- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Small Quebec company dominates one part of NHL hockey: jerseys
- Boeing to cut 10% of workforce as it sees big Q3 loss
- Want to film in Paris? No sexism allowed
- US, European markets rise as investors weigh rates, earnings
- In Colombia, children trade plastic waste for school supplies
- JPMorgan Chase profits top estimates, bank sees 'resilient' US economy
- Little progress at key meet ahead of COP29 climate summit
- 'Party atmosphere': Skygazers treated to another aurora show
- Kyrgyzstan opens rare probe into glacier destruction
- European Mediterranean states discuss Middle East, migration
- Thunberg leads pro-Palestinian, climate protest in Milan
- Stock markets diverge before China weekend briefing
- EU questions shopping app Temu over illegal products risk
- Han Kang's books sell out in South Korea after Nobel win
- Shanghai markets sink ahead of briefing on mixed day for Asia
- Investors, analysts eye bigger China stimulus at Saturday briefing
- Musk unveils robotaxi, pledges it 'before 2027'
- At least 11 dead in Florida but Hurricane Milton not as bad as feared
- Asian markets mixed after Wall St drop, Shanghai dips before briefing
- Automaker Stellantis says CEO will retire in 2026
- Musk's promised robotaxi unveil delayed
- On US coast, wind power foes embrace 'Save the Whales' argument
- At least 10 dead in Florida after Hurricane Milton spawns tornadoes
- Internet Archive reels from 'catastrophic' cyberattack, data breach
- Wall Street stocks retreat from records on US inflation data
- Israel strikes central Beirut, killing 22
- Solar storm could impact US hurricane recovery efforts: agency
- Delta eyes Election Day travel pullback as profits climb
- Florida battered by hurricane, floods but spared 'worst-case scenario'
- UK's William and Kate in first joint public engagement since cancer treatment
- Over 200 women in legal talks with Harrods over Fayed abuse claims
- A very stiff breeze: BBC says sorry for 20,000 kph wind forecast
- Musk finally unveiling his long-promised robotaxi
- London's Frieze art fair goes potty for ceramics
- US, Europe stocks fall on US inflation data
- US consumer inflation eases to 2.4% in September
- Hurricane Milton tornadoes kill four in Florida amid rescue efforts
- South Korea's Han Kang wins literature Nobel
- Ikea posts fall in annual sales after lowering prices
- Stock markets diverge, oil gains after China rebounds
- World can't 'waste time' trading climate change blame: COP29 hosts
- South Korean same-sex couples make push for marriage equality
- Mumbai declares day of mourning for Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- 7-Eleven owner restructures to fight takeover
- Sri Lanka recovering faster than expected: World Bank
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as most markets track Wall St record
Four children killed in attack on Brazil preschool
A 25-year-old attacker burst into a preschool in southern Brazil and killed four children Wednesday with a bladed weapon before turning himself in to police, authorities said.
Police and government officials in the state of Santa Catarina said the man had also wounded four victims at the private preschool, known as the Good Shepherd Center, in the morning attack in the city of Blumenau.
He then handed himself in at a state police station and was arrested, police said in a statement.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva condemned the attack as a "monstrosity."
"There is no greater pain than a family that loses children or grandchildren, even more so when it is in an act of violence against innocent and defenseless children," he wrote on Twitter.
"My thoughts and prayers are with the victims' families."
Images from the scene on Brazilian news site G1 showed emergency workers and police outside the preschool, as dozens of people waited behind a security cordon.
An officer asked the crowd to remain calm, saying only parents were being allowed inside.
A state government source confirmed to AFP the four victims were children.
The three boys and one girl were between five and seven years old, G1 reported.
The weapon used resembled a hatchet, Brazilian media reports said.
- Three-day mourning -
Santa Catarina Governor Jorginho Mello declared three days of mourning in the state for the "terrible" attack.
Violence in schools has been increasing in Brazil in recent years.
Last week, a 13-year-old boy killed a teacher in a knife attack at a school in Sao Paulo.
In November, a 16-year-old shooter killed four people and wounded more than 10 others in twin attacks on two schools in the southeastern city of Aracruz, in Espirito Santo state.
The country's deadliest school shooting left 12 children dead in 2011, when a man opened fire at his former elementary school in the Rio de Janeiro suburb of Realengo, then killed himself.
There have also been a series of cases of deadly violence at preschools.
In 2017, a guard at a preschool in the southeastern town of Janauba doused a group of children and himself in alcohol and set them on fire, killing nine children and a teacher and leaving around 40 wounded.
Authorities said the man, who also died, suffered from "mental problems."
In 2021, an 18-year-old man killed three young children and two employees in a knife attack on a preschool in the town of Saudades, Santa Catarina, the same state where Wednesday's attack occurred.
L.K.Baumgartner--CPN