Iranians mourn Hamas leader Haniyeh's death in Tehran

A mourning ceremony and funeral procession was held in Tehran on Thursday for top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Iran on Wednesday.

Hamas Politburo Chief Ismail Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards were killed early Wednesday when their residence was hit in Tehran, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said on the same day.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei presided over the mourning ceremony in Tehran, and martial law was imposed on nearby streets, with only pedestrians allowed.

Residents held up portraits of Haniyeh and the Iranian and Palestinian flags on streets to express their condolences for the late Hamas leader and their support for the Palestinian people, and called on the Iranian government to severely punish the murderer and take retaliatory actions against Israel.

"I think Iran should defend its rights against this injustice and respond to this crime so that Israel will not do this again in Iran," said Iranian resident Morad.

Many residents said that Israel has carried out many similar assassinations in Iran over the years, and this assassination of the top Hamas official in Iran is to divert the pressure Israel faces from the resistance front.

The resistance front is a term often used to refer to an unwritten regional coalition comprising mainly Shiite countries and groups in West Asia, which seek to fight Israel and end its occupation of the Palestinian territories and free the region from the West's domination.

"Israel has done many similar assassination operations and now they are trying to make up for their failure in Gaza, but Israel will not achieve anything they want to achieve," said another resident Mohammad.

Many also believed that the United States, as a supporter and ally of Israel, has continued to provide full support to Israel in various fields since the current round of conflict broke out, and the United States has always been the main factor causing unrest in the Middle East.

"If the United States could provide security for the region, there wouldn't be so many deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. The United States will cause destruction wherever it goes. The United States, a country that claims to fight terrorism, is itself a major supporter of terrorists, their words are false," said Abu Gasim, a resident.

Haniyeh's body will be transferred to Qatari capital Doha ahead of his burial on Friday.

Iranians mourn Hamas leader Haniyeh's death in Tehran

Hubei released China's first pricing program for medical services with brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies this week, accelerating the cutting-edge sci-tech's pace entering people's livelihood.

The Healthcare Security Administration of Hubei Province set the maximum prices for the implantation and removal of an invasive BCI implant at 6,552 yuan (about 899.7 U.S. dollars) and 3,139 yuan respectively, and the highest price for a non-invasive BCI adaptation service at 966 yuan.

The BCI technologies are bringing revolutionary changes in the treatments of many patients, according to Professor Jiang Xiaobing with the neurosurgery department under the Union Hospital affiliated to the Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

"For patients with hemiplegia, blindness, or aphasia, we can use BCIs to restore some of their physiological functions. And we can also use BCI technologies to treat patients with Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, or Alzheimer's disease. And currently we don't have very effective therapies to cope with these diseases. So BCIs are bringing hopes for these patients," said Jiang.

"The next three to five years are a critical period in our development of BCI technologies. Their applications to the treatments of, say, cancers and paralyses are definitely different, so relevant products have to go through corresponding procedures (before entering the end market)," said Jiang.

In March, the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) released a pricing guideline for neural system care services, specifying BCIs in an independent category.

According to the NHSA, this move aims to boost the clinical application of the cutting-edge technology to benefit patients in need, against the backdrop of BCIs' rapid development in recent years.

The guideline also outlines the pricing of invasive and non-invasive BCIs respectively based on the distinctive features of the two BCI approaches.

The guideline will pave the way for the swift translation of mature BCI technology into clinical use in the future, and offer a compass for localities nationwide to manage relevant medical services, said the NHSA.

China's first medical service pricing for brain-computer interfaces issued