Tamilnadu: daily newspaper's reporter dies in road accident near Trichy

Trichy, Tamilnadu: A Tamil daily reporter riding pillion on a two-wheeler was knocked down and crushed to death by a speeding truck near Trichy on Wednesday.

The deceased has been identified as A Karthikeyan, 54, of Aranthangi in Pudukkottai district. He was a reporter with Tamil daily Dinamani. The accident happened on the Pudukkottai – Trichy highway. He was coming to Trichy from Pudukkottai. A Deepan, 21, who was riding the two-wheeler, lost control of the vehicle when the truck, coming from the opposite direction, hit the two-wheeler . Both fell on the road. Karthikeyan came under the wheels of the truck and was crushed to death. Deepan escaped with mild injuries.

The Navalpattu police arrested truck driver B Kalaignar, 32 of Paramakudi in Ramanathapuram district. The body of Karthikeyan was sent to Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital (MGMGH) for postmortem. Karthikeyan was working as a reporter in Aranthangi area. Health minister Dr C Vijaya Baskar expressed condolences over the death of Karthikeyan.

China: 21 cars fall into sinkhole as road collapses in Southwest China

Yibin, Sichuan, China: A huge sinkhole swallowed 21 vehicles on Wednesday after a road collapsed after midnight in southwest China, state media CCTV reported.

Video footage obtained by CCTV shows the moment cars parked near a shopping mall dropped into a huge sinkhole when the road in front of the building suddenly caved in. Fifteen vehicles have been lifted up and no casualties were reported, according to CCTV. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

Massive sinkhole swallows 21 cars as road collapses in SW Chinahttps://t.co/408W6O84sX pic.twitter.com/4YWni7FKvX

— Yeni Şafak English (@yenisafakEN) August 19, 2020

Sichuan province, through which the Yangtze river flows, has been battering against a new round of torrential rainfall and raised its emergency response to the maximum level on Tuesday 

Colombia: Nine Colombian military Soldiers dead in helicopter crash

Colombia: At least nine members of Colombia's military died on Tuesday. July 21 when a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter carrying them in operations against FARC guerrilla dissidents in the Andean country's Guaviare province was involved in an accident, the army reported.

The incident, which is being investigated by military authorities, happened in the province's jungle region. Six other soldiers were wounded and two more are reported missing. "Nine bodies were found," President Ivan Duque said in a television address. Dissident former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) - who rejected a 2016 peace deal to end conflict with the government - have a strong presence in the region where the accident happened.

FARC dissident groups focus on drug-trafficking activities and the illicit exploitation of minerals including gold, according to security sources. The Colombian army, air force and national police have dozens of UH-60 helicopters that are used to transport troops, supply ground units, and fight guerrillas and criminal gangs across the South American country.

In recent years most helicopter incidents have been caused by bad weather or mechanical failure. In a few cases such events have been attributed to attacks by guerrillas or criminal gangs.