Sri Lanka train memorial honors tsunami tragedy
Voice of America
People wait for the arrival of the Ocean Queen train carrying family members of people killed in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, for a memorial service in Peraliya on Dec. 26, 2024, on the 20th anniversary of the disaster.
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.
In this photo released by the State Control Centre, Country Fire Authority personnel watch as smoke billows from an out-of-control bushfire in Grampians National Park, in Victoria state, Australia, Dec. 20, 2024.
FILE - Palestinians collect clean drinking water at a desalination plant that now operates around the clock in Deir el-Balah, Gaza, a resource they barely have had any access to during the war, Nov. 14, 2024.
English Channel
FILE - This handout photo taken and released Dec. 16, 2024, by Taiwan's defense ministry shows soldiers securing a U.S.-made M1A2 Abrams battle tank onto a trailer at an army training center in Hsinchu county, Taiwan.
Fishermen pull nets at Gampong Jawa beach, ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami, in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on Dec. 25, 2024.
A burned commercial structure is pictured in Maputo, Mozambique, Dec. 24, 2024. More than 1,500 prisoners escaped from a prison near Maputo the next day, amid unrest triggered by confirmation of the Frelimo party as the winner of recent elections.
Pope Francis delivers the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for 'to the city and to the world' ) Christmas' day blessing from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Dec. 25, 2024. Pope Francis (R) opens the Holy Door of St Peter's Basilica, during a special ceremony to mark the launch of the Jubilee 2025, a year of Catholic celebrations set to draw more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome, at the Vatican, on Dec. 24, 2024.
People inspect the site of reported Israeli bombardment on tents sheltering Palestinians displaced from Beit Lahia at a camp in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec. 25, 2024.
A fire breaks out in the Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Dec. 24, 2024. (Md. Jamal for VOA) Rohingya refugees at the Cox’s Bazar camp in the aftermath of a devastating fire that killed two people and left thousands homeless, Dec. 24, 2024. (Md. Jamal for VOA) 80-year-old Rohingya refugee Amena Khatun recounts the story of losing her 60-year-old son Abu Hair to the fire in the Cox’s Bazar camp, Dec. 24, 2024. (Md. Jamal for VOA) A Rohingya refugee tries to douse a fire at the Cox’s Bazar camp, Dec. 24, 2024. (Md. Jamal for VOA) Rohingya refugees savage their belongings at the Cox’s Bazar camp in the aftermath of a devastating fire that killed two people and left thousands homeless, Dec. 24, 2024. (Md. Jamal for VOA) Rohingya refugee Jahid Hossain, who lost his six-year-old grandson Burhanuddin in a fire at a camp in Cox’s Bazar, Dec. 24, 2024. (Md. Jamal for VOA) FILE - Fire burns in the Rohingya refugee camp in Balukhali in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, March 5, 2023.
FILE - Eugene Spector, Russian-born U.S. citizen already imprisoned in Russia on a bribery stands behind bars in a courtroom in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 20, 2020. Spector has been handed a second 15-year jail term for espionage, Russian news agencies reported on Dec. 24, 2024.
Israeli emergency services work at the scene of a missile strike that, according to Israel's military, was launched from Yemen and landed in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv, Dec. 21, 2024. The Yemen-based Houthi militant group fired a ballistic missile at the Tel Aviv area on Dec. 25.