in infrastructure but they need certainty that they can get a return on their investments," said Mr Belcher.
He added that there were concerns that future administrations may use the rules to impose even more restrictions on broadband providers.
"The next administration may want to introduce price controls or control infrastructure help where cables can be laid. They could drive the internet to a halt."
Fast lanes
The need for new rules was a result of a legal action taken in January 2014 by broadband provider Verizon, which challenged existing net neutrality guidelines.
The court found that the FCC had improperly regulated internet providers as if they were similar to a public utility when they were officially classified as information services.
It spurred calls for the FCC to reclassify broadband as a utility, with content giant Netflix, one of the most vocal lobbyists.
Hints that the commission was planning on rewriting the rules to allow internet fast lanes was met with a volley of criticism.
A record four million comments were sent to the regulator, campaigners protested outside its Washington headquarters and President Obama eventually intervened, urging the FCC to adopt the "strongest possible" rules.
Canada's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal to remove the country's citizenship oath, which requires applicants to swear allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II .
The appeal was launched by three permanent residents who wanted to obtain citizenship but not want to pledge allegiance to the royal family.
Native-born Canadians do not have to take any oath.
The plaintiffs say the vow violates religious and conscientious beliefs.
Simone Topey, a Rastafarian from Jamaica, and Dror Bar-Natan, an Israeli Jew, say their religion forbids them from taking an oath to any person.
"I can't do something that I don't believe in," Topey, told reporters outside a Toronto court on Tuesday according to Canadian TV News. "I want to be real to Canada, I want to be loyal to the country. I'm trying to become a citizen not a subject."
Michael McAteer, a staunch republican from Ireland, says he believes the oath is unnecessary and would violate his conscience.
The trio's lawyer Peter Rosenthal told the Court of Appeal on Tuesday that allowing would-be citizens to opt out of the oath doesn't cause any harm.
"Someone who wants to be a citizen is being forced to say, 'I support the constitutional monarchy,'" he said. "How repugnant must that be to someone who's a staunch anti-monarchist?"
'Literal approach'
Australia, also a constitutional monarchy, scrapped its pledge to the monarchy 20 years ago.
Government lawyer Kristina Dragaitis argued the monarchy symbolizes the Constitution, the rule of law and the right to dissent. She said, the appellants are taking a "literal approach" to the oath.
The Supreme Court, as is customary, gave no reasons for refusing to hear the appeal.
House Speaker John Boehner has refused to say whether the House will vote on a Senate bill funding homeland security before a Friday deadline.
"When I make a decision, I'll let you know," Mr Boehner told reporters.
The Senate is set to pass a bill without blocking immigration policies made by US President Barack Obama by executive action last year.
If the House does not take it up by Friday, a partial government shutdown will follow.
About 200,000 of the agency's 230,000 employees, including airport security agents, would continue to work but would not be paid until the shutdown came to an end.
Some Republicans are seeking to end Mr Obama's immigration policies, which protect more than five million undocumented immigrations from deportation, using the homeland security $40m (£26m) budget as a bargaining chip.
Mr Boehner and others argue the US president has overstepped his powers.
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Will undocumented people come forward amid uncertainty?
Meanwhile, a federal district judge has blocked those policies from taking effect while a lawsuit by more than two dozen states goes forward.
But the Obama administration has appealed that ruling. On Wednesday, Mr Obama said he would pursue the case to the US Supreme Court if necessary.
On Wednesday, a House bill stripping Mr Obama's executive action while funding the homeland security department was blocked in the Senate, but the Senate is set to pass its own version - without touching the immigration policies.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, also a Republican, is expected to pursue a separate bill revoking Mr Obama's most recent immigration directives.
"The House has done its work. And when the Senate does its work, we'll let you know how we're going to proceed," Mr Boehner said.
Mr Boehner met Mr McConnell in private on Wednesday - but there was no indication after that meeting if Mr Boehner would allow a vote on the Senate version of the funding bill.
Republicans are reportedly considering several options to prevent a shutdown, including passing bill to fund the department for a shorter period of time.
The White House has not said whether Mr Obama would sign a shorter-term funding bill.
A former aide of Osama Bin Laden has been found guilty of plotting the al-Qaeda bombing of US embassies in east Africa in 1998 that killed 224 people.
Khalid al-Fawwaz, a Saudi national, was convicted by a New York court after three days of jury deliberations.
Extradited from the UK to the US in 2012, he was found guilty on four conspiracy counts and now faces a possible life sentence.
Al-Fawwaz, 52, has been described as Osama Bin Laden's spokesman in London.
A statement from Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the defendant "played a critical role for al-Qaeda in its murderous conspiracy against America".
There were a dozen Americans among the dead after US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania were bombed in 1998.
He was arrested in London in the same year as the bombings and extradited 14 years later.
Mr Bharara described Al-Fawwaz as one of Bin Laden's "original and most trusted lieutenants" who was the leader of an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, then later acted as Bin Laden's "media adviser" in London.
One of his roles, Mr Bharara said, was to ensure Bin Laden's threats against the US were distributed and noticed across the globe.
"Murderous words lead to murderous action," assistant US Attorney Nicholas Lewin told jurors.
The trial, which lasted a month under very heavy security in Manhattan, did not feature any testimony from the defendant.
When the verdict was read out, Al-Fawwaz stood expressionless.
Five other people have already been convicted in New York for the embassy attacks.
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The dress is studded with 6,000 natural white pearls, as the BBC's Alastair Leithead reports
A $150,000 (£97,000) custom-made Calvin Klein dress, worn by actress Lupita Nyong'o at this year's Oscars, has been stolen in Hollywood.
The dress, studded with 6,000 natural white pearls, was taken from the London Hotel in West Hollywood while Nyong'o was out of the room.
Nyong'o won best supporting actress in 2014 for 12 Years a Slave and was a presenter at Sunday's ceremony.
A statement from the hotel said they were "working with law enforcement".
Lieutenant William Nash, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, said officers were checking CCTV footage.
Conflicting reports suggested the dress was stolen either on Tuesday night or during the day on Wednesday.
"Ms Nyong'o was not in the room at the time of the theft," Deputy John Mitchell told Reuters.
'Homage'
The dress, designed by Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein, took 25 people 10 weeks to hand-sew the 6,000 Akoya pearls.
On the red carpet on Sunday, the Kenyan-born actress told Associated Press she was "just wearing my diamonds and pearls. My homage to (musician) Prince".
Speaking about the dress's design, the 31-year-old said: "We talked about it being fluid and liquid. I wanted it to be an homage to the sea."
No arrests have been made.
Representatives for Calvin Klein declined to comment.
US intelligence agencies have placed cyber attacks from foreign governments and criminals at the top of their list of threats to the country.
Online assaults would increasingly undermine US economic competitiveness and national security, said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
A report issued by his office said Russia's military was setting up a cyber command to carry out attacks.
The report also describes China, Iran and North Korea as leading threats.
In testimony to a congressional committee on Thursday, Mr Clapper said he no longer believed the US faced "cyber Armageddon".
The idea that major infrastructure such as financial networks or power grids could be disabled by hackers now looked less probable, he said.
However he warned: "We foresee an ongoing series of low-to-moderate level cyber attacks from a variety of sources over time, which will impose cumulative costs on US economic competitiveness and national security."
Mr Clapper highlighted the case of Russia, which he said posed the greatest a cyber risk to US interests. He said that threat from the Russian government was "more severe" than previously realised.
He also said profit-minded criminals and ideologically driven hackers were also increasingly active.
Over the past year there have been a series of high-profile cyber attacks against US targets.
North Korea was accused of being behind the theft of a huge data cache from Sony Pictures in November.
Mr Clapper also mentioned the example of an alleged Iranian attack on the Las Vegas Sands Casino Corporation last year.
Meanwhile in January the Twitter and YouTube accounts of the US military command were hacked by a group claiming to back Islamic State (IS).
During the hearing, Mr Clapper acknowledged that the US had its own "offensive capabilities".
In 2010 Iran experienced a cyber attack on its nuclear program. Tehran accused Israel and the US of planting malware.
Lawmakers in the US state of Virginia have agreed to pay compensation to people who were forcibly sterilised by the authorities decades ago.
Victims will be paid $25,000 (£16,000) following a legal fight by campaigners.
Along with more than 30 other US states, Virginia once operated a sterilisation programme for individuals deemed undesirable or mentally unsound.
More than 8,000 Virginians were operated on between the 1920s and 1970s.
The state's programme was said to be the model for the Nazi eugenics policies introduced by Adolf Hitler when he aspired to create a master race.
Several countries practised forced sterilisation during the 20th Century, including Sweden, Canada and Japan.
'They took my rights away'
In the US, about 65,000 Americans were sterilised in 33 states.
More than a fifth of those sterilised in Virginia were African Americans.
Two-thirds were women, many of whom went in for other procedures and were unaware of what was happening to them, reports the BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan.
In 1927 the US Supreme Court upheld Virginia's Eugenical Sterilisation Act law. It remained in force until 1979.
The state issued an apology over the policy in 2001. Campaigners say there are only 11 known surviving victims of the programme.
The compensation deal was welcomed by 87-year-old victim Lewis Reynolds. "I couldn't have a family like everybody else does," he told the Associated Press news agency. "They took my rights away."
Virginia is the second state, after North Carolina, to approve a compensation package for victims who are still alive.
In 2013, North Carolina legislators agreed to pay $50,000 to surviving victims - thought to number about 1,800.
Written By Unknown on Kamis, 26 Februari 2015 | 20.24
25 February 2015Last updated at 22:40
A majority of US Supreme Court justices appear to be supportive of an argument that Abercrombie & Fitch discriminated against a Muslim teenager.
Samantha Elauf argued she was denied a job because her headscarf conflicted with the company's dress code.
Abercrombie disputes the allegation, arguing Ms Elauf did not ask specifically for a religious exemption.
Questions from some of the justices were in favour of Ms Elauf, but their final decision will be made in May.
The clothing retailer has since changed its policy on headscarves but continues to fight the case in court.
In a statement on Wednesday, the firm said it had a "longstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion" and had "granted numerous religious accommodations when requested, including hijabs".
US law requires that employers must "reasonably accommodate" an employee's religious beliefs, as long as it does not provide an undue hardship to the business.
The US high court seeks to answer the question of whether a prospective employee must explicitly ask for a religious exemption.
The suit, which is being brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), argues that Ms Elauf was denied the job because her headscarf clashed with Abercrombie's "East Coast" style.
During arguments on Wednesday, liberal and some conservative justices aggressively questioned the company's lawyer.
Justice Samuel Alito, considered part of the court's conservative wing, said there was no reason not to hire her unless the firm assumed she would always wear a headscarf to work because of her religion.
He added employers could avoid such situations by asking prospective employees if they are able to abide by work rules.
A lawyer for Abercrombie, Shay Dvoretzky, said the firm wanted to avoid precedents that would "leads employers, in order to avoid liability, to start stereotyping about whether they think, guess or suspect that somebody is doing something for religious reasons".
But Justice Alito said employers would not feign ignorance of potential employees wearing other religious clothing, including "a Sikh man wearing a turban", "a Hasidic man wearing a hat" or "a Catholic nun in a habit".
Asking employees if they planned to comply with work rules might be awkward, Justice Elena Kagan said, but would be far better than a situation that would lead to stereotyping anyway.
As she left the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Ms Elauf told reporters she wasn't just pursuing the case for herself, but to protect the rights of peoples of all faiths at work, BBC's Gary O'Donoghue reports from Washington, DC.
What is Abercrombie & Fitch 'Look policy'?
natural looking make-up and no fingernail polish,
slender figure
tight denim
no black clothing
long hair for women
More: What is the Abercrombie look?
Ms Elauf applied for a sales job at a Tulsa, Oklahoma, store in 2008.
The woman who conducted the interview was impressed with Ms Elauf but was concerned about her headscarf. After consulting with a supervisor, she decided not to hire her.
The EEOC was initially successful in winning its case, and a jury awarded Ms Elauf $20,000 (£12,900) in damages.
However, a higher court threw out that ruling, noting that Ms Elauf never specified that she would need a religious exemption in her job interview, even though she was wearing her headscarf during the process.
"An employer cannot be liable for failing to accommodate a religious conflict unless it knows that the religious conflict exists," wrote Abercrombie's lawyers in court documents.
Ms Elauf's case is backed by a broad collection of religious groups - as well as gay and lesbian rights organisations.
Hijab controversies
France - The European Court of Human Rights upheld the country's ban on the niqab - the fully covering face veil. The court's ruled ban - and the resulting 150-euro fine - "was not expressly based on the religious connotation of the clothing in question but solely on the fact that it concealed the face".
UK - There is no ban in the UK on face-covering veils but schools are allowed to decide their own dress code after a 2007 directive which followed several high-profile court cases.
In January 2010, then Schools Secretary Ed Balls said it was "not British" to tell people what to wear in the street after the UK Independence Party called for all face-covering Muslim veils to be banned.
Turkey - A ban on all headscarves at universities was quietly lifted in 2010, and in 2013, the country lifted a ban on women wearing headscarves in the country's state institutions - with the exception of the judiciary, military and police - ending a decades-old restriction.
More: The Islamic veil across Europe
Continue reading the main story
The word hijab comes from the Arabic for veil and is used to describe the headscarves worn by Muslim women. These scarves come in myriad styles and colours. The type most commonly worn in the West is a square scarf that covers the head and neck but leaves the face clear.
The niqab is a veil for the face that leaves the area around the eyes clear. However, it may be worn with a separate eye veil. It is worn with an accompanying headscarf.
The burka is the most concealing of all Islamic veils. It covers the entire face and body, leaving just a mesh screen to see through.
The al-amira is a two-piece veil. It consists of a close fitting cap, usually made from cotton or polyester, and an accompanying tube-like scarf.
The shayla is a long, rectangular scarf popular in the Gulf region. It is wrapped around the head and tucked or pinned in place at the shoulders.
The khimar is a long, cape-like veil that hangs down to just above the waist. It covers the hair, neck and shoulders completely, but leaves the face clear.
The chador, worn by many Iranian women when outside the house, is a full-body cloak. It is often accompanied by a smaller headscarf underneath.
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A legal brief on behalf of Orthodox Jews filed in the case argues that requiring job applicants to explicitly voice the need for religion-related special treatment makes them less likely to be hired without given cause.
Large state organisations as well as the US Chamber of Commerce are supporting Abercrombie & Fitch's case over concerns the court could set a precedent that would make them subject to more discrimination claims.
The retailer settled two other discrimination cases related to hijabs in 2013 and paid $40m to black, Hispanic and Asian-American college students a decade ago over discrimination in its hiring practices.
US Singer Chris Brown has been forced to cancel shows in Montreal and Toronto after Canadian officials stopped him from entering the country.
Brown wrote in a tweet on Tuesday, the "good people of the Canadian government wouldn't allow me entry. I'll be back this summer and will hopefully see all my Canadian fans!''
Canada did not give a reason for denying entry to the singer.
But authorities can declare someone "criminally inadmissible."
Brown was sentenced to five years of probation for assaulting singer Rihanna before the Grammy Awards in 2009.
Since then he has violated the terms of his probation on several occasions. In 2013, Brown was charged with a misdemeanour when he and his bodyguard got into a brawl outside a Washington DC hotel.
Live Nation - the promoter of Brown's "Between The Sheets" tour - confirmed that the shows were cancelled "due to immigration issues".
A spokeswoman for the singer, Nicole Perna, said Canadian immigration officials denied Brown entry but said that the musician can apply to return at a later date and plans to do so.
Brown was also denied entry to the UK in 2010, forcing him to miss four shows. The British government said that the singer had been refused a visa because of his past criminal record.
The owner of US retailers TJ Maxx and Marshalls will raise the hourly pay of its workers to $9 (£5.80) in June - $1.75 above the country's minimum wage.
TJX said it also plans to increase the rate to $10 in 2016.
The announcement comes a week after Walmart, the US's largest private employer, said it would raise hourly wages to $9.
The firms' decisions reflect an improving US economic climate, as well as widespread protests over low wages.
TJX announced the wage increases as part of its fourth-quarter earnings report.
The company reported an 11% rise in net profit from the same period a year earlier to $648m, and said same-store sales increased by 4%.
Shares in TJX were up over 3% in afternoon trading.
Growing trend
TJ Maxx employs approximately 191,000 associates at 3,395 stores around the world, including TK Maxx in the UK.
Carol Meyrowitz, TJX's chief executive, said in a statement: "This pay initiative is an important part of our strategies to continue attracting and retaining the best talent in order to deliver a great shopping experience for our customers, remain competitive on wages in our US markets, and stay focused on our value mission."
The US federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour, although several US states and cities have passed measures increasing the wage floor.
In 2015, the minimum wage in 23 US states and Washington, DC is set to rise to varying degrees, meaning that retailers such as TJ Maxx and Walmart would have had to pay higher wages as a result of legislative efforts.
US airline Southwest was briefly forced to ground some flights on Tuesday.
The cancellations came after it was revealed the budget carrier neglected to carry out safety inspections on about one fifth of its planes.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) later ruled that the airline could fly the uninspected planes for a maximum of five days as safety checks take place.
"The airline is working quickly to resolve the situation," said Southwest.
In a statement, the airline said that it discovered that a check on the standby hydraulic system on about 128 of its Boeing 737 planes was overdue.
"Southwest immediately and voluntarily removed the affected aircraft from service, initiated maintenance checks, disclosed the matter to the FAA, and developed an action plan to complete all overdue checks," it said.
After grounding those affected planes for about six hours - leading to 80 flight cancellations - the FAA told the airline it could continue to fly the planes that missed the inspections.
Southwest, which is the world's biggest discount carrier, has approximately 665 Boeing 737 planes in its fleet as of 2014.
The airline has been in trouble with regulators before. Last May, it was fined for deceptive advertising tactics.
In 2011, the airline came under fire after a hole opened up in one of its plane cabins mid flight, and a subsequent inspection revealed three other planes suffered from similar cracks that led to the fissure.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been forced into a tough run-off election after failing to gain 50% of voters in his re-election bid.
Mr Emanuel had 45% of the vote while his main challenger, Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, gained 34%.
Mr Garcia was successful in garnering support from those who have been unhappy with Mr Emanuel's term as mayor, including the teacher's union.
The run-off election will be held on 7 April.
Speaking to supporters on Tuesday night, Mr Emanuel pledged to return to campaigning immediately.
"We will get back out there, talking to our friends and families and neighbours as they make a critical choice about who has the strength, who has the leadership, who has the ideas to move this great city forward," Mr Emanuel said.
"Today, we the people have spoken," Mr Garcia told supporters, some who were already wearing campaign buttons with the run-off date and a cartoon version of Mr Garcia's moustache.
"This city deserves a mayor who will put people first, not big money, special interests," Mr Garcia said on Tuesday. "I will be that mayor."
Both Mr Garcia and Mr Emanuel were already out shaking hands on Wednesday morning at stations on the city's L subway.
Mr Emanuel needed 50% to avoid a run-off, and had fundraised extensively - $16m (£10.3m), more than four times his challengers, over the course of the campaign.
President Barack Obama also endorsed Mr Emanuel, who was Mr Obama's first chief of staff, for re-election.
Mr Garcia, who was born in Mexico and raised in Chicago, is a county commissioner who jumped into the mayor's race in October after another likely candidate, Chicago Teacher's Union President Karen Lewis, was diagnosed with brain cancer.
During the campaign, Mr Garcia and three other challengers criticised Mr Emanuel's push to close dozen of schools and his large fundraising operation.
Joyce Rodgers, who is retired, said she believed the school closures cost the mayor the trust of the city's African-American community. Many in the city's public schools are minorities.
"There is total disappointment," she said. "I believe that Obama's been let down, too, he's just not going to say it."
But others were supportive of Mr Emanuel's efforts to bring more jobs to the city. The mayor campaigned on his record - making a series of tough budget decisions and raising the city's minimum wage.
The FBI has arrested three foreign nationals living in Brooklyn who agents say sought to join the Islamic State.
Two of the men had threatened to kill police officers and FBI agents in the US if they were unable to travel to Syria, the FBI said.
The men came to the authorities' attention after they posted to Uzbek-language websites in recent months.
In one post, they pledged to kill US President Barack Obama, the FBI said.
Abdurasul Juraboev, 24, and Abror Habibov, 30, both of Uzbekistan; and Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19, of Kazakhstan, were charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation.
Continue reading the main story
The defendants violated the true tenets of their faith in pursuit of their radical, violent agenda"
End QuoteDiego G RodriguezFBI
Mr Saidakhmetov was arrested at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York on Tuesday, as he tried to board a flight to Istanbul, Turkey.
Mr Juraboev bought a plane ticket to travel from New York to Istanbul next month, federal prosecutors said.
The third suspect, Mr Habibov, is accused of helping to fund Mr Saidakhmeto's efforts to join the Syrian jihadists, prosecutors said.
"This is real," William Bratton, commissioner of the New York Police Department, said on Wednesday.
"This is the concern about the lone wolf, inspired to act without ever going to the Mideast."
The US has charged about 20 people with planning to join militant groups overseas, many intending to go to Syria to fight with Islamic State (IS).
FBI said Mr Saidakhmetov had worked for Mr Habibov, who operates mobile-phone repair stands in malls in several cities.
"I am in USA now but we don't have any arms. But is it possible to commit ourselves as dedicated martyrs anyway while here?" Juraboev wrote on the Uzbek-language website, according to the court papers.
"What I'm saying is, to shoot Obama and then get shot ourselves, will it do? That will strike fear in the hearts of infidels."
Mr Saidakhmetov told an FBI informant that he planned to go Syria but he would still carry out attacks if he was unable to go.
"We will go and purchase one handgun ... then go and shoot one police officer. Boom ... Then we will go the FBI headquarters, kill the FBI People," Saidakhmetov told the informant.
If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
"The defendants violated the true tenets of their faith in pursuit of their radical, violent agenda," said Diego G Rodriguez of the FBI's New York Field Office.
Figures suggest more than 20,000 foreigners have joined the conflicts in Iraq and Syria in the last three years, with as many as 4,000 from Western Europe.
This week, UK police said three missing London teenagers flew to Turkey to join Islamic State militants. It is believed that they have now crossed into Syria.
"The flow of foreign fighters to Syria represents an evolving threat to our country and to our allies," US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said, announcing the arrests.
The trial of a Pakistani man accused of plotting bomb attacks in the US and the UK has seen documents seized during the raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound.
The documents referred to planned attacks in Britain, Europe and Russia, a US court heard.
Abid Naseer, 28, stands accused of orchestrating an al-Qaeda conspiracy to attack Manchester and New York.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied he was involved in any violent extremism.
The documents presented to the New York jury included a letter to Osama Bin Laden outlining planned attacks.
Taken during a US Navy Seal raid on the al-Qaeda chief's Pakistan home in 2011, the papers made no mention of Manchester specifically and did not mention the defendant's name.
In the letter to Bin Laden, the author says "brothers" had been dispatched to Britain, Russia and Europe but that some had been arrested.
"The winds blew against what the ships desire," it noted.
Mr Naseer was extradited to the US from the UK in 2013.
New York prosecutors say he was part of a large al-Qaeda conspiracy to bomb a Manchester shopping centre and the New York subway system.
The defendant, who is representing himself, denies all charges.
MI5 sting operation
On Tuesday, the courtroom heard evidence from British security service agents who were dressed in wigs and make-up to protect their identity.
The MI5 agents tracked Mr Naseer in 2009 as he visited a Manchester shopping centre, the court heard.
Mr Naseer was later arrested in the UK on suspicion of plotting an attack. No explosives were found but he and others were ordered to leave the country.
After avoiding deportation to Pakistan on human rights grounds, he was rearrested in the UK in 2010 and eventually extradited to the US.
Mr Naseer faces life in prison if convicted of the charges against him.
Washington DC has become the latest place in the United States to legalise the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
As of midnight on Thursday (05:00 GMT), people who use the drug in private no longer face prosecution.
The change has created tension between the city's mayor and Congress.
Washington DC joins Alaska, Colorado, and Washington state as the only places in the US that allow the use of the drug for recreational purposes.
Residents and visitors to the city over the age of 21 can possess as much as 2oz (56g) of cannabis, and may grow a few plants at home.
Buying and selling the drug remains illegal, as does smoking it in public.
The plan was overwhelmingly agreed in a referendum last November.
But the vote revived tensions between local officials and Congress.
Washington DC - a federal district, not a state - is required to seek congressional approval for much of its legislation.
In a letter sent on Tuesday, two members of Congress warned Mayor Muriel Bowser that she would be breaking US law by proceeding.
They said that a national budget bill passed in December prevents the legalisation of marijuana in Washington.
But Ms Bowser and other officials believe that the legalisation is still valid since it was approved by voters before Congress passed the budget bill.
In the letter, the congressmen warned her that by enacting the new rules she would "be doing so in knowing and wilful violation of the law".
Speaking to the Washington Post newspaper, Representative Jason Chaffetz, one of the letter's signatories, warned that she could face "very severe consequences", adding: "You can go to prison for this."
Ms Bowser said: "We do disagree on a matter of law. There are reasonable ways to resolve that without us threatening him or he us."
While any criminal prosecution would have to come from the US Department of Justice, Congress could withhold Washington DC's funding for other initiatives to pressure Ms Bowser.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has questioned the judgement of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu over his stance on Iran's nuclear programme.
Mr Netanyahu has criticised the US and others for "giving up" on trying to stop Iran obtaining nuclear weapons.
The Israeli PM "may not be correct", Mr Kerry said after attending the latest Iran nuclear talks in Geneva.
Mr Netanyahu will address Congress next week, after an invitation by Republican leaders criticised by the White House.
Mr Kerry was reacting to a speech in which Mr Netanyahu had said the US and others were "accepting that Iran will gradually, within a few years, develop capabilities to produce material for many nuclear weapons".
"I respect the White House and the president of the United States but on such a fateful matter, that can determine whether or not we survive, I must do everything to prevent such a great danger for Israel," he said in a speech in Israel.
Having just concluded the latest round of nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva, Mr Kerry told senators President Obama had made it clear the policy was not to let Iran get nuclear weapons and Mr Netanyahu's might therefore not be correct.
The invitation for Mr Netanyahu to speak before Congress has angered Democrats.
A spokesman for the White House warned against reducing US-Israeli relations to a party-political issue.
Earlier, US National Security Adviser Susan Rice had gone further and said Mr Netanyahu's visit was "destructive to the fabric of the relationship".
Analysis - Barbara Plett Usher, BBC News, Washington
Administration officials have been hitting back at Mr Netanyahu's aggressive opposition to the nuclear deal they're negotiating with Iran - they're unhappy his speech to Congress will give him a platform to make his case as talks reach a critical juncture.
Susan Rice's comments highlight that strain and are the most direct reference by a senior official to the damage caused by the controversy over the visit. It was arranged by Republican congressional leaders without consulting the Democrats or the White House, just two weeks before Mr Netanyahu faces an election.
That has angered Democrats, some of whom feel they'll be forced to choose between President Obama and their desire not to upset Israel. More than a dozen have said they plan to skip the speech, opening an unprecedented breach in the usual show of bipartisan support for Israel.
Mr Netanyahu was invited by House Speaker John Boehner in what is seen as a rebuke to US President Barack Obama's Iran policy.
Mr Netanyahu is expected to discuss Iran, as well as Islamist militant groups, in his address.
The current tensions took root over a decade ago when Iran's nuclear programme first came to light.
In 2005, Iran was referred to the UN Security Council, leading to a series of sanctions and UN resolutions requiring Tehran to stop enriching uranium.
The US and other powers - the so-called P5+1 - are negotiating with Iran on its nuclear programme. They want to agree a deal by March this year, but Mr Netanyahu is opposed to any agreement which might allow Tehran to retain the future capacity to build a nuclear weapon.
Tough election
The Israeli leader has turned down an invitation to meet Senate Democrats privately, saying this "could compound the misperception of partisanship" surrounding his trip.
Several Democratic members of Congress including Vice-President Joe Biden have said they will not attend the speech.
Republican leaders did not consult the Obama administration before inviting Mr Netanyahu, which the White House has called a breach of protocol.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Wednesday: "The president has said the relationship between the US and Israel can't just be reduced to a relationship between the Republican party and the Likud party."
Mr Obama does not plan to meet Mr Netanyahu next week. The White House cited the "long-standing practice" of not meeting government leaders close to elections, which Israel will hold in mid-March.
Mr Netanyahu is fighting a tough election against the Labour Party's Yitzhak Herzog, who has focused on the prime minister's cooler relations with Mr Obama.
Written By Unknown on Rabu, 25 Februari 2015 | 20.24
24 February 2015Last updated at 17:49
A US woman working as a Christian missionary in Nigeria has been abducted by masked gunmen in what may be an effort to secure a ransom, police say.
Phyllis Sortor was taken from the Hope Academy compound in the central state of Kogi, the Free Methodist Church USA said on its website.
The number of kidnappings has escalated in Nigeria in recent years.
Correspondents say it has become a strategy that earns kidnappers millions of dollars a year.
Scores of expatriates have been targeted in the south, centre and north of the country - some by Boko Haram Islamist militants.
Kogi state, however, is reported to have a low level of militant activity, security sources say.
"We are calling on the US church to join together in prayer for Phyllis' safety and speedy release," the Free Methodist Church USA said, adding that US authorities had been notified and were trying to find and rescue her.
It described her as a financial administrator who had formed a "special friendship" with the nomadic Fulani clan.
The US Department of State said it was aware of the kidnapping.
"In cases where US citizens are confirmed missing, the US embassy works closely with those involved, supporting local authorities in their search efforts, and provides all appropriate consular assistance," it said in a statement.
MI5 agents, wearing wigs and make-up to hide their identities, have told a US jury how they tracked a man accused of a transatlantic bomb plot.
Abid Naseer, who was extradited from the UK in 2013, is accused of plotting bomb attacks in Manchester and New York as part of an al Qaeda conspiracy.
He has pleaded not guilty and denied he was involved in any violent extremism.
A judge has made several rulings to protect the spies' identities, including modified court sketches.
Judge Raymond Dearie had previously approved the wigs and "light" make-up to protect the identifies of the officers and ordered courtroom sketch artists to further generalise their appearance over media organisation's objections.
Mr Naseer faces life in prison if convicted of the charges against him - providing and conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda and conspiring to use a destructive device.
Prosecutors have called the testimony of the MI5 agents essential, saying they tracked Mr Naseer in 2009 and were the only witnesses to his alleged preparation to attack a Manchester shopping centre.
Inside the courtroom - Nick Bryant, BBC News
In a courthouse in Brooklyn, there was the sort of make-up and hair ordinarily associated with theatrical productions on Broadway.
The first MI5 agent who took the stand, known as Officer 1661, wore glasses, a jet-black wig and also a beard - though it was hard to tell whether the facial hair was real or artificial. Speaking in a northern English accent, he described how he had conducted surveillance in Liverpool and Manchester on the defendant Abid Naseer.
Others agents who took the stand included a female agent, Officer 1488, who wore glasses and a shoulder length brown wig, and a third agent, who looked to be of an Asian background, also wore glasses and a black wig.
Throughout the proceedings, they were watched by a representative of the British government, who himself wore a wig and glasses. He also scrutinised the drawings of court artists, who had been instructed by the judge to depict blank faces and generic hair.
The agents followed him as he visited a shopping centre in Manchester, allegedly the target of the plot, a mosque and other locations.
He was previously arrested in the UK on suspicion of plotting an attack.
No explosives were found but he and others were ordered to leave the country. Mr Naseer avoided deportation to Pakistan.
US prosecutors have argued Mr Naseer was the leader of an al-Qaeda cell in Manchester and involved in planning bomb plots in multiple countries, including an alleged plan to bomb the New York city subway.
Mr Naseer is representing himself and has said he went online and used email to find a wife, not contact an al-Qaeda handler, as prosecutors have alleged.
But one officer told the court he had never seen Mr Naseer in the company of a woman.
On Tuesday, Mr Naseer had the opportunity to cross-examine the intelligence officer who had tracked him in the UK.
"Did these movements cause any alarm or suspicion?" he asked. "No," the man, known as Officer 1661, replied.
Evidence from another MI5 spy was recorded last month and played in court in Brooklyn last week.
The officer said he followed Abid Naseer onto a coach and observed him watching a video of the 9/11 attacks on his mobile phone.
UK officials arrested him at the request of US prosecutors several years ago. He was eventually deported after losing an appeal at the European Court of Human Rights.
The US has offered a $3m (£1.94m) reward for information on a Russian hacker, the highest the US authorities have ever offered in a cybercrime case.
Evgeniy Bogachev was charged last year in the US with being behind a major cybercrime operation that allegedly stole more than $100m (£64.7m).
He was last seen in Russia, where he is believed to remain at large.
Arresting him may be difficult, as the US does not have an extradition treaty with Russia.
Mr Bogachev, also known as "lucky12345" and "slavik", is accused of running the GameOver Zeus attack network, thought to have infected more than one million computers.
Victims were tricked into downloading malware - malicious software - which then searched specifically for financial information.
'60 cyber-threats'
Evgeniy Bogachev was charged last year on counts including conspiracy, wire, bank and computer fraud, and money laundering, after the FBI said it broke up the network.
He is one of the FBI's most wanted cyber-criminals.
"This reward offer reaffirms the commitment of the US government to bring those who participate in organized crime to justice, whether they hide online or overseas," the US State Department said.
The reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Mr Bogachev.
The head of the FBI's cyber crime division, Joseph Demarest, said Russia's internal security agency had expressed an interest in working with the US on cybercrimes, according to Reuters, but did not link it to the Bogachev case.
He also said the agency was aware of 60 different cyber-threat groups linked to nation-states, but gave no further details.
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Aerial footage of the crash shows three of the train's carriages on their side
A commuter train has hit a lorry which had driven on railway tracks, causing four carriages to derail northwest of Los Angeles.
The vehicle was engulfed in flames and 28 people were injured, train operator Metrolink said, four critically.
The collision happened at a level crossing in Oxnard, after the lorry stopped on the tracks, officials said.
The 54-year-old lorry driver was detained a mile (1.6km) away and has been charged with felony hit-and-run.
Police in Oxnard say the crash was first reported at 05:44 local time (13:44 GMT).
Metrolink spokesman Scott Johnson estimated the train struck the lorry at a speed between 40 mph to 50 mph (65-80km/h).
"I saw a bright flash, a big fireball and flames, flames going pretty high," said Glenn Frisbie, who was driving to work and sitting at a junction about a block away from the incident.
The train, the first service of the day from East Ventura to Los Angeles, crashed about 65 miles (100 kilometres) away from its destination.
Captain Mike Lindbery of the Ventura County Fire Department told the BBC the train was carrying 51 people, three of them crew, and 28 people were taken to several local hospitals.
'Wrong turn'
The driver, Jose Alejandro Sanchez Ramirez from Yuma, Arizona, has been detained and hospitalised for observation.
He told police he wanted to turn right at a junction, but turned too soon and drove on to the railway tracks, said Oxnard Assistant Police Chief Jason Benitez.
The lorry was driven some way along the tracks before being abandoned and was facing the train head-on when it was hit.
The train had a camera on the front carriage, footage from which will be used in the investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the agency that leads transport investigations for the US government, said it was sending a "go-team" to the scene.
NTSB spokesman Robert Sumwalt said: "We are very concerned about grade [level] crossings and we intend to use this accident and others to learn from it, so that we can keep it from happening again."
He said investigators would be looking into whether the automatic "arms" that act as a barrier to traffic functioned properly, amongst other factors. They will look at data from sensors at the crossing and from the train.
He noted that over 2,000 level crossing accidents occur in the US each year, of those approximately 250 are fatal.
Mr Johnson said initial reports from the scene indicated the arms and lights were working.
A Metrolink train collided with a freight train in 2008 in Chatsworth in northern Los Angeles, killing 25 people and injuring more, and another crash at Glendale in 2005 left 11 dead.
Since then, Metrolink has added collapsible bumpers and other extra crash absorption technology to its trains.
Tuesday's accident "would have been much worse without" those measures, said Metrolink spokesman Jeff Lustgarten.
