I don't mean to diminish any of this at all -- those are both horrible occurrences, and of course I feel for the victims -- but it naturally make one wonder "what's this world coming to"?

In my opinion there have always been crazy people out there who, for one reason or another, take their anger out on others, randomly or otherwise. History of course plays that out, at least in the extreme cases.

I think we tend to hear about instances of such horrors more often nowadays, and in more faraway places, simply because we have access to more (and more immediate) news sources via the internet.

So I feel that in general, the world is not getting worse, we're just being better informed of what's happening in the world (for better or for worse).

Again, just my observation, not meant to diminish any of these occurrences.