Human Rights Watch group launches campaign to ban 'killer robots'

A mock "killer robot" pictured in central London on April 23, 2013 during the launch of the Campaign to Stop "Killer Robots". 

A global rights group launched the campaign on Tuesday to ban Terminator-style "killer robots" amid fears the rise of drone warfare could lead to machines with the power to make their own decisions about killing humans.

A global rights group launched a campaign on Tuesday to ban Terminator-style "killer robots" amid fears the rise of drone warfare could lead to machines with the power to make their own decisions about killing humans.

Human Rights Watch said it was creating an international coalition to call for a global treaty that would impose a "pre-emptive and comprehensive ban" on artificially intelligent weapons before they are developed.

The New York-based group also warned of a possible "robotic arms race" if even one country took the step to allow such machines to enter service.

Steve Goose

"Lethal armed robots that could target and kill without any human intervention should never be built," said Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch, said at the launch in London of the "Campaign To Stop Killer Robots".

"A human should always be 'in-the-loop' when decisions are made on the battlefield.

"Killer robots would cross moral and legal boundaries, and should be rejected as repugnant to the public conscience."

The campaign includes several non-governmental organisations involved in previous successful efforts to ban anti-personnel landmines, cluster munitions, and blinding lasers.

Activists wheeled out a home-made robot outside the Houses of Parliament in London for the launch of the campaign.

The United States has led the way in military robots such as the unmanned drone aircraft that carry out attacks and surveillance in countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen.

According to Britain's Bureau of Investigative Journalism, CIA drone attacks in Pakistan have killed up to 3,587 people since 2004, up to 884 of them civilians but these are controlled by human operators in ground bases and are not able to kill without authorisation.

Shark Finning: Venezuala Takes Steps toward survival

Credit: Federico Cabello

Some much-needed good news for sharks has come from Venezuela this week: The South American country announced it is banning shark finning in its waters and has established a new shark sanctuary.

The country became the last in the Americas to outlaw the practice of cutting off the fins of live sharks and tossing the animals back into the ocean to slowly die.

US Lifts Russian space ban: Iranian Nuclear Armament Proliferation Sanctions

The U.S. government has lifted sanctions against the Russian space organisation Glavkosmos, the U.S. Federal Register said on Thursday.

The United States imposed economic sanctions against Glavkosmos on July 30, 1998, accusing it of export control violations and engaging in proliferation activities related to Iran's missile program.

The sanctions barred the company from exporting or importing goods to the United States and also blocked it from receiving any U.S. assistance.

The decision to remove the sanctions appeared earlier this week, and came into force on Wednesday.

Glavkosmos had faced an earlier set of U.S. sanctions in May 1992, after it signed a $400 million deal with the Indian Space Research Organization on the transfer of rocket engine technology, which was deemed inconsistent with Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) guidelines.

The sanctions were removed after Russia and India signed a new deal for the sales of the engines without the transfer of technology.

In addition, after 2010 the US have no vehicle to uplift astronauts and payloads to the ISS. In previous years the US were deholding to ESA to act as a go-between for the US, when dealing with Russian aerospace projects.

This explains why NASA astronauts have in the past and are currently being trained by Russian space programme, for uplift in the Soyuz Proton transport.

Heart Attacks Down 17% After Smoking Ban

Smoking bans have an immediate and dramatic effect on reducing heart attacks, according to two new analyses of laws in the USA, Canada and Europe.

Two separate analyses released Monday each found that heart attack rates fall 17% within a year after smoking bans take effect.

One analysis, which included 13 studies, appears in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. A second analysis, which considered 11 studies, appears in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Cigarette smoke can trigger a heart attack in people with underlying heart disease by causing clots or spasms in the blood vessels, says David Goff, a spokesman for the American Heart Association who wasn't involved in either study.

Given that there are about 920,000 heart attacks every year, the studies suggests that public smoking bans could prevent more than 150,000 of these, according to the Cardiology paper.

Taken together, the findings provide strong, consistent evidence that the country should enact more smoke-free laws, Goff says.

"This is a huge, huge effect for a very, very low cost," says Stanton Glantz of the University of California-San Francisco, co-author of the Circulation study.