Islamabad: Taking a dig at the US, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Washington sees Pakistan as "useful" only for clearing the "mess" it has left behind in Afghanistan after 20 years of fighting and prefers India when it comes to forming a strategic partnership.

The Taliban captured a police headquarters Thursday in a provincial capital in southern Afghanistan teetering toward being lost to the insurgents as suspected US airstrikes pounded the area, an official said.

The Taliban seized three more provincial capitals in Afghanistan and a local army headquarters in a blitz across the country's northeast, officials said Wednesday, with the insurgents now controlling some two-thirds of the nation as the US and NATO finalise their withdrawal after its decades-long war there.

President Joe Biden has ruled out any change in the US plan to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan despite the Taliban increasingly gaining control over large swaths of the war-torn country, saying Afghan leaders need to come together and fight for themselves and their nation.

Lahore: The Pakistan government has completed the restoration work of the Hindu temple badly damaged by a mob last week in Punjab province and arrested around 90 people involved in the attack that drew strong condemnation from India and the minority community leaders in this country.

New Delhi: India is evacuating its staff from its consulate in Afghanistan's Mazar-e-Sharif in view of the rapidly escalating violence by the Taliban around the capital city of Balkh province, people familiar with the development said on Tuesday.

China on Monday reported an anthrax pneumonia patient from northern Hebei Province's Chengde city, who had contact history with cattle, sheep and products that come from these animals.

Berlin: A UN-appointed panel of experts is releasing a key report Monday summarizing the latest authoritative scientific information on climate change.