MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's defense ministry said on Thursday it was investigating which country produced explosives used in recent drone attacks on Russian bases in Syria, RIA news agency cited the ministry as saying.

A huge autonomous drone that can carry the weight of two baby elephants has been unveiled by Boeing. The heavy-duty quadrocopter can transport payloads up to quarter-of-a-ton, and Boeing says it may use the drone to shift heavy cargo in future. After designing and building the craft in just three months, Boeing says it has already put the vehicle through flight tests at one of its research centres. A huge autonomous drone that can carry the weight of two baby elephants has been unveiled by Boeing. Powered by an electric propulsion system, Boeing's CAV prototype has eight helicopter-like rotors, allowing for vertical take-off and landing.

GoPro is finally giving up on the drone market after a steady downward slope in the past few years. The company is also cutting more jobs following the successive layoffs it announced starting in early 2016. According to Android Police, GoPro has decided to fold its drone business since it can no longer keep up with the "extremely competitive" market. The company announced that its Karma drone would be the last of its drone offerings. However, it will still come up with new products that are aimed at new and existing customers this year.

Russia on Wednesday identified the village from which a swarm of drones attacked its main military base in Syria and released photographs of the crudely constructed aircraft that were used. The revelations only somewhat cleared up the mystery surrounding what amounts to the biggest concerted attack on Russia's main military base of Hmeimim since the Russian military intervention in Syria began in 2015. Russia said it held Turkey accountable for the drone attack, calling it a breach of their cease-fire agreement in northern Syria, while Turkey accused Russia and Iran of jeopardizing the entire peace process by launching an offensive to take control of an opposition-held air base in the area. The Russian Defense Ministry named the opposition-controlled village of Muwazarra in southern Idlib province as the location from which a swarm of at least a dozen drones armed with crude explosives was launched Saturday, attacking the Hmeimim air base and the nearby naval base of Tartus in northwestern Syria. Under the cease-fire deal, Turkey is supposed to restrain opposition forces in Idlib province.

The dancing quadcopters are intended to show how swarms of the flying machines can be deployed without crashing into each other.

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the drones state-of-the-art technology and said they will improve the state police's ability to respond to situations quickly and effectively. Officials say the equipment will also protect troopers by doing jobs too hazardous for humans.

The law is pretty firm when it comes to drunk driving -- the consequences are obvious. Now, officials are turning their attention to drunk droning. New Jersey has just approved a bill that, if signed by Governor Chris Christie, would make it illegal to fly one under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Operating a drone with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.8 percent of more (the same legal limit for driving a vehicle) would be considered a disorderly offence under the new rules, and would carry a $1,000 fine and up to six months in prison. There's been no shortage of drone crash stories in the news in recent times -- one of the most famous being the 3AM crash land on White House grounds in 2015, thanks to a drunken mishap.

On the night of 5 January and into the early hours of the next day, Russian forces in Syria came under attack by a "massive application of unmanned aerial vehicles", says the Russian Ministry of Defence. It is the first announced use of a swarm of drones in a military action, but is unlikely to be the last. According to reports, 13 small drones descended on Russian forces, but none did significant damage. Seven were destroyed by anti-aircraft defences and the others were brought down using electronic countermeasures to hijack or jam the drone's controls and land them intact. The captured aircraft seem crudely made, with a wooden undercarriage and plastic sheeting, powered by a small liquid-fuel engine. Under their wings, the drones carried several locally made bombs fitted with 3D printed plastic fins.

Intel's innovative Myriad 2 vision processing unit (VPU) has found its way into the drone market through a partnership between start-up Ryze Tech, Intel, and drone specialist DJI. Designed to offer ease of flight and remote photography with smartphone control, the Ryze Tello is described by the company as a toy – but the technology driving the device is anything but. To simplify its controls, the company has implemented Intel's Myriad 2 VPU – originally developed by Movidius prior to the company's acquisition by Intel in 2016 – for hardware-accelerated computer vision that doesn't drain the 80g micro-drone's battery. "The Tello is an impressive drone with so much intelligence packed inside such a small package," says Remi-El-Ouazzane, vice president and Movidius general manager at Intel's New Technologies Group. "The incredible vision processing capabilities of the Intel Movidius Myriad 2 enable Ryze to miniaturise the drone and eliminate the need for multiple processors dedicated to each flying function. This is just the beginning of a promising toy market featuring robotics, AI and computer vision technologies."