WORLD

Covid-19 patients have an elevated risk of death for at least 18 months after they got infected, researchers warned on Thursday.

Covid patients were more likely to develop numerous cardiovascular conditions compared to uninfected participants, which may have contributed to their higher risks of death, according to the study of nearly 160,000 participants published in Cardiovascular Research, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

"The findings indicate that patients with Covid-19 should be monitored for at least a year after recovering from the acute illness to diagnose cardiovascular complications of the infection, which form part of long Covid," said Professor Ian CK Wong of the University of Hong Kong, China.

More trouble for cash-strapped Pakistan? Saudi Arabia changing THIS key loan policy

Earlier this month, Saudi state media reported the kingdom could boost its investments in cash-strapped Pakistan to $10 billion, from the $1 billion announced in August. Saudi Arabia may well increase the ceiling on deposits into the Pakistan central bank to $5 billion.

However, Saudi Arabia's finance minister Mohammed al-Jadaan made a key remark at the World Economic Forum in Davos related to the kingdom's loan policy. The finance minister said that the kingdom is changing the way it provides assistance to allies, shifting from previously giving direct grants and deposits unconditionally. It means, Saudi will no longer provide string aid and any financial assistance it will give to its allies will now come with a set of conditions as determined by the kingdom. 

For the first time in over 5 decades, China saw a steep dip in its population level by roughly 850,000 last year. After this fall, China, which is still the most populated country in the world, stands with a population of around 1.41 billion people at the end of 2022. As per the government data, 9.56 million people were born in China in 2022, while 10.41 million people died.

Meanwhile, China’s National Statistics Bureau issued a statement that said that the recent population decline is not a concern as ‘overall labour supply still exceeds the demand. However, the drop in population is China’s worst since 1961.

China's population fell last year for the first time in six decades, a historic turn that is expected to mark the start of a long period of decline in its citizen numbers with profound implications for its economy and the world.

The country's National Bureau of Statistics reported a drop of roughly 850,000 people for a population of 1.41175 billion in 2022, marking the first decline since 1961, the last year of China's Great Famine.

That possibly makes India the world's most populous nation. UN experts predicted last year India would have a population of 1.412 billion in 2022 though they did not expect the South Asian nation to overtake China until this year.

An Iranian imam blamed women who don’t wear hijab for lack of rainfall in the country that has in turn triggered a water crisis.

Mohammed-Mehdi Hosseini Hamedani, a close aide of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, said that by breaking the mandatory rule of wearing a hijab, women in the Islamic Republic have “caused a lack of precipitation across the country,” according to Iran International.

As Iran continues to be rocked by protests triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who was arrested for allegedly not wearing her headscarf properly, a number of women have given up their hijabs to defy the rules set by the Islamic Republic.