PARIS, Sept 29 (Reuters) - There are no talks with the Taliban to negotiate a peace settlement, Afghan anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Massoud said on Thursday, vowing to step up "guerrilla warfare" to bring the hardline Islamists to the negotiating table.

Speaking in an interview in Paris, Massoud, the exiled leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), said that the only way for the Taliban to achieve legitimacy would be to hold elections, but there was no prospect of that happening for now.

STOCKHOLM, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Sweden's prime minister summoned the head of the armed forces and the police commissioner in a bid to stem gang violence, he said on Thursday, following a wave of violence that has taken at least 11 lives in September alone.

Two people were killed in separate shootings in Stockholm on Wednesday, and a woman in her 20s, thought to be an innocent bystander, was killed when a bomb tore up a house in Uppsala in the early hours of Thursday.

MADRID, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- The leader of Spain's right-wing People's Party (PP), Alberto Nunez Feijoo, on Friday failed for a second time to win the support of the Spanish Congress to become prime minister.

After being defeated in the first investiture vote on Wednesday with 178 votes against and 172 in his favor, Feijoo lost the second vote in 48 hours with 177 against and 172 in his favor. This slight difference stemmed from Eduard Pujol, a member of the Catalan separatist party Junts per Catalonya, who accidentally voted in favor but quickly retracted his support.

MOSCOW, September 29. /TASS/: Russia stands for Latin America to be strong, independent and successful, and is willing to develop bilateral cooperation for this purpose, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Russia - Latin America International Parliamentary Conference.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Friday is expected to release a playbook on best practices for training workers as the low 3.8% unemployment rate and years of underinvestment have left manufacturers, construction firms and other employers with unfilled jobs.

BEIRUT, Sept 29 (NNN-NNA) – The Lebanese army received yesterday, the first shipment of Qatar’s fuel donation, the military said in a statement.

The donation is part of Qatar’s efforts, to assist the Lebanese military, during the current financial crisis, the statement said, adding that, the remaining portion of the donation will be delivered in the upcoming months.

Late last month, the Qatar Fund for Development announced that, it would supply the Lebanese army with fuel aid, valued at 30 million U.S. dollars over a period of six months.

ISTANBUL, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Türkiye's defense export target is to exceed 6 billion U.S. dollars in 2023.

Speaking at a technology festival in the western province of Izmir, Erdogan said his country has been implementing 850 different defense projects.

"With our defense industry initiatives, our exports are increasing exponentially," Erdogan said, addressing the visitors at TEKNOFEST, Türkiye's biggest aviation, space, and technology fair.

BAKU, September 29. /TASS/: Azerbaijan will make sure that the rights and security of Armenians in Karabakh are protected and has already outlined its vision of reintegration to them, President Ilham Aliyev said at the second National Urban Planning Forum in Zangilan on Friday.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of people celebrating the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 52 people and wounding nearly 70 others, authorities said, in one of the country’s deadliest attacks targeting civilians in months.

An open area near a mosque was left strewn with the shoes of the dead and wounded, TV footage and videos on social media showed. Bodies lay covered with bedsheets. Residents and rescuers were seen rushing the wounded to hospitals.

CAIRO, Sept 29 (NNN-MENA) – The central banks of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), signed yesterday, a currency swap deal, agreeing to exchange up to 42 billion Egyptian pounds (about 1.36 billion U.S. dollars) and five billion UAE dirhams at nominal value.

The agreement comes within the framework of strengthening relations between Egypt and the UAE at all levels, and contributes to increasing their trade volume, a statement from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) quoted the bank’s governor, Hassan Abdallah, as saying.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an exponential increase in production of nuclear weapons and for his country to play a larger role in a coalition of nations confronting the United States in a “new Cold War,” state media said Thursday.

The Korean Central News Agency said Kim made the comments during a two-day session of the country’s rubber-stamp parliament which amended the constitution to include his policy of expanding the country’s nuclear weapons program.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans launched their formal impeachment hearing Thursday against President Joe Biden, saying they intend to “provide accountability” as they make their case to the public, their colleagues and skeptics in the Senate.