The rising threat of small, unmanned drones near airports is becoming increasingly important to the US. Now a UK-developed system capable of jamming signals on UAVs is going to be trialed by the US aviation authority. The system uses high powered radio waves to disable drones, effectively blocking their communication and switching them off in midair. A UK-developed system capable of jamming signals to small drones is going to be trialed by the US aviation authority. A thermal imaging camera allows the Auds operator to target the unwanted drone before signal jamming, via a high-powered radio signal, is activated.

U.S. officials also said that American forces provided some support to an African-led military operation in Somalia that targeted Mohamed Dulyadayn, who is believed to be the mastermind of the Garissa University attack in Kenya in April 2015 which killed 148 people.

A Somali policeman holds his position during a firefight with Islamist al-Shabab gunmen in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Nov. 1, 2015. WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon says a U.S. drone strike on Friday targeted a senior military commander of al-Shabab in Somalia. U.S. officials say they can't confirm yet if he was killed. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook says the strike targeted Abdullahi Haji Da'ud, a key coordinator of al-Shabab attacks in the region. Da'ud also previously served as head of the group's intelligence.

When Sputnik 1 reached low Earth orbit in 1957, it did more than kick-start America's space program and send American schoolchildren scurrying for cover under their desks. It launched the satellite age. The orbiting platforms, which now number in the thousands, revolutionized communication, navigation, and watching football. Satellites, though, are expensive to build, expensive to launch, and difficult to update once in orbit. They're relatively cheap, easily launched, and readily updated.

Regulation remains a challenge for the Ocean Alliance, however, as it has for other users trying to deploy drones in different fields. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, for example, details cases in which it is illegal to come too close by air to whales, and says it also is illegal to "harass marine mammals by changing their behavior, which may occur if they are approached too closely."

A UK-developed system capable of jamming signals to small drones is to be trialled by the US aviation authority. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is expanding efforts to source technology that can detect small, unmanned aerial vehicles near airports. Three British companies developed the Anti-UAV Defense System (Auds), due to be included in new trials. It works by jamming signals to drones, making them unresponsive. A thermal imaging camera allows the Auds operator to target the unwanted drone before signal jamming, via a high-powered radio signal, is activated.

The Netherlands is not the only country concerned about drones near airports. Last month, the European Aviation Safety Agency said it is setting up a task force to examine the risk of collisions between drones and aircraft.

It's a weird feeling, cruising around Silicon Valley in a car driven by no one. I am in the back seat of one of Google's self-driving cars – a converted Lexus SUV with lasers, radar and low-res cameras strapped to the roof and fenders – as it manoeuvres the streets of Mountain View, California, not far from Google's headquarters. I grew up about eight kilometres from here and remember riding around on these same streets on a Schwinn Sting-Ray. Now, I am riding an algorithm, you might say – a mathematical equation, which, written as computer code, controls the Lexus. The car does not feel dangerous, nor does it feel like it is being driven by a human. It rolls to a full stop at stop signs, veers too far away from a delivery van, taps the brakes for no apparent reason as we pass a line of parked cars. I wonder if the flaw is in me, not the car: Is it reacting to something I can't see? The car is capable of detecting the motion of a cat, or a car crossing the street hundreds of metres away in any direction, day or night (snow and fog can be another matter). "It sees much better than a human being," Dmitri Dolgov, the lead software engineer for Google's self-driving-car project, says proudly. He is sitting behind the wheel, his hands on his lap. As we stop at the intersection, waiting for a left turn, I glance over at a laptop in the passenger seat that provides a real-time look at how the car interprets its surroundings. On it, I see a gridlike world of colourful objects – cars, trucks, bicyclists, pedestrians – drifting by in a video-game-like tableau. Each sensor offers a different view – the lasers provide three-dimensional depth, the cameras identify road signs, turn signals, colours and lights. The computer in the back processes all this information in real time, gauging the speed of oncoming traffic, making a judgment about when it is OK to make a left turn. Waiting for the car to make that decision is a spooky moment. I am betting my life that one of the coders who worked on the algorithm for when it's safe to make a left-hand turn in traffic had not had a fight with his girlfriend (or boyfriend) the night before and screwed up the code.

At the top of the bustling consumer drone marketplace, two big names have been battling (sometimes litigiously) for dominance. DJI popularized drone flying as a hobby with its Phantom line, but lately, Yuneec has been whittling into DJI's marketshare with its competing Typhoon line. Both company's flagship quadcopters are equipped with excellent video cameras, both are accessibly priced, and both have autonomous and safety-minded features that make flying easy for inexperienced pilots. Hexacopter design offers added stability in flight. Automated flight modes and integrated camera/flight controls mean a single pilot can still do everything themselves.

QUETTA, PAKISTAN – The family of a driver who was killed alongside Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan has filed a case against U.S. officials, seeking to press murder charges, police said Sunday. Mansour had entered Pakistan from Iran using a false name and fake Pakistani identity documents on May 21, when his car was targeted by a U.S. drone. The driver, who was also killed, was later identified as Mohammed Azam. The police filed a case on behalf of Azam's family, police official Abdul Wakil Mengal said. It was not immediately clear what legal avenues the family can realistically pursue.