A senior Egyptian al-Qaida figure fighting in Syria was killed in a U.S. drone strike this week, the latest to be killed in such attacks in Syria, a Syrian opposition monitoring group and relatives said Friday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Rifai Ahmad Taha was killed in a strike Tuesday in the northwestern Idlib province. Before joining al-Qaida, Taha was a top figure in Egypt's notorious militant group Gamaa Islamiya, which massacred 58 foreign tourists in the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor in 1997. He was also allied with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. The Observatory's chief Rami Abdurrahman said several al-Qaida members, including Taha, were killed in Tuesday's strike.

Drone deployment has become associated with rice growth research in the Philippines, as well as for spotting illegal fishpond-building, and for the early detection of approaching typhoons. The importance of drones has been accepted by Filipinos cognizant of neighboring countries investing millions of dollars on unmanned aerial vehicles (U.A.V.) for …

If you're the kind of person who really likes chatting with the mail carrier, Dispatch won't be your favorite startup. That's because the four-person South San Francisco company is working on technology that could replace postal workers, Instacart couriers, UPS and FedEx drivers, or anyone else who gets paid to bring you stuff. Instead, you might be dealing with a 3-foot-tall, 150-pound, battery-powered roving robot that looks like a little dumpster on wheels. Called Carry, the device uses artificial intelligence, five cameras and a laser to navigate on sidewalks around pedestrians, flaming hoverboards and any other obstacles to get packages to your door. The only places you'll find Carry today are on two California college campuses, where it's still being tested.

They're even better than the actual expendable sonar systems, because they're not constrained by battery life: the drone's rotors are covered in solar cells and can generate power after a little time under the sun. In addition, it can hunt for subs in flocks in case the Navy wants to scour a big area more quickly. Jones told the publication that as a sonobuoy replacement, the drone "[will] be on the water 23 hours a day, and flying maybe one hour a day." It was designed as a "launch and forget" system with a water-tight enclosure, though, so we're guessing it's tough enough to endure the ocean's harsh conditions. Speaking of drones that can take off from water, researchers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory created a similar machine called CRACUNS.

Larger or riskier drones that could cause serious injury -- as determined by yet-to-be-implemented crash tests -- up to 55 pounds could not be flown over crowds, and would have more limitations. Finally, the fourth group of drones that also pose a potentially serious risk but are intended to be used over crowds would have the most rules, with documented plans for risk mitigation, higher operator qualifications, and possibly coordination with the FAA or local law enforcement. Most of the committee members felt like a requirement for in-person testing would be ignored, suggesting online testing with no background checks for operators of the smallest drones. DJI VP Brendan Schulman called the recommendation a "progressive approach," that balanced the benefits of drones and public safety. His company was one of 27 groups (like 3DRobotics, GoPro, Google X, Intel and AT&T) that participated in the Micro Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Aviation Rulemaking Committee, and the FAA will use its information to develop new rules.

Spectacular drone footage has emerged showing a huge pod of dolphins swimming off the shores of a popular beach. Steve Maxwell captured the pod of about 40 dolphins cruising between Avalon Beach and Whale Beach in Sydney's north. The licensed drone pilot stumbled upon the majestic scenes while photographing surfers in the area, reports Daily Telegraph. Photographer Steve Maxwell captured the pod of about 40 dolphins cruising between Avalon Beach and Whale Beach in Sydney's north Mr Maxwell quickly decided to focus on capturing the marine mammals, who can be seen frolicking together in a large pack. 'Every available chance I get, I send the drone up over them,' Mr Maxwell said.

In the deserts of eastern California, that blank stretch of sand striped with asphalt between Needles and Barstow, there are emergency telephones spaced out for people in need. The desert is hot and sparse, and sometimes cars breakdown, and people need to call for help as soon as they can. It's a bleak place to lose a tire, and an even worse one to lose a tire and urgently need some antiseptic and a bandage. A new patent awarded to Google yesterday could someday bring a robotic savior to these exact situations: a medical emergency call box, which summons a drone carrying the needed supplies to the person in need. Users would press a button for their specific medical emergency, and it would deploy a drone to the scene.

If you're the kind of person who really likes chatting with the mail carrier, Dispatch won't be your favorite startup. That's because the four-person South San Francisco company is working on technology that could replace postal workers; UPS and FedEx drivers; Instacart couriers; and anyone else who gets paid to bring you stuff. Instead, you might be dealing with a 3-foot-tall, 150-pound, battery-powered roving robot that looks like a little dumpster on wheels. Called Carry, the device uses artificial intelligence, five cameras and a laser to navigate on sidewalks around pedestrians, flaming hoverboards and any other obstacles to get packages to your door. The only places you'll find Carry today are on two California college campuses, where it's still being tested.

Federal officials say they will work quickly to draft new regulations that would permit small, commercial drones to fly over people, including crowds. That comes in response to recommendations from an industry advisory committee. The Federal Aviation Administration currently prohibits most commercial use of drones over people. The recommendations, first reported by The Associated Press, would create four categories of commercial drones. Drones weighing about a half pound or less would be allowed to fly over people virtually without restriction.

Machine learning--the process by which computers can get better at performing tasks through exposure to data, rather than through explicit programming--requires massive computational power, the kind usually found in clusters of energy-guzzling, cloud-based computer servers outfitted with specialized processors. But an emerging trend promises to bring the power of machine learning to mobile devices that may lack or have only intermittent online connectivity. This will give rise to machines that sense, perceive, learn from, and respond to their environment and their users, enabling the emergence of new product categories, reshaping how businesses engage with customers, and transforming how work gets done across industries. Emerging technologies rarely get as big a publicity boost as machine learning recently saw, when Google software defeated one of the world's top players of Go, one of the most complex board games ever created, in a best-of-five series of matches.6 The international headlines confirmed that machine learning--the process by which fresh data can teach computers to better perform tasks--is one of the hottest domains within the field of artificial intelligence, and that this cognitive technology is progressing rapidly.7 Neural networks--computer models designed to mimic aspects of the human brain's structure and function, with elements representing neurons and their interconnections--are an increasingly popular way of implementing machine learning.