QUETTTA, Pakistan (AP) — The death toll from a bombing in southwestern Pakistan as people celebrated the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday rose to 54 after two critically wounded patients died in hospitals overnight, officials said Saturday.

A suspected suicide bomber or bombers blew themselves up Friday among a crowd in the Mastung district. It was one of the deadliest attacks targeting civilians in Pakistan in months. Nearly 70 people were wounded, including five who remain in very critical condition, authorities said.

VALLETTA, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Malta is keen on nourishing the healthy, strong and mutually beneficial relationship with China, with special emphasis on people-to-people links, President George Vella said on Friday.

Addressing a reception to mark the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Vella said that more than 50 years into diplomatic relations between the two countries, the ties were becoming "more dynamic and forward-looking."

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — The exodus of more than 80% of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh raises questions about Azerbaijan’s plans for the ethnic Armenian enclave following its lightning offensive last week to reclaim the breakaway region.

The Armenian government said Friday evening that more than 97,700 people, from a population of around 120,000, had fled to Armenia since Azerbaijan attacked and ordered the region’s militants to disarm. The enclave’s separatist government said it would dissolve itself by the end of the year after a three-decade bid for independence.

BRATISLAVA, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Slovaks were voting on Saturday in a parliamentary election closely fought between former leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico, who wants to end military aid for neighbouring Ukraine, and pro-Western liberals.

Final opinion polls showed the two parties neck and neck, with the winner expected to get the first chance to try to form a government to replace the caretaker administration running the country of 5.5 million since May.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Friday's two separate terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

"We very much condemn the terrorist attacks that took place in Pakistan, killing more than 50 people. The people responsible need to be held to account," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN chief, when asked for Guterres' reaction to the attacks.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis created 21 new cardinals at a ritual-filled ceremony Saturday, including key figures at the Vatican and in the field who will help enact his reforms and cement his legacy as he enters a crucial new phase in running the Catholic Church.

On a crisp sunny day filled with cheers from St. Peter’s Square, Francis further expanded his influence on the College of Cardinals who will one day elect his successor: With Saturday’s additions, nearly three-quarters of the voting-age “princes of the church” owe their red hats to the Argentine Jesuit.

RAMALLAH, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Israeli army on Friday killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank city of Al-Bireh, Palestinian medical and security sources said.

"Mohammed Jibril Ramana died due to serious injuries sustained by Israeli army's live bullets," the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement.

The ministry added that another man was slightly injured in the incident.

Palestinian security sources said that the Israeli army fired live bullets at two young men at the entrance to Psagot settlement in the West Bank city of Al-Bireh.

CAIRO (AP) — Italy and war-torn Libya on Saturday resumed commercial flights for the first time in a decade, authorities in the Libyan capital said.

Flight MT522, operated by the Libyan carrier Medsky Airways, departed Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli for Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, according to Libyan airport authorities.

WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday he had urged his Indian counterpart to work with Canada to investigate the killing of a Sikh separatist advocate that the Canadian prime minister has linked to Indian government agents.

India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar confirmed earlier he had spoken to Blinken and the U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan about Canadian allegations of New Delhi's possible involvement in the June killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — One of three former Wisconsin Supreme Court justices asked to review possible impeachment of a current justice refused to tell a judge Friday who else was looking into that question.

Former Justice David Prosser called a lawsuit alleging violations of the state open meetings law “frivolous,” saying those looking into impeachment met once but are operating independently and not as a governmental body subject to the law.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy rushed Friday into a last-ditch plan to keep the federal government temporarily open — but with steep spending cuts of nearly 30% to many agencies and severe border security provisions demanded by his hard-right flank though with almost no chance in the Democratic Senate.

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Donald Trump will make a personal pitch Friday to California Republicans in a bid to solidify his support in a GOP presidential contest he has dominated for months, while Ron DeSantis and other rivals get another chance to break the front-runner’s momentum with time fast vanishing to reorder the race.