Australian police are investigating a possible "extremist" attack involving a French national who stabbed a British woman to death and injured two others while reportedly yelling "Allahu Akbar."

The assault took place on Wednesday at a backpackers' hostel near Townsville in northern Queensland. A 21-year-old British woman died at the scene, while a 30-year-old British man was taken to hospital in critical condition, state police reported.

"Initial inquiries indicate that comments which may be construed of being of an extremist nature were made by the alleged offender," Queensland Police Service Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski told reporters.

He added that the police were "not ruling out any motivations at this early stage, whether they be criminal or political."

Fort Worth, TX — In March, Fort Worth police confirmed that one of their officers was under investigation after a video was uploaded to Facebook showing him pepper spray innocent people as they drove by on motorcycles. On Friday, the Department quietly released a statement noting that they will not discipline the officer involved.

After Fort Worth police officer William Figueroa was seen shooting out pepper spray into the faces of motorcyclists as they drove by on a busy highway, he was placed on paid vacation pending an internal investigation. The investigation was wrapped up in June. However, investigators left it up to Figueroa's bosses to decide what, if any, punishment he would receive.

Now, nearly two months after the investigation, and Figueroa back on the streets, the department announced that he wouldn't be punished. Instead, the department said that Figueroa will receive "internal sanctions." When asked what "internal sanctions" are, Sgt. Marcus Povero, a police spokesman, said Friday that he could not specify. However, he added that they could include retraining or a "commander's admonishment."

Dinwiddie County, VA — A Virginia sheriff's deputy has been arrested and charged in the shooting death of his own brother.

Dinwiddie County Sheriff's Deputy Terrell Coles, 24, faces charges of second-degree murder for killing his 25-year-old brother, Brandon, after a heated dispute in the early morning hours on Sunday.

Coles is being held without bond in the county jail as state police conduct an investigation of the shooting, which happened at the deputy's home.

Microsoft had an ambitious goal with the launch of Windows 10: a billion devices running the software by the end of 2018. In its quest to reach that goal, the company aggressively pushed Windows 10 on its users and went so far as to offer free upgrades for a whole year. However, the company's strategy for user adoption has trampled on essential aspects of modern computing: user choice and privacy. We think that's wrong.

You don't need to search long to come across stories of people who are horrified and amazed at just how far Microsoft has gone in order to increase Windows 10's install base. Sure, there is some misinformation and hyperbole, but there are also some real concerns that current and future users of Windows 10 should be aware of. As the company is currently rolling out its "Anniversary Update" to Windows 10, we think it's an appropriate time to focus on and examine the company's strategy behind deploying Windows 10.

In preparation for an offensive on Mosul, a major stronghold of Daesh (also known as ISIS/Islamic state) in Iraq, a new weapon, in the form of a robot armed with a machine gun, will reportedly be deployed.

A wheeled ground vehicle, dubbed "Alrobot" ('robot' in Arabic), is being prepared for combat in northern Iraq, the Baghdad Post reported.

Video footage displaying the Alrobot showcases that the machine is the size of a mini-car and has an automatic turret appearing to be based on the Russian Degtyaryova-Shpagina Krupnokaliberny (DShK) heavy machine gun and a launcher compatible with Russian Katyusha missiles.

Fox News host Andrea Tantaros is the latest of at least 20 women who have accused ex-Fox News CEO Roger Ailes of sexual harassment. But now Tantaros is also suing for harassment she suffered from guests and other men at the network, including talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

Tantaros is alleging that the host of the right-wing show The O'Reilly Factor tried to coax her into a "very private" meeting on Long Island where he could see Tantaros's "wild side," a personality trait O'Reilly indicated that he was convinced she would display.

According to the suit:

"[C]ommencing in February 2016, Bill O'Reilly ("O'Reilly"), whom Tantaros had considered to be a good friend and a person from whom she sought career guidance, started sexually harassing her by, inter alia, (a) asking her to come to stay with him on Long Island where it would be 'very private,' and (b) telling her on more than one occasion that he could "see [her] as a 'wild girl,' and that he believed that she had a 'wild side.' Fox News did take one action: plainly because of O'Reilly's rumored prior sexual harassment issues and in recognition of Tantaros's complaints, Brandi informed Cane that Tantaros would no longer be appearing on O'Reilly's Fox News show, The O'Reilly Factor."

Approximately 200 tons of crude oil leaked into the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba from Jordan's Aqaba port, local media reported.

According to Haaretz newspaper, the oil slick, which appeared on Tuesday, is moving southward, towards the beaches of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel, with the latter being particularly concerned with possible contamination of beaches in Israeli's coastal city of Eilat and harm to its coral reef.

Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection began preparations to provide aid to Jordan in cleanup and in the prevention of oil from further drifting, while Jordanian officials claimed that they would be to cope with the incident themselves, the newspaper said.

The causes of the oil leak, which has been stopped, are officially yet unknown, but there are reports about a leak from a pipe, according to the newspaper

Each day around this nation, and indeed the world, one can find endless stories of horrific animal cruelty--torture and murder so vile it defies imagination--conceived of and carried out by kids as young as 3 years old.

There appears to be a proliferation of fresh-faced psychopaths, spawning faster than the poisonous spores of a Frankenstenian experiment gone awry. Why and how does such evil take root?

The problem is pervasive and multifaceted, but the most obvious cause for such blatant disregard for life is a lack of compassion and empathy passed on from parent to child. Generations of individuals perpetuating cruelty toward non-humans based on a multitude of flawed and erroneous notions, including the following:

Religious bias -- The mainstream and exceedingly rancorous belief that animals were put here to [ab]use, objectify, murder and consume based on twisted religious doctrines that purportedly give mankind "permission" to do so predicated on his so-called "superiority."

Tradition -- The mindless argument that because generation upon generation has perpetuated acts of barbarism, these acts are somehow justified, and therefore should be unquestioningly accepted and permanently sanctified.

Culture -- As with tradition, cultural biases institutionalize brutality towards non-humans to the point of rabid glorification. Whether it be the Spanish with their bullfighting and the torture and murder of animals for religious festivals; the Faroese who make an annual holiday out of the mass butchery of cetaceans, encouraging their children to participate in the frenzied stabbings of whales they systematically strand; or the Canadian seal slaughter in which hundreds of thousands of helpless babies' skulls are crushed or which are skinned alive or shot; every culture has its atrocities. The logic behind such ingrained savagery is as expendable as the animals themselves.

Pseudo-scientific propaganda -- the deceptive, fraudulent belief that humans require animal testing and experimentation for our benefit, yet, an ounce of common sense will lead one to the very real conclusion that the only legitimate "testing" begins in earnest, the first day these drugs and medical devices are released to the public. Hundreds of thousands of humans die or are irreparably damaged by animal-tested, FDA-approved drugs/medical devices/procedures every single year--statistics that the public is never allowed to access.

Inferiority -- a general acceptance that non-humans are "lesser" beings and thus deserve whatever demonic behavior we decide to impose upon them. Another unfounded bias propped up by the ubiquitous dominion/superiority theory, which even secularists conveniently use as an excuse to abuse and murder non-human animals.

Ignorance -- the fact is, few studies have ever been done that place emphasis on the intrinsic value of non-humans, themselves. The overwhelming majority of studies conducted using animals as subjects are based solely on how they can be exploited for man's benefit. Given this reality, how can human beings state with unequivocal certainty that animals do not function on a level equal to--yet different from--ours? Should animals continue to be forced to suffer myriad indignities due to man's own selfish, speciesist ineptitude at being unable or unwilling to decipher their intellectual capacities, emotional and psychological depth, complexities and needs?

Over 30,000 Islamic terrorists have been killed in anti-terror operations, but the authorities are having problems sending the bodies back to their country of origin, the chairman of Syria's Forensic Medicine Committee told Sputnik.

The Syrian government has been unable to repatriate the bodies of thousands of Daesh fighters who were killed in anti-terror operations, Hussein Nofal, chairman of Syria's Forensic Medicine Committee, told Sputnik.

Nofal explained that after the bodies were identified and the country of origin informed, even neighboring countries proved unwilling to receive the corpses.

"We managed to identify several thousand dead terrorists from France, Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon and other Arab countries. We have been unable to identify another 30,000 (terrorist) corpses," Nofal told Sputnik.

The German Education and Science Workers' Union (GEW) has criticized a court decision that forbid a student in the city of Osnabruck from attending classes dressed in a niqab - veiled headwear attached to a full body covering.

"A ban on full face veils is completely the wrong way," GEW spokesperson Ilka Hoffmann told Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung, a local newspaper. "We cannot exclude women from education just because they are wearing the burqa or niqab."

The student in question, who has not been named, but is over 18 years of age, was barred from attending lessons at the Sophie Scholl night school in the western German city, for refusing to remove the garment.

The regional court ruled against her Monday, and it is not yet clear if the student will appeal the decision at a higher-level legal body, or simply abandon her course, which is assumed to be voluntary. The Sophie Scholl School mostly teaches adults attempting to complete secondary education.