Meng Wanzhou's lawyers say she was detained, searched and questioned hours before being told she was under arrest.

Move follows Waqf Council's decision to defy a 16-year Israeli ban and reopen the Bab al-Rahma building in Al Aqsa.

This week the Washington Post shared the story of 20-year-old Sam Haberern, who was playing Call of Duty on his Xbox when the other players "started asking him whether he had ever testified in court or murdered anyone." "They said they were from Maryland and that they were going to come and kill me," he said. By then it was 3 a.m., and Haberern decided to quit. One of the gamers in the party then sent him a message via Xbox Live. It contained his home address. Next his house phone rang, then his mother's cellphone. A message appeared on his TV screen from one of the party members -- it was asking why he didn't answer... Haberern contacted Microsoft, which makes Xbox, via its website and reported what happened. Unsatisfied with that process, he then typed a Reddit post, which would go viral, asking what recourse was available to him. The varied and ultimately unsatisfying answers centered on a common theme: There was no good solution. Toxic behavior in competitive activities is not a new development, nor is it exclusive to video gaming, as social media users can attest. But its persistence amid a rapidly rising medium -- both in terms of users and revenue -- spotlights the question of why undesirable or, in some cases, criminal interactions have been so difficult for the video-game industry or law enforcement to eliminate. Now, with technological advances in online multiplayer games and video gaming's increased prevalence worldwide, a growing percentage of the population is becoming unwittingly exposed to a slew of abusive acts that are only becoming more visible. While game publishers, console makers, online voice-chat applications and even the FBI are aware of these issues and working to confront them, complications stemming from modern technology and gaming practices, freedom of speech concerns, and a lack of chargeable offenses on the legal side make toxic elements a challenge to extinguish.... Ambiguities within the U.S. legal system have played a role in constraining the efforts of law enforcement during the era of online gaming. After the death threats, Haberern didn't contact the police, but questioned whether Microsoft was creating a safe environment for kids. The next day, he was back to playing videogames. "But I definitely don't accept invites from people."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Algerian president's campaign manager files official papers but says he will call for fresh vote if reelected in April.

AmiMoJo quotes the health and science editor of Slashgear: A new study has found that listening to music may have a negative impact on creativity. This is contrary to the popular idea that music and creativity often go hand in hand. According to the researchers, the negative impact was found even in cases where the music had a positive impact on mood and was liked by the person listening to it. However, background noise didn't have the same effect... Unlike music, the noise in a library provided a "steady state" environment, which had less of a disruptive effect on participants. Though studying with background music may not completely obliterate someone's ability to think creatively, the research indicates that you may do your best work without it.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thousands protest in French capital to denounce Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's plan to seek a fifth term.

Help Net Security shared an interesting statistic from the 2019 Webroot Threat Report. 40 percent of malicious URLs were found on good domains. Legitimate websites are frequently compromised to host malicious content. To protect users, cybersecurity solutions need URL-level visibility or, when unavailable, domain-level metrics, that accurately represent the dangers. The report also found that while Google was the single most impersonated brand in phishing, 77% of all phishing attacks impersonated financial institutions. (The good news? After 12 months of security awareness training, end users were 70% less likely to fall for phishing attacks.) And Windows 10 devices were "at least twice as secure as those running Windows 7. Webroot has seen a relatively steady decline in malware on Windows 10 machines for both consumer and business."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"The BBC, the UK's national broadcaster, and ITV, the biggest private player in the UK market, are in the 'concluding phase of talks' to create a rival to Netflix," writes Slashdot reader AmiMoJo. The BBC's director general Tony Hall said the aim was to launch the "BritBox" rival to Netflix in the UK the second half of 2019. Neither organisation would say how the services would be priced, but Lord Hall said it would be "competitive". There are reports it could cost £5 a month. A similar service, also called BritBox, is already available in the US and has amassed 500,000 subscribers. Their announcement promises "an unrivalled collection of British boxsets and original series, on demand, all in one place." Diginomica writes that "the more cynical among us" might call it "a knee-jerk reaction to Netflix," adding "the BBC has a bad case of Netflix envy." They ask where this would leave future BBC-Netflix joint productions -- and whether BBC content would be removed from both Netflix and Amazon. But they also believe that if there is a threat to Netflix, it's the upcoming Disney+ streaming service with original Star Wars content scheduled to launch in late 2019.

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Chairman of the House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee says panels wants a broader probe into US president.

For first time since 2014, some 800 Palestinians are permitted to leave for Umrah pilgrimage via the Rafah crossing.

An anonymous reader quotes the San Francisco Chronicle: Tristan O'Tierney, a co-founder of San Francisco payments company Square, died Feb. 23 in Ocala, Fla., of causes related to addiction, his family said. He was 35... His family is awaiting an official cause of death from officials. "I do know that it was in relation to his addiction," [his mother] Pamela Tierney said. "I know he got to the hospital, he couldn't breathe and they couldn't revive him." O'Tierney was in a three-month rehabilitation program in Ocala and had been battling addiction for three years, Tierney said. O'Tierney openly discussed his struggles with addiction on social media. "As some of you may know, I've been battling with addiction for these past few years," he wrote in September in a now-deleted Instagram post that he also shared on Twitter. "With some success. A lot of failure too though." Bloomberg remembers him as a former engineer at Yahoo and Apple who was hired to develop Square's original mobile payment app in 2009, then stayed on until 2013. "In addition his parents, O'Tierney is survived by his three-old-year daughter, according to an obituary on the website for the funeral home."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The US border wall debate is diverting attention away from grave human rights abuses and criminalisation of aid work.

The Venezuelan armed forces are not ready to rebel against Maduro and here is why.

On fifth anniversary of plane's disappearance, minister says Malaysia is open to reviving search for the missing flight.

US-backed forces slowly advance in Baghouz village with artillery fire and air raids as ISIL attempts to retaliate.