At least 43 police officers die as bus veers off bridge

At least 43 police officers were killed on Monday when a bus in a convoy in northern Argentina blew a tire and veered off the side of a bridge, falling about 20 meters in an accident that brought the sad state of the South American nation's roads into focus.

The bus was one of three carrying police near Salta, a city about 1,500 km north of Buenos Aires. The National Gendarmerie officers, a special police force typically charged with patrolling frontier regions, were on their way to Jujuy, a region in northern Argentina that borders Bolivia.

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, who toured the scene, told reporters that an initial investigation found that the right tire of the bus ruptured.