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Paraguay Opens Israel Embassy in Jerusalem after Moving it from Tel Aviv

A man opens a door at the new premises of the Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem on December 12, 2024. (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)
A man opens a door at the new premises of the Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem on December 12, 2024. (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)
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Paraguay Opens Israel Embassy in Jerusalem after Moving it from Tel Aviv

A man opens a door at the new premises of the Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem on December 12, 2024. (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)
A man opens a door at the new premises of the Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem on December 12, 2024. (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)

Paraguay formally opened its new Jerusalem embassy in Israel on Thursday in a ceremony attended by President Santiago Peña and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following a back-and-forth struggle over the diplomatic seat that kicked off in 2018.
The South American nation's embassy had for decades been located in the coastal Israeli city of Tel Aviv, but in 2018 former President Horacio Cartes ordered its move to Jerusalem. Months later, the facility was moved back to Tel Aviv after an abrupt reversal announced by Cartes' successor, Mario Abdo, Reuters reported.
Cartes, a Netanyahu ally, is also a close confidant of Peña, with both men coming from Paraguay's conservative Colorado Party.
Peña took office last year and shortly afterwards announced the embassy's move back to Jerusalem. He traveled to Israel to officially open it on Thursday.
"This step symbolizes our commitment to shared values and the strengthening of the ties that build a future of peace, development and mutual understanding," he said at the new embassy's opening ceremony.

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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)
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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'".