The US Defense Department said 13 were killed after two suicide bombers deployed by the Afghanistan branch of the Islamic State group detonated their bombs by a key gate into the airport and at a nearby hotel used for staging evacuees.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, which added more urgency and heartbreak to the frantic US-led campaign to airlift people out of Afghanistan now that the hardline Islamist group has seized power. 

Takeda, which is in charge of sales and distribution of the Moderna shot in Japan, said it had "received reports from several vaccination centres that foreign substances have been found inside unopened vials."

In office so long she was dubbed Germany's "eternal chancellor", Merkel, 67, leaves with her popularity so resilient she would likely have won a record fifth term had she wanted to extend her mandate.

Nearly 90,000 Afghans and foreigners have fled Afghanistan via the US-led airlift since the hardline Islamist Taliban movement took control of the country on August 15.

State Department data showed that 33,896 F1 student visas were issued to Chinese nationals in June, up from just 8 issued in the previous June and close to the 34,001 in June 2019. F1 visas are the most common US visa for full-time foreign students, and June is typically a busy month.

Sydney, Australia's largest city, is struggling to stamp out an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant, with daily infections hitting record levels even after two months under a hard lockdown.

The assessment, which was ordered by President Joe Biden 90 days ago, was unable to definitively conclude whether the virus that first emerged in central China had jumped to humans via animals or escaped a highly secure research facility in Wuhan, two US officials familiar with the matter told the Washington Post.

A congressional source said Burns and Baradar had discussed the Aug. 31 deadline for a US military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Burns was due to discuss his meeting with select members of Congress, including those on intelligence committees, later on Tuesday.

Her comments in Singapore came as Washington seeks to reset relations in Asia after the turbulent Donald Trump era and build a bulwark against the rising might of Beijing.

Emhoff is leading the American delegation at the opening ceremony of the Paralympics at the National Stadium in the evening, a role first lady Jill Biden played last month at the Olympics.

Suhail Shaheen, the spokesman based in Doha, told Kyodo News the Taliban appreciates the activities of Japanese nongovernmental organizations in Afghanistan and stressed that the group will guarantee the life and property of Japanese as well as local staff working at the country's embassy and NGOs.

* Indonesia will start reopening restaurants, malls and places of worship in some areas including the capital Jakarta, as new cases have fallen sharply from their peak and vaccinations rise.

Up to several hundred people will be evacuated in the mission, a diplomatic source said. It will be the first time the SDF has evacuated foreign nationals from a country, according to the Defense Ministry.

"I have not heard him say so," Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House, when asked if Biden had plans to take disciplinary action against US officials after the Taliban's lightning-fast takeover of the country this month.

Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong told lawmakers at a parliamentary hearing that there was no such discussion currently under way, but under additional questioning said that American officials had made preliminary requests.

Sung Kim arrived in Seoul on Saturday for a four-day visit.

The 70-year-old Afghan-American envoy spent years as Washington's point man for talks with the Taliban that paved the way for the deal to see the US end its longest war and exit Afghanistan.

If Suga loses, he would join a long list of short-term premiers. He took over in September after Abe quit, citing ill health and ending a rare lengthy term of nearly eight years.

"We want to make the Taliban realise that the only way forward is through negotiation," he told Reuters by telephone from his stronghold in the Panjshir valley northwest of Kabul, where he has gathered forces made up of remnants of regular army units and special forces as well as local militia fighters.

Some of Indonesia’s grassroots Muslim groups appear to be giving the Taliban the benefit of the doubt, despite some looming concerns that their victory in Afghanistan could embolden domestic extremist groups.

The latest outbreak was driven mainly by infections first detected among a few airport workers in the eastern city of Nanjing on July 20. Since then, more than 1,200 people in China have been confirmed to be infected.

The admission marks a big shift in Australia's until now largely successful elimination strategy that has seen strict border restrictions and snap lockdowns as the central features of the country's pandemic response.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin activated the rarely-used Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) to aid the onward movement of people arriving at US bases in the Middle East, the Pentagon said.

"Temporarily, the diplomatic mission in Kabul will be done from Islamabad," Retno said in televised remarks at the Halim Perdanakusumah military airport in Jakarta.

"Our sincere thoughts are with the families of the seven Afghan civilians who have sadly died in crowds in Kabul," a ministry spokesman said.

Sunday's 914 cases of the highly infectious Delta variant surpassed the previous high of 894 a day earlier.

"This is a cry for help from the former president. She feels very harassed," the lawyer told reporters.

The Taliban are already in a financial bind since they returned to power 20 years after their ouster, as major aid donors halted their support for Afghanistan.

The United States on Saturday urged its citizens in Afghanistan to avoid travelling to Kabul airport for now, citing "potential security threats" near its gates.