NEW YORK – Friends and relatives of Yoselyn Ortega, the New York City nanny accused of stabbing two young children to death, said she appeared to be struggling emotionally and financially recently. Few, though, could offer any explanation for what might have caused her to attack the children.

“She snapped,” the nanny’s sister, Celia Ortega, told the New York Post. “We don’t understand what happened to her mind.”

Ortega, 50, remained hospitalized Saturday from self-inflicted stab wounds, including a deep gash to her throat.

Juan Pozo, a 67-year-old car service driver who formerly rented a room from the Ortega family, told the New York Times that the nanny’s sister told him Friday that she had “felt like she was losing her mind” lately and had recently been taken by relatives to visit a psychologist.

Nation

Deployed carrier’s admiral replaced

The U.S. Navy said Saturday it is replacing the admiral in command of an aircraft carrier strike group in the Middle East, pending the outcome of an internal investigation into undisclosed allegations of inappropriate judgment.

Rear Adm. Charles M. Gaouette is being sent back to the USS John C. Stennis’ home port at Bremerton, Wash., in what the Navy called a temporary reassignment. It is highly unusual for the Navy to replace a carrier strike group commander during its deployment.

Marijuana lollipops seized in Buffalo

New York police say a drug raid in Buffalo turned up 640 marijuana lollipops obtained in California where medical marijuana is legal.

The Buffalo News reports that police raided a party on Thursday attended by University of Buffalo students and found the Jolly Lolly suckers, as well as leaf marijuana, cocaine and $13,000 in cash. At least one person was arrested on felony drug charges after allegedly having the candies shipped to Buffalo.

World

Myanmar violence subsides; 67 dead

Human rights groups urged an end of sectarian violence in western Myanmar on Saturday, with one releasing satellite photos of what it said was an entire section of a town apparently burned to the ground by a marauding mob.

A government spokesman for the region said the area was calm Saturday.

Myanmar state television reported Friday night that 67 people died, 95 were injured and 2,818 houses were burned down from Sunday through Thursday in seven of Rakhine’s townships.

UN-backed truce crumbles in Syria

A Syrian warplane flattened a three-story building, suspected rebels detonated a deadly car bomb and both sides traded gunfire in several hotspots across the country Saturday, activists said, leaving a U.N.-backed holiday truce in tatters on its second day.

The unraveling of the cease-fire marked the latest setback to ending Syria’s civil war through diplomacy. Foreign military intervention is unlikely, raising the grim prospect of a drawn-out war of attrition between President Bashar Assad and those trying to topple him.

Attacks on Shiites kill dozens in Iraq

Iraqi insurgents unleashed a string of bombings and other attacks primarily targeting the country’s Shiite community on Saturday, leaving at least 40 dead in a challenge to government efforts to promote a sense of stability by preventing attacks during a major Muslim holiday.

The bloodshed appeared to be the worst in Iraq since Sept. 9, when insurgents launched a wave attacks that left at least 92 dead in one of the country’s bloodiest days this year.

As market moves, Peruvians riot, die

Rioting against Lima’s insistence on relocating Peru’s biggest wholesale market to a cleaner, less lawless neighborhood claimed two more lives Saturday, and authorities said 27 people were injured.

Police, who fought rioters with tear gas and batons, reported 103 arrests.

Two other civilians were killed Thursday when rioting first broke out over the cordoning off by police of the La Parada market to prevent trucks from entering.

Explosion in Sudan looks like airstrike

Satellite images of the aftermath of an explosion at a Sudanese weapons factory last week suggest the site was hit in an airstrike, a U.S. monitoring group said Saturday.

The Sudanese government has accused Israel of bombing its Yarmouk military complex in Khartoum, killing two people and leaving the factory in ruins. Israeli officials have neither confirmed nor denied striking the site. But they accuse Sudan of playing a role in an Iranian-backed network of arms shipments to Hamas and Hezbollah.