Amazon gets patent for 'surveillance' drones

WASHINGTON • Amazon.com is exploring using drones not just to deliver packages but also to provide surveillance services to its customers, according to a patent granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The delivery drones can be used to record video of a consented user's property to gather data that can be analysed to spot, for example, a broken window or a fire. According to the patent, the surveillance function can be limited through geo-fencing, a technology used to draw a virtual boundary around the property under surveillance. Any image or data the drone captures outside the geo-fence would be obscured or removed.

REUTERS

Nine dead as plane crashes in Hawaii

HONOLULU • Nine passengers and crew were killed on Friday evening when their plane crashed near an airfield in Hawaii, the authorities said, during what broadcaster CNN reported was a skydiving trip.

The twin-engine King Air plane went down near the Dillingham Airfield, the Hawaii Department of Transportation said.

The fire service said the aircraft was engulfed in flames when fire crews arrived and there appeared to be no survivors.

REUTERS

Daimler recalls more cars over emissions cheating

BERLIN • German auto giant Daimler has been ordered to recall a further 60,000 diesel cars believed to have been equipped with emissions-cheating software, the mass-circulation daily Bild reported yesterday.

The German Federal Motor Transport Authority had already ordered Daimler last year to recall 700,000 diesel vehicles worldwide, including 280,000 in Germany, because of software that lowered the amount of dangerous particles their engines emitted during testing.

Now the German Federal Motor Transport Authority has told the carmaker to recall its Mercedes-Benz GLK 220 CDI models built between 2012 and 2015, Bild reported.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE