WORLD

US President Joe Biden said Friday that China was withholding "critical information" on the origins of Covid-19 after the US intelligence community said it did not believe the virus was a bioweapon -- but remained split on whether it escaped from a lab.

The United States, however, does not believe Chinese officials had foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak of the pandemic that has now claimed 4.5 million lives, according to an unclassified summary of an eagerly awaited intelligence report.

"Critical information about the origins of this pandemic exists in the People's Republic of China, yet from the beginning, government officials in China have worked to prevent international investigators and members of the global public health community from accessing it," Biden said in a statement.

President Joe Biden, his voice breaking with emotion, vowed on Thursday the United States would hunt down the attackers of twin explosions at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan and said he has asked the Pentagon to develop plans to strike back at them.

Biden spoke hours after the two blasts killed a dozen American troops and wounded more, the worst day of casualties for US forces there in a decade.

"We will not forgive, we will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay," he said in remarks at the White House.

Biden said US evacuations would continue. He gave no indication of a change in next Tuesday's US pullout target. As many as 1,000 Americans and many more Afghans are still struggling to get out of Kabul.

Around 180 people are expected to be brought to India from Kabul in a military aircraft on Thursday as several countries continue to scramble to evacuate their citizens before the August 31 deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from the country, people familiar with the developments said.

The aircraft carrying around 180 people is likely to reach Delhi on Thursday morning, they said, adding that those being evacuated include Indians and a number of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus.

India has so far evacuated over 800 people as part of the mission 'Operation Devi Shakti', after the Taliban took over Afghanistan and the Ashraf Ghani government collapsed.

In an important development, India and Russia have agreed to form a "permanent bilateral channel" for consultations on Afghanistan. The announcement of bilateral channel has been the most visible practical cooperation between India & any of its allies on Afghanistan in the aftermath of fall of Kabul to Taliban since 15th August.

The development was announced hours after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi & Russian President Vladimir Putin held 45-minute telephonic conversation on Tuesday. 

In a tweet, PM said, "Had a detailed and useful exchange of views with my friend President Putin on recent developments in Afghanistan..." 

“My father and family suffered under Taliban rule 20 years ago but it was different. Now they (Taliban) are stronger and wouldn’t have allowed us to live there,” said Anarkali Kaur Honaryar, Afghan Member of Parliament who was among 168 people airlifted from Kabul to the Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad on Sunday morning.

One of the first non-Muslim women to be elected to the country's Upper House, Honaryar has been an MP for almost a decade.

“My grandfather and father spent their entire lives in Afghanistan. My was an engineer and was then part of the Election Commission. My siblings and I worked for the government,” Honaryar told The Indian Express. “When it all started, I planned not to leave my country but soon everything changed. My mother is still scared. She thinks the Taliban are outside our room and doesn’t want me to leave. We have lost everything…”