In October, French forces were training Kurdish fighters outside the Iraqi town of Dohuk when a drone crashed to the ground. As they inspected the device, it exploded, killing two Kurdish soldiers and wounding many others. A Kurdish official later reported that the drone had been "booby-trapped" with a bomb disguised as a battery case. Former Rep. Jane Harman is the director, president and CEO of the Wilson Center. She served nine terms in Congress, representing the aerospace center of California.

President-elect Donald Trump says the Chinese government should be told "we don't want the drone they stole back" and "let them keep it!" Trump's tweet Saturday evening came after U.S. officials confirmed that they "secured an understanding" for the return of the U.S. Navy unmanned underwater glider, which China seized in the South China Sea. The comments may extend one of the most serious incidents between the American and the Chinese militaries in years. The Chinese navy seized the drone on Thursday; the Pentagon said it was being operated by civilian contractors to conduct oceanic research. The U.S. lodged a formal diplomatic complaint and demanded the drone back.

Hamas claims it has both surveillance and attack drones. During the 2014 Gaza-Israel conflict, Hamas released aerial footage of parts of Israel.

Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. The delivery of a Fire TV stick and a bag of popcorn was made from a fulfillment center in Cambridge, England. Amazon hopes that "one day, seeing Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road." My Kindle still isn't working right, and they expect a drone to deliver packages? It's unlikely that drone delivery will be as ubiquitous as Amazon predicts, but you can expect this form of delivery to be an option to get your products to certain far-flung places of the world (where there are no kids with slingshots) within the next few years.

NASA has announced that a team of researchers from its Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and other institutions recently visited Monterey Bay, California as part of ongoing research into developing artificial intelligence for submersible drones. In addition to benefitting our understanding of Earth's marine environments, the team hopes this artificial intelligence will someday be used to explore the oceans believed to exist on moons like Europa. If confirmed, these oceans are thought to be some of the most likely places to host life in the outer solar system. A fleet of six coordinated drones was used to study Monterey Bay. To plot their routes, forecasts of these ocean features were sent to the drones from shore. The drones also sensed how the ocean actively changed around them.

Facebook celebrated the first full test flight of its solar-powered internet drone, Aquila, in July, but things didn't go as smoothly as they could have. The drone completed a 96-minute flight in Yuma, Arizona, but it ended up crash-landing because of a structural failure in the right wing, according to today's report from the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB announced in November that it would investigate the accident. Aquila's only landing mode is "autoland," meaning the aircraft senses things like wind speeds and temperature, and adjusts for the smoothest landing possible. During its debut test flight, operators expected wind speeds of 7 knots.

The 6-foot, unmanned submarine is known as an LBS-Glider System and was operating from the USNS Bowditch on Thursday 50 miles from Subic Bay, gathering unclassified information for Navy charts and other maritime data like water temperature and sound speed, the Pentagon says. It surfaced and set a radio frequency for its home ship to pick it up, when a Chinese navy Dalang III-Class ship that had been shadowing the Bowditch launched a boat and intercepted it first.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next two months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. At least they have robots to get some actual work done. If anyone can use some automation to boost production, it's Santa: That must have taken a ridiculous amount of helium.

Stunning drone footage from a whale watch in California has revealed a group of offshore killer whales eating a still-living shark. The video of the incredible marine scene from a Monterey Bay Whale Watch trip was taken by Slater Moore, a wildlife photographer and drone pilot. "We encountered these infrequently sighted Killer Whales on the 9am trip aboard the SeaWolf II," the whale watching company wrote on their Facebook page earlier this week. "This ecotype of Killer Whales often travels in large groups and were seen about this time last December. We saw about 25 individuals and we have footage of them feeding on a Sevengill Shark!" "These whales are typically smaller in size than the Bigg's or transient Killer Whale type and they had several very young calves with them!" they added.

You could have walked there faster! Amazon's much-hyped first ever drone delivery was to the company's next door neighbour just 765 yards away (so no wonder it only took 13 minutes) Amazon boss Jeff Bezos announced firm completed first drone delivery in Cambridge on December 7 Amazon Air debut took just 13 minutes from order to delivery destination, with drone travelling at 400ft But it emerged the delivery was sent to the company's next door neighbour - just 765 yards away Drones will only be used during daylight and in sunny conditions and will not fly in rain, ice or strong winds But it emerged the delivery was sent to the company's next door neighbour - just 765 yards away Watch video Caught on camera: Checkout line fight erupts over couponing Watch video GRAPHIC CONTENT: Suspect shoots Georgia police officers Watch video Dangerous Porsche driver cuts up fellow motorists in Liverpool Watch video Lamborghini shredded by Taiwan government for illegal importation Watch video ...