Israel’s Parliament to Vote on Ratifying Supreme Court Bill Next Week 

Demonstrators sit in water cannon spray fired by Israeli riot police during a protest against the Israeli government's judicial overhaul bill in Tel Aviv on July 18, 2023. (AFP)
Demonstrators sit in water cannon spray fired by Israeli riot police during a protest against the Israeli government's judicial overhaul bill in Tel Aviv on July 18, 2023. (AFP)
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Israel’s Parliament to Vote on Ratifying Supreme Court Bill Next Week 

Demonstrators sit in water cannon spray fired by Israeli riot police during a protest against the Israeli government's judicial overhaul bill in Tel Aviv on July 18, 2023. (AFP)
Demonstrators sit in water cannon spray fired by Israeli riot police during a protest against the Israeli government's judicial overhaul bill in Tel Aviv on July 18, 2023. (AFP)

Israel's parliament will hold final votes next week on a highly-disputed bill that would limit the Supreme Court's power, according to a Knesset statement on Wednesday.

The proposal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right coalition has sparked mass-protests nationwide and concern among foreign allies for Israel's democratic health.

Netanyahu has sought sweeping changes to the judiciary since returning to power late last year atop a religious-nationalist government. Since the uproar, many of them have been delayed.

The bill scheduled for discussion and ratification on Sunday and Monday would curb the Supreme Court's ability to void government and minister decisions or appointments by stripping the judges of the power to deem such decisions "unreasonable."

Proponents of the change say the Supreme Court has become too interventionist and that the change will facilitate effective governance.

Opponents say it will weaken the Supreme Court, which in a country that has no constitution and a one-chamber parliament that is dominated by the government - has a critical role in protecting civil rights and liberties.

Washington has urged Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges he denies, to seek consensus on judicial reforms.



Sri Lanka Train Memorial Honors Tsunami Tragedy

A train “Queen of the Sea” arrives with family members of the victims on-board at a special memorial monument to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, in Peraliya on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
A train “Queen of the Sea” arrives with family members of the victims on-board at a special memorial monument to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, in Peraliya on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Sri Lanka Train Memorial Honors Tsunami Tragedy

A train “Queen of the Sea” arrives with family members of the victims on-board at a special memorial monument to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, in Peraliya on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
A train “Queen of the Sea” arrives with family members of the victims on-board at a special memorial monument to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, in Peraliya on December 26, 2024. (AFP)

Just inland from the crashing waves on Sri Lanka's palm-fringed shores, the train slowly came to a stop on Thursday -- marking the moment a deadly tsunami hit 20 years ago.

Sri Lanka's Ocean Queen Express became a symbol of the biggest natural disaster to hit the South Asian nation in living memory, when the train was struck by the giant waves of December 26, 2004.

About 1,000 people were killed -- both passengers and local residents, who had clambered inside desperately seeking shelter after the first wave hit.

After they boarded, two bigger waves smashed into the train, ripping it from the tracks and tumbling it onto its side more than 100 meters (330 feet) from the shoreline.

Each year since then, the Ocean Queen has stopped on the tsunami anniversary at the spot in Peraliya, a sleepy village some 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of the capital Colombo, to commemorate those killed.

"To me, it all brings back the very hard memories," said Tekla Jesenthu, whose two-year-old daughter died as the waves hit the area. "I don't want to think about or talk about it -- it hurts that much."

"Monuments won't bring them back," she added.

- Climbing for survival -

Survivors and relatives of the dead boarded the train in Colombo early in the morning before it headed south with national flags fluttering on its front and then slowed to a creaking halt in commemoration.

Villagers came out, the line was closed and a few moments of quiet settled.

Mourners offered flowers and lit incense at a beachside memorial for 1,270 people buried in mass graves, with Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Muslim ceremonies held.

"When I saw the first wave, I started running away from the waves," said U. A. Kulawathi, 73, a mother whose daughter was killed, her body swept out to sea.

"The water reached the roof levels and people climbed the roofs to save themselves."

The 9.1-magnitude earthquake off the western coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island triggered huge waves that swept into coastal areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and nine other nations around the Indian Ocean basin.

A total of 226,408 people died as a result of the tsunami according to EM-DAT, a recognized global disaster database. Of those, 35,399 were in Sri Lanka.

Sarani Sudeshika, 36, a baker whose mother-in-law was among those killed, recalled how "animals started making strange noises and people started shouting, saying, 'Sea water is coming'".