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A newly leaked document by the Federal Aviation Administration may offer a first look at upcoming regulations for drones, and the laws discussed appear to be somewhat favorable for photographers who fly camera drones.

Drone-safety debates have inflamed after a pilot reported having a close encounter with a remote-controlled device at 4,000 feet while navigating a Southwest Airlines flightto LAX. The plane was making its final descent into the Los Angeles airport Sunday when the pilot reported the close call, according to audio obtained by NBC News:

Twice authorities have intercepted drones being used to deliver contraband into prisons, leaving German states planning new ways of keeping criminal activity away from criminals. But is the law behind the curve on this new technology? The justice ministry in Lower Saxony said that in future it might deploy so-called “drone-trackers”—devices equipped with infrared, night vision and sometimes even radar—at prisons. “We’re aware of this problem and are keeping an eye on it,” said Lower Saxony justice minister Antje Niewisch-Lennartz. Drones have only recently appeared on governments’ radars. At the end of January, a drone carrying a package containing a...

The Obama administration earlier this year turned down a request from Jordan for Predator spy drones that would help it locate targets in the war against the Islamic State. The refusal, disclosed by a House Armed Services Committee, member, is gaining importance today since Jordan has emerged as a critical player in a U.S.-led coalition to destroy the terror group. On Tuesday, the Islamic State released a video of its execution by fire of a capture Jordanian pilot. Jordan retaliated on Thursdaywith F-16 air strikes on the Syrian town of Raqqa and is vowing a relentless war against the Islamic...

A Chinese drone maker which created the small quadcopter that recently crashed on White House grounds said Wednesday it is updating its drones to prohibit flight over the US capital.

President Obama on Tuesday said the U.S. needs to create a “regulatory structure” for the domestic use of drones — one day after a small, unmanned quad copter was discovered on the South Lawn of the White House. “There are incredibly useful functions that these drones can play in terms of farmers who are managing crops and conservationists who want to take stock of wildlife,” Obama told CNN. He noted that companies like Amazon are experimenting with using drones to deliver packages. “But we don't really have any kind of regulatory structure at all for it,” he added. The president...

One of the main challenges NASA engineers face is the very low density of the Martian atmosphere. To be able to lift off in such a thin atmosphere, the blades of the Mars Helicopter have to spin much faster than here on Earth, a report by Discovery News explains. Even operating only a few minutes a day, NASA says the solar-powered helicopter could enormously accelerate the pace of scientific discovery on the planet. Some envision swarms of these inexpensively built, automated drones zipping daily over the Martian landscape, collecting geological and atmospheric data over a large area. Given the fast...

At a time when America's ability to track and respond to dangerous international threats is already spread thin, Yemen as it exists today is on the verge of collapse amid reports that violence from Shiite Muslim rebels has forced the country's top leaders to resign... Prime Minister Khaled Bahah also announced his resignation, saying Yemen's leaders did not want to be dragged into "an unconstructive political maze," according to the BBC. Instability in Yemen, which had been divided into North and South Yemen before 1990, threatens both regional and world security... Attacks by Houthi rebels -- who are thought to...

Too many missions and too few pilots are threatening the ‘readiness and combat capability’ of America’s unmanned Air Force, according to an internal memo. The U.S. Air Force’s fleet of drones is being strained to the “breaking point,” according to senior military officials and an internal service memo acquired by The Daily Beast. And it’s happening right when the unmanned aircraft are most needed to fight ISIS. The Air Force has enough MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones. It just doesn’t have the manpower to operate those machines. The Air Force’s situation is so dire that Air Combat Command (ACC),...

The drone needs to be able to fly indoors at speeds up to 45 mph, automatically navigating through complex indoor environments without communication with outside operators, DARPA says.

While drones may be a must-have present for thousands of people this Christmas, it appears they are far less popular with kangaroos. This video shows the incredible moment a kangaroo punched a drone that was getting too up close and personal out of the sky.

There are lots of hypocrisies surrounding the recently released executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program. But they pale in comparison to the current Democratic silence about President Barack Obama's policy of targeted drone assassinations. Since 2004, drones have killed an estimated 2,400 to 3,888 individuals in Pakistan alone, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London. An estimated 345 to 553 individuals in Yemen have been killed in drone strikes over the same period. The BIJ reports that the Obama administration has "markedly stepped up the use of drones. Since...

The U.S. Navy’s Pacific Command’s recent announcement that it has successfully completed tests on its GhostSwimmer unmanned underwater vehicle prompted an immediate rebuttal from Russia: They, too, are close to unmanned submarine drones. The U.S. Navy first trumpeted its successful test on Friday.

In the aftermath of the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report focused on Bush-era techniques, the Obama administration's own counterterrorism practices are coming under increased scrutiny. Gruesome details of forced rectal feedings without medical necessity, waterboarding, and sleep deprivation were chronicled in the report's executive summary, dredging up harsh practices employed during the George W. Bush administration. But on Capitol Hill, Republicans charge that the Central Intelligence Agency's approach to counterterrorism has not grown more humane—it's merely shifted. "Obviously, we don't interrogate prisoners anymore," says Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who chaired the Intelligence Committee during the Bush administration....

Governor Palin posted to Facebook:See more here:http://insider.foxnews.com/2014/12/13/eric-bolling-blasts-cia-torture-report-i-have-zero-sympathy-terrorists  Connect with Governor Palin on Facebook

Via the British group Reprieve comes a report asserting that U.S. drones in Yemen and Pakistan kill 28 "unknowns" for every intended target. What's more, "41 names of men who seemed to have achieved the impossible: to have ‘died,’ in public reporting, not just once, not just twice, but again and again. From the Reprieve report: As many as 1,147 people may have been killed during attempts to kill 41 men, accounting for a quarter of all possible drone strike casualties in Pakistan andYemen. In Yemen, strikes against just 17 targets accounted for almost half of all confirmed civilian casualties....

We should have known that the mixture of mistletoe, drones and $10 endless appetizers would only lead to bloodshed. A TGI Friday's mistletoe drone wreaked havoc at a Brooklyn, N.Y., restaurant last Thursday when the drone accidently slammed into a photographer's face.

President Obama on Saturday condemned the "barbaric murder" by al Qaeda of U.S. hostage Luke Somers in Yemen during a rescue attempt by U.S. forces. "On behalf of the American people, I offer my deepest condolences to Luke’s family and to his loved ones," he said in a statement. "As this and previous hostage rescue operations demonstrate, the United States will spare no effort to use all of its military, intelligence, and diplomatic capabilities to bring Americans home safely, wherever they are located. And terrorists who seek to harm our citizens will feel the long arm of American justice," he...

“What would happen to Moses if he arrived today?” Bale pondered. “Drones would be sent out after him, right?”

The government has the power to hold drone operators accountable when they operate the remote-control aircraft recklessly, a federal safety board ruled Tuesday in a setback to small drone operators chafing under Federal Aviation Administration restrictions. The National Transportation safety Board, which hears appeals of Federal Aviation Administration enforcement actions, ruled that small drones are a type of aircraft and fall under existing FAA rules. "An 'aircraft' is any 'device' 'used for flight in the air.' This definition includes any aircraft, manned or unmanned, large or small," the board said. The decision strengthens the FAA's position as the agency tries...