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According to local Taliban officials in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, a father tortured and killed his six-year-old child.

The Talibans director of the Information and Culture Department in Helmand province, Hafiz Rashid Helmandi, stated that the child succumbed on Tuesday, July 26, under the fathers torture in the village of Qala Naw in the Khanashin district.

Taliban officials claimed that Siddiqullah, a man, occasionally tortured his children and that he had also allegedly killed another of his sons.

The offender has been detained and will be charged with the crime and put on trial, he continued.

With a significant increase in family violence and personal enmity, reports of domestic violence leading to homicides have soared in number.

Only about a month ago, a man killed nine members of his family including his pregnant wife and four children, in southwestern Afghanistan.

In addition, according to provincial Taliban officials in the province of Faryab, in northern Afghanistan, recently, a pregnant woman was fatally stabbed by her husband in Maimana.

Moreover, a man in the same province of Helmand used a knife to behead both his wife and their three-month-old infant.

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Child, 6, Tortured to Death by Father in Southern Afghanistan - The Khaama Press News Agency - The Khaama Press News Agency

The peoples that were under the influence of or ruled by the Hindu Sahi dynasty belonged to the territories of Kabulistan, Gandhara and parts of Northern Punjab. Kabulistan was what is currently known as the province of Kabul in present-day Afghanistan. Gandhara is the ancient name for the country that includes the valley of Peshawar in modern-day Pakistan. The parts of Punjab that were under Sahi influence are now a part of Punjab that currently belongs to Pakistan.

One country that was never conquered by the Sahis but was to play a big part in their history was Zabulistan. Zabulistan included the areas of modern-day Zabul and Ghazni provinces, located now in present-day Afghanistan.

The history of these lands is the stories of men and women that were destined to rule these lands, if not in their own name, then in the name of more powerful kings, these men were responsible for providing security, order and supporting local culture.

The history of these lands is a story of countless invasions, sometimes by generals and armies and at other times by the migration of whole tribes, migrating masses of men, women and children. The history of these lands is also one of competing religions, first Hinduism and then Buddhism. It is here that Buddhism, a native of India thrived, prospered and spread to other parts of the world. Then, after the decline of Buddhism, there was a resurgence of Hinduism under the Hindu Sahis before the arrival of Islam.

Though the history of these lands is ancient, for me, a good starting point would be a quick background and summary of the history of the lands before the Hindu Sahis. I choose to begin with the most famous of the conquerors of these lands, another childhood hero of mine, the great conqueror, Alexander.

A young Alexander the Great succeeded his father Philip II to the throne at the age of 20 in 336 BCE. Alexander commenced a great campaign to conquer the territories of the Persian empires. He began with Asia Minor, across the sea from Greece, continuing to campaign through the Levant and Syria, then west until he took Egypt. After this conquest he marched to the east and took the provinces of Assyria and Babylonia. After defeating the Persian king Darius III in the battle of Guagamela in 331 BCE, the whole of Persiaand the East fell to him.

Alexander then campaigned in central Asia, founding new cities, all named Alexandria, including modern Kandahar in Afghanistan, and Alexandria Eschate (The Furthest) in modern-day Tajikistan. The campaign took Alexander through Media, Parthia, Aria (West Afghanistan), Drangiana, Arachosia (South and Central Afghanistan), Bactria (North and Central Afghanistan) and Scythia.

He then turned to the Indian subcontinent. He invited the chieftains of the former satrapy of Gandhara to submit to his authority. The ruler of Taxila complied, but other chieftains of the hill tribes refused to submit.

Alexander himself campaigned in the Kunar Valley (Afghanistan), the Panjkora Valley in Upper Dir (modern-day Pakistan) and the Swat and Buner valleys.

Alexander crossed the Indus and fought and won the epic battle of the Hydaspes (Jhelum) in 326 BCE against King Porus, who ruled a region lying between the Jhelum and the Chenab. East of Porus kingdom, near the Ganges River, was the Nanda Empire of Magadha. The struggle with Porus had an impact on the courage of the Macedonians. Exhausted by years of campaigning, Alexanders army mutinied at the Hyphasis River (Beas) and refused to march further east.

Reluctantly, Alexander agreed and turned south, marching along the Indus. Most of the army marched with General Craterus into Iran. Alexanders admiral, Nearchus, took a fleet to explore the Persian Gulf while he led the rest back to Persia through the more difficult southern route, along the Gedrosian Desert and Makran.

When Alexander died, his son was still an infant. His generals and former companions wanted a bigger say in how the territories would be divided. This, inevitably, led to a civil war. The fate of the empire was decided at the Battle of Gaza in 312 BCE. When the spoils were divided, a young officer named Seleucus managed to obtain Persia and the east as his share, with his capital at Babylon.

Seleucus Nicator (358281 BCE) had been successful in his military career. He was reputed to have fought with distinction, though he had only fought in a junior role under Alexander and was not considered one of his close companions. By 302 BCE he had established his authority over the territories Alexander had conquered all the way up until the Jaxartes (modern-day Syr Arya river in Central Asia).

He was known to the Greeks as Sandracottus and was said to have met Alexander while the latter was in India in 326325 BCE. Under the guidance of his wily preceptor, Vishnugupta, better known as Chanakya or Kautilya, Chandragupta attacked the Macedonian garrison in the Indus Basin after the death of Alexander. After havingexterminated and overthrown the Nanda dynasty, he took the throne of Pataliputra (modern-day Patna).

Seleucus now set his designs to take back these territories in India. He marched against Chandragupta with the intention of attacking him, but he later reasoned against this and negotiated a treaty in 302 BCE. It is more likely that the Greeks were defeated as the subsequent treaty was quite one-sided, favouring the Indians. This treaty led to peace and terms that included a matrimonial alliance between the two kings.

Some believe that this meant Chandragupta marrying the daughter of Seleucus. Others interpret it to mean that the treaty may have recognised marriages between the subjects of the two kingdoms. Whether the marriage did take place or not, we do not read of the Mauryans and Greeks in conflict after this. The treaty also recognised Mauryan suzerainty over Paropamisadae and Arachosia. What the Greeks received in return were 500 elephants and a large amount of gold.

The elephants obtained from the Indian king were a valuable weapon that Seleucus could now use in his continued wars against the remaining successors.

The improved relations allowed Seleucus to send an envoy called Megasthenes to the court of the Mauryas in Pataliputra. Megasthenes subsequently became a great source of information for the history of India.

Asoka expanded the Mauryan empire to its greatest extent. It included modern-day Afghanistan in the west and stretched all the way east to include what is now Bangladesh. In fact, for one of the few times in Indias history, nearly the whole of the subcontinent of India was united as one political entity (excluding parts of present-day Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala). The capital continued to be Pataliputra, but Asoka maintained provincial capitals at Taxila and Ujjain.

Excerpted with permission from Forgotten Kings: The Story of the Hindu Sahi Dynasty, Changez Jan, Simon & Schuster India,

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This book recounts the near-forgotten tale of the Hindu Sahi kingdom in present day Afghanistan - Scroll.in

Any physical activity that gets your heart beating a little faster is useful. If youve never tracked your heartbeat while exercising, it might be worth trying. For moderate exercise, the recommended target is roughly 50 to 70 percent of your bodys maximum heart rate. (To calculate your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220.) Many people will hit this target during a brisk walk, Dr. Lewis said.

Estimating your maximum heart rate can help you gauge how hard you should be walking, running or cycling. But its not perfect, since your natural heart rate during exercise may be higher or lower. Plus, the fitness levels and heart rates among people the same age can vary, and not all exercises raise your heart rate the same amount. Consider talking to your doctor before establishing your goals.

Just moving your body in some way is going to be helpful, Dr. Garber said. Thats a really important message.

Many people exercise with weight loss in mind, but merely increasing physical activity usually isnt effective. In a 2011 review of 14 published papers, scientists found that people with bigger bodies who did aerobic exercise for at least two hours a week lost an average of only 3.5 pounds over six months. And in a small 2018 clinical trial, women who did high-intensity circuit training three times a week didnt see significant weight loss after eight weeks. (They did, however, gain muscle.)

Exercise improves your overall health, and studies suggest that it has a larger effect on life expectancy than body type. Regardless of your size, exercise reduces your risk of heart disease, some kinds of cancer, depression, type 2 diabetes, anxiety and insomnia, said Beth Lewis, a sport and exercise physiologist at the University of Minnesota.

Ive always assumed that the healthiest exercisers work out almost every day, but research suggests otherwise. In a study published in July, researchers followed more than 350,000 healthy American adults for an average of over 10 years. They found that people who exercised at least 150 minutes a week, over one or two days, were no more likely to die for any reason than those who reached 150 minutes in shorter, more frequent bouts. Other studies by Dr. Lee and her colleagues have drawn similar conclusions.

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Four Fitness Facts to Fuel Your Workout - The New York Times

Fans of Marvel movies know the word 'quantum' too well.

It's the name of the realm the Avengers used to time travel and fantastical as that is, the concept of quantum mechanics is far from fiction.

Scientists have toyed with the idea since the 1920s in an attempt to explain the mysteries of our universe that can not be explained by traditional physics.

The University of Sydney (USYD) and University of New South Wales Sydney (UNSW) are among Google's new partners, which already included Macquarie University (MQ) and the University of Technology (UTS).

Associate Professor Ivan Kassal, from USYD believes advancements in quantum chemistry could develop life saving medicines and help predict the impact of atmospheric matter on our climate.

"Simulating chemistry is likely to be one of the first applications of quantum computers, and my goal is to develop the quantum algorithms that will allow near-term quantum computers to give us insights into chemical processes that are too complicated to simulate on any classical supercomputer," Kassal said.

Those are very physical problems to solve, but the potential of quantum computers could also speed up solving systems, crack cryptography and enable new applications of machine learning.

Australia's Chief Scientist, Dr Cathy Foley said Google's interest in Australia is "testament to the world class research that has been supported by the Australian Research Council for over two decades".

"I am delighted that Google sees Australia as somewhere to do quantum research. A step in building Australia's quantum industry here," said Dr Foley.

Google is building its quantum research team in Sydney, including its newly-appointed quantum computing scientist, Dr Marika Kieferova.

Professor Michael Bremner of UTS said one of this biggest challenges in quantum computing "is understanding which applications quantum computers can deliver performance that goes beyond classical computing."

"In this project, my team at UTS will work with Google on this problem, examining the mathematical structures that drive quantum algorithms to go beyond classical computing," Professor Michael Bremner, UTS

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Quantum computing and the Australians on the cutting edge - 9News

USC has been an animating force for computing research since the late 1960s.

With the advent of the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) in 1972 and the Department of Computer Science in 1976 (born out of the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering), USC has played a propulsive role in everything from the internet to the Oculus Rift to recent Nobel Prizes.

Here are seven of those victories reimagined as cinemagraphs still photographs animated by subtle yet remarkable movements.

Cinemagraph: Birth of .Com

1. The Birth of the .com (1983)

While working at ISI, Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel pioneered the Domain Name System, which introduced the .com, .edu, .gov and .org internet naming standards.

As Wired noted on the 25th anniversary, Without the Domain Name System, its doubtful the internet could have grown and flourished as it has.

The DNS works like a phone book for the internet, automatically translating text names, which are easy for humans to understand and remember, to numerical addresses that computers need. For example, imagine trying to remember an IP address like 192.0.2.118 instead of simply usc.edu.

In a 2009 interview with NPR, Mockapetris said he believed the first domain name he ever created was isi.edu for his employer, the (USC) Information Sciences Institute. That domain name is still in use today.

Grace Park, B.S. and M.S. 22 in chemical engineering, re-creates Len Adlemans famous experiment.

2. The Invention of DNA Computing (1994)

In a drop of water, a computation took place.

In 1994, Professor Leonard Adleman, who coined the term computer virus, invented DNA computing, which involves performing computations using biological molecules rather than traditional silicon chips.

Adleman who received the 2002 Turing Award, often called the Nobel Prize of computer science saw that a computer could be something other than a laptop or machine using electrical impulses. After visiting a USC biology lab in 1993, he recognized that the 0s and 1s of conventional computers could be replaced with the four DNA bases: A, C, G and T. As he later wrote, a liquid computer can exist in which interacting molecules perform computations.

As the New York Times noted in 1997: Currently the worlds most powerful supercomputer sprawls across nearly 150 square meters at the U.S. governments Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. But a DNA computer has the potential to perform the same breakneck-speed computations in a single drop of water.

Weve shown by these computations that biological molecules can be used for distinctly non-biological purposes, Adleman said in 2002. They are miraculous little machines. They store energy and information, they cut, paste and copy.

Professor Maja Matari with Blossom, a cuddly, robot companion to help people with anxiety and depression practice breathing exercises and mindfulness.

3. USC Interaction Lab Pioneers Socially Assistive Robotics (2005)

Named No. 5 by Business Insider as one of the 25 Most Powerful Women Engineers in Tech, Maja Matari leads the USC Interaction Lab, pioneering the field of socially assistive robotics (SAR).

As defined by Matari and her then-graduate researcher David Feil-Seifer 17 years ago, socially assistive robotics was envisioned as the intersection of assistive robotics and social robotics, a new field that focuses on providing social support for helping people overcome challenges in health, wellness, education and training.

Socially assistive robots have been developed for a broad range of user communities, including infants with movement delays, children with autism, stroke patients, people with dementia and Alzheimers disease, and otherwise healthy elderly people.

We want these robots to make the user happier, more capable and better able to help themselves, said Matari, the Chan Soon-Shiong Chair and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience and Pediatrics at USC. We also want them to help teachers and therapists, not remove their purpose.

The field has inspired investments from federal funding agencies and technology startups. The assistive robotics market is estimated to reach $25.16 billion by 2028.

Is the ball red or blue? Is the cat alive or dead? Professor Daniel Lidar, one of the worlds top quantum influencers, demonstrates the idea of superposition.

4. First Operational Quantum Computing System in Academia (2011)

Before Google or NASA got into the game, there was the USC-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computing Center (QCC).

Led by Daniel Lidar, holder of the Viterbi Professorship in Engineering, and ISIs Robert F. Lucas (now retired), the center launched in 2011. With the worlds first commercial adiabatic quantum processor, the D-Wave One, USC is the only university in the world to host and operate a commercial quantum computing system.

As USC News noted in 2018, quantum computing is the ultimate disruptive technologyit has the potential to create the best possible investment portfolio, dissolve urban traffic jams and bring drugs to market faster. It can optimize batteries for electric cars, predictions for weather and models for climate change.Quantum computing can do this, and much more, because it can crunch massive data and variables and do it quickly with advantage over classical computers as problems get bigger.

Recently, QCC upgraded to D-Waves Advantage system, with more than 5,000 qubits, an order of magnitude larger than any other quantum computer. The upgrades will enable QCC to host a new Advantage generation of quantum annealers from D-Wave and will be the first Leap quantum cloud system in the United States. Today, in addition to Professor Lidar one of the worlds top quantum computing influencers QCC is led by Research Assistant Professor Federico Spedalieri, as operations director, and Research Associate Professor Stephen Crago, associate director of ISI.

David Traum, a leader at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), converses with Pinchas Gutter, a Holocaust survivor, as part of the New Dimensions in Testimony.

5. USC ICT Enables Talking with the Pastin the Future (2015)

New Dimensions in Testimony, a collaboration between the USC Shoah Foundation and the USC Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), in partnership with Conscience Display, is an initiative to record and display testimony in a way that will continue the dialogue between Holocaust survivors and learners far into the future.

The project uses ICTs Light Stage technology to record interviews using multiple high-end cameras for high-fidelity playback. The ICT Dialogue Groups natural language technology allows fluent, open-ended conversation with the recordings. The result is a compelling and emotional interactive experience that enables viewers to ask questions and hear responses in real-time, lifelike conversation even after the survivors have passed away.

New Dimensions in Testimony debuted in the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in 2015. Since then, more than 50 survivors and other witnesses have been recorded and presented in dozens of museums around the United States and the world. It remains a powerful application of AI and graphics to preserve the stories and lived experiences of culturally and historically significant figures.

Eric Rice and Bistra Dilkina are co-directors of the Center for AI in Society (CAIS), a remarkable collaboration between the USC Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

6. Among the First AI for Good Centers in Higher Education (2016)

Launched in 2016, the Center for AI in Society (CAIS) became one of the pioneering AI for Good centers in the U.S., uniting USC Viterbi and the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work.

In the past, CAIS used AI to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among homeless youth. In fact, a pilot study demonstrated a 40% increase in homeless youth seeking HIV/AIDS testing due to an AI-assisted intervention. In 2019, the technology was also used as part of the largest global deployment of predictive AI to thwart poachers and protect endangered animals.

Today, CAIS fuses AI, social work and engineering in unique ways, such as working with the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority to address homelessness; battling opioid addiction; mitigating disasters like heat waves, earthquakes and floods; and aiding the mental health of veterans.

CAIS is led by co-directors Eric Rice, a USC Dworak-Peck professor of social work, and Bistra Dilkina, a USC Viterbi associate professor of computer science and the Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Early Career Chair.

Pedro Szekely, Mayank Kejriwal and Craig Knoblock of the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) are at the vanguard of using computer science to fight human trafficking.

7. AI That Fights Modern Slavery (2017)

Beginning in 2017, a team of researchers at ISI led by Pedro Szekely, Mayank Kejriwal and Craig Knoblock created software called DIG that helps investigators scour the internet to identify possible sex traffickers and begin the process of capturing, charging and convicting them.

Law enforcement agencies across the country, including in New York City, have used DIG as well as other software programs spawned by Memex, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)-funded program aimed at developing internet search tools to help investigators thwart sex trafficking, among other illegal activities. The specialized software has triggered more than 300 investigations and helped secure 18 felony sex-trafficking convictions, according to Wade Shen, program manager in DARPAs Information Innovation Office and Memex program leader. It has also helped free several victims.

In 2015, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. announced that DIG was being used in every human trafficking case brought by the DAs office. With technology like Memex, he said, we are better able to serve trafficking victims and build strong cases against their traffickers.

This is the most rewarding project Ive ever worked on, said Szekely. Its really made a difference.

Published on July 28th, 2022

Last updated on July 28th, 2022

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USC's Biggest Wins in Computing and AI - USC Viterbi | School of Engineering - USC Viterbi School of Engineering