A solar-powered spy drone that can sit in the sky for 45 days at a time is to become the latest futuristic kit to be given to Britain's special forces. Described as a'psuedo-satellite', the cutting-edge drone can fly at more than 70,000ft – twice the altitude of a commercial airliner – so high that it is not affected by the weather. The 4.3 million ( 5.6m) Star Trek-style Zephyr S will be used by the elite forces to track terror targets worldwide. It flies by day on solar power which also recharges its lithium-sulphur batteries to power it by night. With a wingspan of 22.5m (74 feet), it can be launched by four military personnel on their shoulders.

A compact computer called Euclid from Intel should make the development of robots much easier. Euclid looks much like the Kinect camera for Xbox consoles, but it's a self-contained PC that can be the guts of a robot. It's possible to install the Euclid computer where the "eyes" of a human-like robot would be typically placed. Intel demonstrated the Euclid computer in a robot moving on stage during CEO Brian Krzanich's keynote at the Intel Developer Forum on Tuesday. Euclid has a 3D RealSense camera that can serve as the eyes in a robot, capturing images in real-time.

It's a lot to offer, but it may be necessary. The USAF is increasingly relying on drones as part of its operations, and its training has suffered in recent years due to stretched resources. While the Air Force is doubling the number of pilots it produces between its 2015 and 2017 fiscal years, it's not going to take any chances with losing those crews that are already here. That's especially true when airlines are aggressively luring pilots with the promises of greater pay. It's too soon to say if larger bonuses will work, but the odds are that there will be at least some drone operators who'll stay on when they would have otherwise bowed out.

ISLAMABAD – The U.S. drone strike that killed the Islamic State group's commander for Afghanistan and Pakistan was the latest blow to the Middle East-led movement's ambitions to expand into a region where the long-established Taliban remain the dominant Islamist force. The Islamic State group has enticed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of jihadi fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan to switch loyalty and has held a small swath of territory in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, where leader Hafiz Saeed Khan was killed on July 26 by a U.S. drone, Washington confirmed late Friday. But outside that pocket of territory, security officials and analysts say that the group remains -- for now -- more of a "brand name" than a cohesive militant force in much of the region. "Groups around the world want to jump on that bandwagon and cash in on their popularity and the fear they command," said a Pakistani police official based in Islamabad, on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. Anxiety over the Islamic State group -- also known as ISIS or "Daesh" -- in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been building since the al-Qaida breakaway movement seized portions of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014 and began promoting itself worldwide.

Youth Code Jam, an organization that promotes computer programming to students, sponsored the camp. The students built the drones and remote controls themselves, said Debi Pfitzenmaier, the organization's founding executive director. They also used the Java computer language to program the remote controls. The students worked together, but they each got individual drones.

Dr. Scot Refsland didn't know he was standing on hallowed ground in the aviation world. He was just looking for a scenic backdrop (and more importantly a legal area) to hold the U.S. National Drone Racing Championships in New York City. His journey eventually took him to the picnic point on Governors Island, with the Statue of Liberty to the left and the Manhattan skyline to the right, painting a picture-perfect postcard of the city. The National Drone Racing Championships were held on Governors Island in New York City the first weekend of August as the best pilots in the country dueled for the right to represent Team USA in the world championships in Hawaii this October. What Refsland didn't know at the time was that this was the same location where Wilbur Wright (of Wright brothers fame) built the first aerial canoe in 1909.

Drone safety, from privacy issues to crashing over unsuspecting pedestrians, has been a concern since, well, the dawn of the drone. But one startup is working to use artificial intelligence to help drone pilots pick the safest route. Flock, an artificial intelligence company formed out of Imperial College London, Oxford University and Cambridge University, is currently developing a risk analysis program for commercial drones, from aerial photographers to drone use on a larger scale, such as delivering Amazon packages. The program uses real-time weather information and the location of buildings. But what's perhaps even more impressive is that the system can also predict what areas will be full of people so it can choose a route around congested areas or a time when those areas will be less crowded.

WASHINGTON/PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN – The leader of the Islamic State group's branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan was killed in a U.S. drone strike on July 26, a Pentagon spokesman said on Friday after the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan announced the news to Reuters. The death of Hafiz Saeed Khan is a blow to efforts by the Islamic State -- also known as ISIS or Daesh -- to expand from its heartlands in Syria and Iraq into Afghanistan and Pakistan, which already are crowded with jihadi movements, including the Taliban and al-Qaida. It is the second U.S. killing of a prominent militant in the region in months. In May, a U.S. drone killed Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a strike in Pakistan. Despite that, Afghanistan's 15-year-old war grinds on with no clear victory in sight.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day's other news: The Pentagon confirms tonight that a U.S. drone attack has killed a top Islamic State leader in Afghanistan. Hafiz Saeed Khan died in a strike on July 26. The State Department designated him a global terrorist last year. Bombings rocked across towns in Southern Thailand today, killing at least four people and wounding dozens more. Coordinated attacks hit six sites, including the popular island of Phuket.