This week in the world

By Kacie Cooper

CBC News: Three infants among five people stabbed at NYC neighbourhood daycare

Police say five people, including three infants, were stabbed at an overnight daycare centre in New York City.

Authorities say the stabbings happened just before 4 a.m. Friday at a home in Queens.

A three-day-old girl and a one-month-old girl were stabbed in the abdomen and a 20-day-old girl suffered cuts to her ear, chin and lip.

Police say the father of a child at the centre and a woman who worked there were also stabbed. All are in critical but stable condition.

A 52-year-old woman was found in the basement of the home and police say she had slashed her own wrist and is in custody at a hospital.

Charges are pending. Police say a butcher knife and meat cleaver were found at the scene.

A motive hasn’t been determined and it isn’t clear whether the daycare centre was licensed.

 

BBC: Lake Victoria Tanzania ferry disaster death toll hits 136

At least 136 people have died after a ferry carrying hundreds of people capsized on Lake Victoria, Tanzania, officials say.

Many are missing and it is feared that more than 200 people in total may have drowned. Rescue efforts resumed on Friday after being halted overnight.

The MV Nyerere ferry overturned near Ukara island on its way from Bugorora.

It is thought the overloaded vessel tipped over when crowds on board moved to one side as it docked.

Local media say the ferry’s official capacity was 100 people, but officials say the vessel was carrying more than 400 passengers when it capsized.

It operates on a busy route, crossing eight times a day between the islands of Ukara and Ukwerewe, which are close to Tanzania’s second-largest city of Mwanza.

The ferry was said to have been particularly busy because it was market day in Bugorora, on Ukerewe island.

The vessel was also carrying cargo, including bags of cement and maize, when it capsized around 50 metres from the shore.

It is thought that many of the passengers would not have been able to swim.

 

The Washington Post: Trump demands a border wall but many Republican lawmakers aren’t convinced

President Trump lashed out at Congress on Thursday for failing to deliver his long-promised border wall, unleashing a tweet that accused Democrats of “obstructing” border security and demanded that “REPUBLICANS MUST FINALLY GET TOUGH!”

The trouble for Trump is that it’s his own GOP allies — not just his political opponents — who have been standing in the way.

The same Republican lawmakers who rushed through the tax bill Trump wanted, confirmed his first Supreme Court pick and are fighting to defend his second, and have remained largely deferential amid multiple scandals, have taken a far different approach when it comes to one of Trump’s most memorable campaign promises — deeming the wall to be impractical, unrealistic and too costly.

“People can climb over the wall or go under the wall or through the wall. We’ve seen that in different places,” said Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.), the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, explaining why a system of technology, infrastructure and personnel is preferable to a physical wall. “If it’s just unattended without sensors, without technology, without people, then it won’t work.”

 

The Times of Israel: Israel shuts down for Yom Kippur

Israel shut down on Tuesday evening for Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement and the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

All flights in and out of Ben Gurion airport ceased at 1:35 p.m.. The airport will reopen Wednesday night with arrivals starting at 9:30 p.m., while departures will resume at 11:30 p.m. Public transport also gradually halted with buses and trains stopping their routes until after the fast day.

Yom Kippur, which began at Tuesday at sundown and ends Wednesday night, is marked with a 25-hour fast and intense prayer by religious Jews, while more secular Israelis often use the day to ride bicycles on the country’s deserted highways.