Good Morning, Australia! – The Battle for Tikrit has begun – A suspect is arrested in the slaughter of a prominent atheist – US Cops are caught on video in a very questionable shooting – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Iraqi forces have retaken several key districts around Tikrit from Islamic State (IS), and they’re still on the move.  30,000 Iraqi regulars and Shiite militias are backed by air strikes from Iraqi jets.  Iraq aims to reclaim all of Tikrit, which is up the Tigris River from Baghdad, and close to the Speicher Air Base.  It’s the biggest Iraqi military offensive since IS captured vast swathes of Iraq last June.

What’s left of the Libyan government has named anti-Islamist General Khalifa Haftar to lead the military.  This is the internationally-recognized government, which only controls a small area outside the capital Tripoli, which is occupied by a rival faction.  Critics say Haftar’s past tactics of punishing moderate as well as hardline Muslim sects has only served to radicalize more people.

Bangladesh police arrested an Islamist “fundamentalist blogger” in the gruesome murder of US atheist writer Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death by men with machetes last Thursday while visiting his native Bangladesh.  Roy’s wife was badly wounded.  Farabi Shafiur Rahman was captured at a bus stop as he tried to leave the capital Dhaka.

A new report from the United Nations says the death toll in the Ukraine conflict has climbed to more than 6,000 lives lost.  “Many have been trapped in conflict zones, forced to shelter in basements, with hardly any drinking water, food, heating, electricity or basic medical supplies,” said UN high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.  Although the Russian-backed rebels are committing the majority of human rights abuses against civilians, the Ukrainian military is also blamed for some incidents of arbitrary detention, torture, and disappearances.

Moscow police have detained the Ukrainian girlfriend of slain opposition leader Boris Mentsov for questioning.  Anna Duritskaya’s lawyer says she is anxious to go home to see her mother in Kiev.  Nemtsov and Duritskaya had just finished dining and were walking on a bridge near the Kremlin when gunmen sped up and fired several shots, four of which hir Nemtsov in the back.  Earlier, Boris Nemtsov said he was afraid he’d be killed on the orders of President Vladimir Putin because of his opposition to Russian involvement with eastern Ukraine separatists.

Los Angeles police are under scrutiny for yet another fatal shooting of a homeless man, horrifically caught on video.  The man, nicknamed “Africa”, had recently been released from ten years in a mental hospital when the LAPD swarmed him because of his tent pitched on a sidewalk in LA’s skid row.  Despite as many as five officers on top of him were holding him into the ground; at least one cop opens fire, striking him several times.  As he lay dead or dying, the other cops surround him with their weapons drawn, you know, in case he’s a Zombie or the Highlander or something. 

On the complete other side of the spectrum, the world’s richest man is American software magnate Bill Gates.  Forbes says he raked in another US$3 Billion last year, raising his overall fortune to US$79 Billion.