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Amazon.com Inc. is testing delivery packages using drones, CEO Jeff Bezos said Sunday on the CBS television program "60 Minutes." Bezos said the drones, unmanned vehicles that fly through the air, could deliver packages that weigh up to five pounds. That represents roughly 86 percent of packages that Amazon delivers, he said. The drones, which would pick up items from Amazon's distribution centers and fly them to customer's homes, probably won't be put into use for four or five years, Bezos said. Amazon may start using the drones, which can deliver packages within 30 minutes, in four to five years...

Looking to take advantage of online sales, millions of people will be ordering online goods on this “Cyber Moday.” While those goods will likely arrive in a week or so, delivered by USPS, UPS or FedEx ground crew, delivery methods may soon enter into new air space, compliments of the ubiquitous drone. Last night, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos dropped a bombshell on the Sunday night TV news show “60 Minutes” when he said that his company was developing so-called “copter” drones to deliver online goods, with a tentative launch date potentially arriving in the next four to five years. Though...

Not content with next-day delivery service through its Prime program, Amazon wants orders to land on people’s front porches in as little as half an hour. Just when you thought the technology industry couldn’t get any stranger, the latest idea from the retail giant is to offer an audacious delivery-by-drone service. …

The US Government hit out on Friday at a highly-critical report in a German newspaper claiming the country had become the “headquarters” for America’s “secret wars”. The Süddeutsche newspaper published an investigation in its Friday edition into America’s foreign policy and wars being conducted from German soil. It claimed: “The U.S. knows no limits. And Germany looks on—even asking where it can help.” But on Friday afternoon, the US Embassy’s press department in Berlin took the unusual step of sending out a statement attacking the “outrageous” claims. It described the story as “full of half-truths, speculation, and innuendo”. …

The Navy says an aerial target drone malfunctioned and struck a guided missile cruiser during training off Southern California, causing two minor injuries. Lt. Lenaya Rotklein of the U.S. Third Fleet said the accident on the USS Chancellorsville happened Saturday afternoon while the ship was testing its combat weapons system off Point Mugu. She said two sailors were treated for minor burns after the ship was struck. She said the ship was heading back to Naval Base San Diego so that officials can assess the damage.

Weighing only 0.56 ounces (16 grams), the Black Hornet looks like a tiny toy helicopter. But it's really a nano-size piece of military hardware unlike anything on the battlefield today... The Black Hornet nano drone, which can be carried in a soldier's pocket, has an onboard camera that gives troops video and still images of hard-to-access places.

According to a story by Michael Kelly of the Business Insider, it seems President Obama regards himself as one tough hombre. Reminds me of another liberal progressive president involved in a low- to mid-intensity war — Lyndon B. Johnson. Of course you might think it’s something the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner wouldn’t want to brag about. But according to the new book Double Down in which journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann chronicle the 2012 presidential election, Obama told his aides he’s “really good at killing people” while discussing drone strikes. Why, he’s simply the definition of bravery and...

President Barack Obama is criticized every day for the problems and difficulties associated with the Affordable Care Act. But in the long term, it's likely history will scrutinize the CIA’s use of drone strikes during his administration with a far more critical eye.

A new book covering the 2012 presidential campaign uncovers a series of scathing remarks from political figures, but one alleged comment has stirred controversy around President Barack Obama and his administration’s use of targeted drone strikes. Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s book “Double Down: Game Change 2012” notes President Obama commenting on drone strikes, reportedly telling his aides that he’s “really good at killing people.”

DERA ISMAIL KHAN/WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani Taliban fighters secretly buried their leader on Saturday after he was killed by a U.S. drone aircraft and quickly moved to replace him while vowing a wave of revenge suicide bombings. The Pakistani government denounced the killing of Hakimullah Mehsud as a U.S. bid to derail planned peace talks and summoned the U.S. ambassador to protest. Some lawmakers demanded the blocking of U.S. supply lines into Afghanistan in retaliation. "The murder of Hakimullah is the murder of all efforts at peace," said Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar. "Americans said they support our efforts at...

The head of the Pakistani Taliban was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan on Friday, several security sources told Reuters, -excerpt- Hakimullah Mehsud, who was believed to be in his mid-30s and was one of Pakistan's most wanted men, has been reported dead several times before. But late on Friday, several intelligence, army and militant sources across Pakistan confirmed he had been killed in the drone strike in the lawless North Waziristan region.

The leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, has been killed in a drone strike, a high-ranking Taliban official has told the BBC. Mehsud became leader of the Pakistani Taliban in 2009, aged 30, after his predecessor died in a US drone strike.

Last week, Amnesty International released a report on U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, concluding that as many as 900 civilians might have been killed and 600 seriously injured in the attacks since 2004, when the controversial program began. The United States launched between 330 to 374 drone strikes in Pakistan between 2004 and September 2013, according to the report. And those strikes have created a culture of fear on the ground. "I wasn't scared of drones before," Nabeela, an 8-year-old whose grandmother, Mamana Bibi, was killed by a 2012 drone strike, says in the report. "But now when they fly...

(Reuters) - Niger would welcome the deployment of armed U.S. drones to the West African country to help in its battle against an armed Islamist threat and drug trafficking in the Sahara, Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum said on Wednesday. Washington deployed about 100 military personnel and unarmed surveillance drones in Niger after a French-led military operation in January destroyed an al Qaeda enclave in neighboring northern Mali. Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou's government, concerned not only by the presence of Islamists but also the trafficking of arms, cocaine and cannabis in the north, wants to further reinforce military ties with the...

Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif came to Washington this week with a mission — but also with some very bad timing. Under fire at home over the US drone war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the border country with Afghanistan, Sharif told Obama that the US had to stop its remote-control war: Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he’d told President Barack Obama on Wednesday that U.S. drone strikes in his country needed to end.The remarks came as the two leaders met in person for more than two hours in high-level talks aimed at beginning to mend a historically troubled...

The United States Congress canceled the delivery to Turkey of 10 Predators—unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)—following Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan's disclosure of the identity of 10 Iranians who had been allegedly working for Mossad with the Iranian intelligence service, the Turkish newspaper Taraf daily reported. According to the report, the claims about Fidan can be traced back to the year after the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010 when the Turkish intelligence service suspended relations with the Mossad and shared information about the Israeli agency with Iran. …

Scientists, engineers and policymakers are all figuring out ways drones can be used better and more smartly, more precise and less damaging to civilians, with longer range and better staying power. One method under development is by increasing autonomy on the drone itself. Eventually, drones may have the technical ability to make even lethal decisions autonomously: to respond to a programmed set of inputs, select a target and fire their weapons without a human reviewing or checking the result. Yet the idea of the U.S. military deploying a lethal autonomous robot, or LAR, is sparking controversy. Though autonomy might address...

Scientists, engineers and policymakers are all figuring out ways drones can be used better and more smartly, more precise and less damaging to civilians, with longer range and better staying power. One method under development is by increasing autonomy on the drone itself. Eventually, drones may have the technical ability to make even lethal decisions autonomously: to respond to a programmed set of inputs, select a target and fire their weapons without a human reviewing or checking the result.

An aerospace company has presented its design “atmospheric satellites” that fly at 65,000 feet and provide drone-like services such as live-mapping and monitoring narcotics trafficking. Titan Aerospace recently offered the Solara series of such drones: which can fly continuously for nearly five years, charging its own battery high above commercial aircraft through the use of solar power. The larger Solara will be 60 meters wide and have the ability to carry about 250 pounds. Cruising speed for the Solara is about 65 mph, and the unmanned craft will have an operating range of over 2.8 million miles.....

Safety concerns have shuttered one of the United States' most important -- and most secretive -- bases for drone operations, forcing the American military to move its fleet of unmanned craft away from the international airport in the tiny desert country of Djibouti. Djibouti, whose capital city goes by the same name, is an arid country of just 8,880 square miles (23,000 square kilometers) tucked between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. Its port lies at the nexus of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, along one of the world's busiest shipping routes. And, since 2002, the U.S. military has...