Free Republic

Iran calls on the United Nations’ atomic agency to condemn Israel over the drone Iran downed above the Natanz uranium enrichment site. Snip .... accused Israel of a "flagrant violation" of the Islamic Republic's territorial integrity "in contravention of the principles of international law and provision of the United Nations charter." The Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Air Force claimed that the drone was an Israeli-made "Hermes" drone with a maximum flight range of 1,600 km (994 miles) and a 800-km (500 mile) combat radius. Israeli officials declined to comment on the allegation by its arch foe, which the Jewish state and...

(WXYZ) Allen Park, Mich. - A mystery drone is the talk of Allen Park, as a family there watched the flying device land in their backyard. The operator--nowhere to be found. "We freaked out," said homeowner Roman Urista. He and his family were sitting in the backyard around a fire recently, when the drone hovered overhead, lights on and propellers roaring. It crash landed in the family's yard, still buzzing. "It didn't look like a hobby toy to me," said Urista. The Drone, valued at around $500, was equipped with an onboard camera. The family was scared to go near...

It looks like Stonehenge. A doughnut. A giant sand castle. Those were just some of the comments a new drone video taken with a GoPro camera of the futuristic Apple Campus 2 was garnering after the eight-minute raw piece was posted to YouTube. As of Monday, the aerial image of the campus under construction in Cupertino on Tantau Avenue had more than 1.3 million views and 500 comments. "Wow, this looks huge," Dustin W. Stout wrote in the comments section of the video. "I've seen mockups previously of what the site is going to look like, but seeing it like...

AUSTIN (KXAN) — University of Texas Police are investigating the use of a drone over Darrell K. Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium Saturday night during the Longhorns’ home opener. KXAN’s cameras spotted the drone flying above the stadium. The drone had red and green lights on it. It also had a camera. We weren’t the only ones who spotted it. Police did too. During the second half of the game, officers found the operator of the drone, made him land it and then took the man into custody. The department told KXAN the man was a UT student, and he...

Winging it Google announces its own delivery drones project Aug 29th 2014 | SAN FRANCISCO | Business and finance AT THE end of 2013, Amazon made quite a media splash when it revealed that it had been testing the use of small drones to deliver packages. The company is betting that the airborne marvels will eventually be able to transport parcels to customers within a ten-mile radius of the vast network of warehouses that it runs. But it is not the only tech giant with its eyes on the sky. On August 28th Google announced that its secretive "Google X"...

Google has built and tested autonomous aerial vehicles, which it believes could be used for goods deliveries. Google said that its long-term goal was to develop drones that could be used for disaster relief by delivering aid to isolated areas. They could be used after earthquakes, floods, or extreme weather events, the company suggested, to take small items such as medicines or batteries to people in areas that conventional vehicles cannot reach. "Even just a few of these, being able to shuttle nearly continuously could service a very large number of people in an emergency situation," explained Astro Teller, Captain...

President Obama has authorized the use of drones for surveillance in Syria even as the Assad regime demanded that the U.S. seek permission before launching any airstrikes on its territory against Islamic State targets. A senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that Obama this weekend authorized the use of drone surveillance over Syria for the first time. The action is considered the first “intrusive” surveillance by the U.S. in Syria since the country’s civil war began. This differs from protective surveillance, such as the U.S. used in the failed mission to rescue American hostages held in Syria. The authorization...

Professor and political activist Cornel West declared President Barack Obama a “war criminal,” arguing that his support of Israel and his drone policy make him complicit in the deaths of innocent people. The controversial activist made the comments at a pro-Palestinian rally in Washington, DC on Saturday, according to Talking Points Memo. West began his speech by pointing to the deteriorating situation in Gaza, where more than 1,800 Palestinians and more than 60 Israelis have been killed, criticizing Israel’s offensive in the region in front of a “Free Palestine” banner. His comments regarding President Obama begin at around the three-minute...

Winners of the 2014 Dronestagram Photo Contest have finally been selected! Picking winners was a very difficult task especially because of the great quality of the photos that have been submitted. We tried to reward the photos that show the best the fantastic potential offered by drones in terms of image. It’s been an amazing first edition with many photos entered from everywhere in the world. Thank you all for joining in.We would like to extend a special thanks to our contest sponsors National Geograpic, Go Pro, Picanova, Droneshop and Parrot for generously offering amazing gifts !Are you one of...

Transcript: Shep Smith: Police in NY arrested two people for flying a drone over the George Washington Bridge not far from a police helicopter. The cops say the drone came within 800 feet of one of the police choppers before the pilot of the drone turned it away to avoid. Jonathan Hunt: One of the cops in this NYPD helicopter noticed some lights approaching just after midnight on Monday...on closer inspection he noticed those lights were actually a drone. Apparently the chopper pilot thought he needed to take evasive action to avoid being struck by that drone. He then followed...

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer WEST PALM BEACH — A man who flew a drone into a fireworks show over West Palm Beach and captured stunning video that went viral over the weekend might have to answer to federal investigators. The Federal Aviation Administration said the video is “under investigation.” “The FAA is looking into multiple incidents in which unmanned aircraft flew into fireworks displays to determine if there was any violation of federal regulations or airspace restrictions,” the agency said in a statement to The Palm Beach Post. Punishments can include “a verbal warning and an order to stop...

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (KRON) — One of the biggest debates every Fourth of July is what’s the best place to sit to view the fireworrks. Photographer Jos Stiglingh may have found the definitive answer. Stinglingh strapped a Go Pro camera to a quad-copter drone and then flew it inside the fireworks explosions at a display in West Palm Beach Florida back in May. Neither the camera nor the drone was damaged. Enjoy along with the music. (click link for vid)

According to a notice released by the United States Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration last Monday, the new regulations now include Amazon drones and even some toy planes. Before Monday's notice, the FAA had distinguished model aircraft from small drones according to their usage: commercial or recreational. Hobbyists were free to use model aircraft as they pleased but with these new rules, even toy quadcopters are considered drones and require users to have special permits to operate them. The Hubsan FPV X4 Mini RTF Quadcopter is targeted towards children but this, and other first-person-view model aircraft, will require a...

KYIV, June 27 /Ukrinform/. On June 26, near the populated center of Nykonorivka, Ukrainian border guards revealed a drone that was moving in Ukraine's air space from the direction of Russia along the Ukrainian-Russian border.

On Monday, the White House memo used to justify drone attacks on U.S. citizens was released, and it appears to confirm the worst suspicions of its libertarian critics. The Obama administration had sought to keep the memo secret, and now we know why: Because there are no checks and balances; there are no classified courts. Indeed, the memo reveals that the president of the United States ordered the targeting killing of U.S. citizens overseas — in violation of their constitutional right to due process — sans any type of oversight outside of the executive.

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle Police are investigating a report of a drone peeping into a woman’s apartment window. Police were called to the downtown Seattle apartment complex on Sunday morning after she spied an unmanned aerial vehicle hovering outside the building. The woman said she was concerned the drone was looking into her apartment. After calling police, an employee of her apartment building says he went outside and saw two men piloting the drone. They packed up their gear, which included a video camera, and drove off before police arrived. Authorities say they are checking for surveillance video that may...

On the same day last month, airline pilots trying to land at two of the nation’s busiest airports got on their radios to report the unnerving sight of small rogue drones buzzing at high altitudes. In the first incident on May 29, the pilot of a commercial airliner descending toward LaGuardia Airport saw what appeared to be a black drone with a 10-to-15-foot wingspan about 5,500 feet above Lower Manhattan, according to a previously undisclosed report filed with the Federal Aviation Administration. In the second, two airliners separately approaching Los Angeles International Airport soared past what they described as a...

More than 400 large U.S. military drones have crashed in major accidents around the world since 2001, a record of calamity that exposes the potential dangers of throwing open American skies to drone traffic, according to a year-long Washington Post investigation. Since the outbreak of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, military drones have malfunctioned in myriad ways, plummeting from the sky because of mechanical breakdowns, human error, bad weather and other reasons, according to more than 50,000 pages of accident investigation reports and other records obtained by The Post under the Freedom of Information Act.

The maker of a drone that fires pepper spray bullets says it has received its first order for the machine. South Africa-based Desert Wolf told the BBC it had secured the sale of 25 units to a mining company after showing off the tech at a trade show in London. It is marketing the device as a "riot control copter" that can tackle crowds "without endangering the lives of security staff". But the International Trade Union Confederation is horrified by the idea. "This is a deeply disturbing and repugnant development and we are convinced that any reasonable government will move...

Multiple videos have been posted online showing what uploaders described as hockey fans destroying a Los Angeles Police Department drone outside the Staples Center Friday night after the LA Kings won the NHL's Stanley Cup. Riot police were called in to break up what the LA Times described as a "melee" outside the arena following the King's victory over the New York Rangers. In one clip posted online, a drone can be seen hovering over the crowd of hockey fans before it was knocked out of the sky by people throwing shoes and clothing: