Israeli PM vows more Jewish settlements if re-elected

17 March 2015 Tuesday

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday to build thousands of new Jewish-only settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem if re-elected to the premiership.

"Despite international pressure, we will build this neighborhood," he was quoted as saying by Israel's Public Radio.

He lashed out at the electoral list of the Zionist Union coalition – his main electoral rival – saying it would bring Palestinian faction Hamas to East Jerusalem.

"If [former Justice Minister Tzipi] Livni [co-leader of the center-left Zionist Union coalition] and [Labor Party Chairman Isaac] Herzog formed the next government, Hamastan would be established here," Netanyahu said.

Israel is slated to hold fresh Knesset elections on Tuesday. Elections are held every four years, but the assembly can dissolve itself before the expiration of its term through a simple majority vote.

Competition between Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party and the Zionist Union alliance is expected to be fierce, according to recent opinion polls.

International law considers the West Bank and East Jerusalem occupied territories captured by Israel in 1967, deeming any construction of Jewish settlements on the land to be illegal.

Since its establishment 66 years ago, Israel has continued to misappropriate Palestinian land in the West Bank – on which it continues to build Jewish-only settlements – in breach of international law.

Palestinians, for their part, demand the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, with East Jerusalem.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/156660/israeli-pm-vows-more-jewish-settlements-if-re-elected.

Next Israel govt should destroy Hamas: Lieberman

16 March 2015 Monday

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday that toppling Palestinian faction Hamas – which rules the Gaza Strip – should be the top priority of the next Israeli government.

"Hamas continues to dig tunnels and upgrade rockets because the Israeli leadership is weak," Lieberman said during a tour of Netiv HaAsara, an Israeli village on the border with the Gaza Strip.

"This is why Israel has to change its way of dealing with this terrorist movement [Hamas]," he added, according to Israel Public Radio.

Lieberman said Israel could only sign an agreement with Hamas to prevent any future military confrontations only when the group's leaders were eliminated.

Israel last attacked the Gaza Strip in July and August of 2014 for 51 days during which 2,160 Palestinians were killed and 11,000 others injured.

The offensive was launched with the ostensible aim of halting rocket fire from Gaza, which has been suffering an all-out Israeli blockade since 2007.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/156654/next-israel-govt-should-destroy-hamas-lieberman.

Russia Plans to Start Moon Exploration Jointly With Partners

Moscow (Sputnik)
Mar 15, 2015

Russia plans to start exploring Earth's moon alongside partners from other states, a senior Russian space official said Thursday.

Last month, Russian space agency Roscosmos said it hoped to send manned missions to the Earth's natural satellite by 2030.

"We are going to include the moon program on our agenda soon. We are discussing these issues together with our new partners," said Vladimir Mitin, a deputy head of the manned program department at Roscosmos.

The official did not specify which countries would be teaming up with Russia.

Russian moon exploration plans include sending unmanned spacecraft both to the surface and into lunar orbit.

In September 2014, Roscosmos said it was planning to launch a full-scale moon exploration program in 2016-2025.

In October 2014, Lev Zeleny, head of the Russian Space Research Institute, said that the start of Russia's unmanned lunar program had been delayed until 2018.

The former USSR was the first country to physically explore the moon when the Soviet Luna 2 spacecraft successfully landed in 1959.

The last Soviet mission to reach the moon, Luna 24, successfully achieved its mission in 1976.

Source: Moon Daily.
Link: http://www.moondaily.com/reports/Russia_Plans_to_Start_Moon_Exploration_Jointly_With_Partners_999.html.

Saturn moon's ocean may have hydrothermal activity

Boulder CO (SPX)
Mar 13, 2015

A new study by a team of Cassini mission scientists led by the University of Colorado Boulder have found that microscopic grains of rock detected near Saturn imply hydrothermal activity is taking place within the moon Enceladus.

The grains are the first clear indication of an icy moon having hydrothermal activity, in which seawater infiltrates and reacts with a rocky crust, emerging as a heated, mineral-laden solution. The finding adds to the tantalizing possibility that Enceladus, one of at least 60 Saturn moons or moonlets and which displays remarkable geologic activity including geysers, could contain environments suitable for living organisms.

The surprising new result follows an extensive, four-year analysis of data from the spacecraft, computer simulations and laboratory experiments. From their examination, the researchers determined the tiny grains most likely form when hot water containing dissolved minerals from the moon's rocky interior travels upward, coming into contact with cooler water.

Temperatures required for the interactions that produce the tiny rock grains would be at least 194 degrees Fahrenheit (90 degrees Celsius).

"It's very exciting that we can use these tiny grains of rock, spewed into space by geysers, to tell us about conditions on -- and beneath -- the ocean floor of an icy moon," said Research Associate Sean Hsu at CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, lead author on the paper.

Cassini's Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) instrument has repeatedly detected miniscule rock particles, rich in the element silicon, near Saturn since 2004. By process of elimination, the CDA team concluded these particles must be grains of silica, which is found on Earth in sand and the mineral quartz. The consistent size of the grains observed by Cassini -- the largest of which were 6 to 9 nanometers -- was the clue that told the researchers a specific process likely was responsible.

On Earth, the most common way to form silica grains of this size is hydrothermal activity involving a specific range of conditions: namely, when slightly alkaline water with modest salinity that is super-saturated with silica undergoes a big drop in temperature.

"We methodically searched for alternate explanations for the nano-silca grains, but every new result pointed to a single, most likely origin," said Frank Postberg, a Cassini CDA team scientist at Heidelberg University in Germany, and a co-author on the paper.

Hsu and Postberg worked closely with colleagues at the University of Tokyo who performed the detailed laboratory experiments that validated the hydrothermal activity hypothesis. The Japanese team, led by Yasuhito Sekine, verified the conditions under which silica grains form at the same size Cassini detected. The researchers think these conditions may exist at the seafloor on Enceladus, where hot water from the interior meets the relatively cold water at the ocean bottom.

The Nature paper co-authors also included CU-Boulder Professor Mihaly Horanyi and Assistant Professor Sascha Kempf of LASP. Both also are faculty members in CU-Boulder's physics department and co-investigators of the Cassini CDA.

According to Kempf, the puzzle of the Enceladus plumes -- first identified not long after the Cassini spacecraft reached the realm of Saturn in 2004 -- has been solved, at least to some extent. "Ten years ago it was a big mystery why the nano-grains were made of silica rather than water ice," Kempf said. "Now we know the observations were correct. We know where the silica particles are coming from, and why we are seeing them. We learned something very unexpected, which is why I really like this study."

The extremely small size of the silica particles also suggests that they travel upward relatively quickly from their hydrothermal origin to the near-surface sources of the moon's now famous geysers. From seafloor to outer space, a distance of about 30 miles (50 kilometers), the grains spend a few months to a few years in transit, otherwise they would grow to much larger sizes.

Cassini first revealed active geology on Enceladus in 2005 with evidence of an icy spray issuing from the moon's south polar region and higher-than-expected temperatures in the icy surface there. The mission soon revealed a towering plume of water ice and vapor, salts and organic materials that issues from relatively warm fractures on the wrinkled surface. Gravity measurements published in 2014 strongly suggest the presence of a 6-mile-deep (10-kilometer) ocean beneath an ice shell about 19 to 25 miles (30 to 40 kilometers) thick.

The authors point out that Cassini's gravity measurements suggest Enceladus' rocky core is quite porous, which would allow water from the ocean to percolate into the interior. This would provide a huge surface area where rock and water could interact.

"It's possible much of this interesting hot water chemistry occurs deep inside the moon's core," Hsu said.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Saturn_moons_ocean_may_have_hydrothermal_activity_999.html.

Exploring the Depths of Titan's Seas

by Nancy Smith Kilkenny for Glenn Research Center
Cleveland OH (SPX)
Mar 13, 2015

In our solar system, there are only two planetary bodies with liquid lakes and seas-Earth and Titan, a moon of Saturn. But instead of water, Titan lakes are made of liquid methane with temperatures registering at almost -300 F.

So how would NASA study this interesting place? Steve Oleson of NASA Glenn's COMPASS Lab (Collaborative Modeling for Parametric Assessment of Space Systems) believes the team, along with partners from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab and the Penn State University Applied Research Lab have come up with an innovative answer.

"We have developed a concept to send a submarine to Titan's largest northern sea," says Oleson. "This craft would be loaded with scientific instruments that could carry out detailed investigations under the surface providing unprecedented knowledge of an extraterrestrial sea."

A 90-day, 1,250-mile voyage exploring Kraken Mare, a sea comparable in size to the Great Lakes, is proposed.

"The mission concept will investigate a full spectrum of oceanographic phenomena: chemical composition of the liquid, surface and subsurface currents, mixing and layering in the "water" column, tides, wind and waves, bathymetry, and bottom features and composition," explains Oleson. "Measurements of all these aspects of Titan's hydrocarbon ocean environment can only be made through focused exploration with a well-instrumented craft."

Communicating with Earth would not be possible when the vehicle is submerged, so it would need to make regular trips to the surface to transmit science data. Due to the length of time needed to develop the hardware, travel time and the fact that seasons last seven years on Titan, Oleson and his team propose a launch in the 2040s, one of the summer periods.

If the Titan submarine concept is chosen by NASA to develop further, NASA Glenn expertise in radioisotope power, sensor and communications systems would be incorporated into the design.

The COMPASS team presented its idea to NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium in February where visionary ideas that could transform future NASA missions are presented for consideration. NIAC projects study innovative, technically credible, advanced concepts that could one day "change the possible" in aerospace.

Source: Saturn Daily.
Link: http://www.saturndaily.com/reports/Exploring_the_Depths_of_Titans_Seas_999.html.

Japan firm marks one small step for solar energy in space

Tokyo (AFP)
March 13, 2015

A major Japanese machinery company said Friday that it has succeeded in transmitting energy wirelessly, marking a step toward making solar power generation in space a reality.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said it used microwave technology to send 10 kilowatts of power -- enough to run a set of conventional kitchen appliances -- through the air to a receiver 500 meters (1,640 feet) away.

Wireless power transmission is currently under development as the core technology to tap the vast amount of solar energy available in space and use it on Earth.

While the distance in Mitsubishi's experiment was not huge, the technology could pave the way for humankind to eventually tap the vast amount of solar energy in space.

The announcement Friday comes after the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said it had also succeeded in moving a smaller 1.8 kilowatts of power wirelessly, and as a solar-powered Swiss plane broke a distance record as part of its bid to circumnavigate globe.

Resource-poor Japan is looking for ways to plug a yawning energy gap left by the shutdown of its nuclear reactors after the 2011 Fukushima atomic crisis. The accident forced Tokyo to turn to pricey fossil-fuel alternatives to keep the lights on.

"We believe we demonstrated the possibility of commercializing wireless power transmission through our experiment," Mitsubishi said in a statement on Friday.

Solar power generation in space has many advantages over its Earth-based cousin, notably the permanent availability of energy, regardless of weather or time of day.

While man-made satellites, such as the International Space Station, have long been able to use the solar energy that washes over them from the sun, getting that power down to Earth has been the thing of science fiction.

The Japanese research offers the possibility that humans will one day be able to farm an inexhaustible source of energy in space, but it is estimated to take years, possibly until 2040s, to commercialize the new technology.

For years, Japan's space agency has been working on devising Space Solar Power Systems, under which microwave-transmitting solar satellites would be set up about 36,000 kilometers (22,300 miles) from the earth.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Japan_firm_marks_one_small_step_for_solar_energy_in_space_999.html.

Astronauts return to Earth on Russian Soyuz spaceship

Miami (AFP)
March 12, 2015

Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut returned to Earth aboard a Soyuz space capsule after spending six months at the International Space Station.

Yelena Serova, Alexander Samokutyaev and Barry Wilmore landed in snowy Kazakhstan just after sunrise on Thursday morning.

"The Expedition 42 crew is back on Earth," said NASA commentator Rob Navias on the US space agency's live broadcast of the event.

"They have landed in a vertical position, upright," he added, citing Russian search and recovery forces which routinely go out to pick up the returning spacefarers after they touch down on the remote steppe southeast of Dzhezkazgan.

The trio left Earth on September 26. They spent 167 days in space and traveled more than 70 million miles (112 million kilometers) during that time, NASA said.

The next crew launches from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on March 28.

The men on board will be US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka.

Kelly and Kornienko will stay at the research outpost for an entire year instead of the usual six months, "collecting valuable biomedical data that will inform future deep space, long-duration missions," NASA said.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Astronauts_return_to_Earth_on_Russian_Soyuz_spaceship_999.html.

Ganymede, biggest moon in the solar system, has a saltwater ocean

by Eric Mack
March 12, 2015

NASA says new observations from the Hubble Space Telescope confirm the presence of a subsurface ocean on Jupiter's largest moon.

The ocean is estimated to be about 60 miles thick -- 10 times deeper than the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Pacific -- but is buried under a layer of mostly icy crust 95 miles thick. Ganymede joins other neighborhood moons like Europa, the asteroid belt dwarf planet Ceres, and Saturn's Enceladus and Titan that host strange icy or liquid layers, making them prime targets in the search for life beyond Earth.

Scientists have hypothesized for decades that Ganymede might harbor an icy or even liquid ocean beneath its frigid surface. The key to confirming the presence of a saltwater ocean came from observing Ganymede's aurorae, which would look bright red to a human able to stand on the surface of the moon and gaze up through its thin oxygen atmosphere. But don't get too excited, it's much too thin to support life as we know it.

Auroral phenomena -- think the bright northern lights of the aurora borealis or the aurora australis down south -- are not fully understood, but are linked to magnetic fields interacting with the solar wind. Ganymede is the only moon in the solar system that generates its own magnetic field thanks to its liquid iron core, but it also lies within the magnetic field of massive Jupiter. As Jupiter's magnetic field changes, it affects the aurorae on Ganymede, causing them to "rock back and forth" according to Joachim Saur, a professor for geophysics at the University of Cologne, who presented the news on a NASA teleconference Thursday.

Saur explained that the rocking effect seemed to be dampened by something else. Rather than altering the aurorae six degrees, as models suggested that they should given the electromagnetic fields involved, they only changed by two degrees, leading scientists to conclude that the rocking is inhibited by a salty subsurface ocean.

"This confirms the existence of an ocean and simultaneously rules out the absence of an ocean," he told reporters.

The news comes on the heels of the finding earlier this week that Saturn's moon Enceladus may contain enough warm water to support life. Ganymede will also now be more competitive when it comes to garnering attention among the Jovian moons -- its sibling Europa and its presumed subsurface ocean has long excited space geeks, even working its way into the priority list for future NASA missions.

Looks like NASA may now need to add another moon to its itinerary for that deep-space journey.

Source: Cnet.
Link: http://www.cnet.com/news/the-biggest-moon-in-the-solar-system-also-has-a-confirmed-ocean-says-nasa/.

Russia to send new missiles to Baltic exclave on maneuvers

March 17, 2015

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia plans to station state-of-the art missiles in its westernmost Baltic exclave and deploy nuclear-capable bombers to Crimea as part of massive war games to showcase its resurgent military power amid bitter tensions with the West over Ukraine.

The Russian military exercises this week range from the Arctic to the Pacific Ocean and involve tens of thousands of troops, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday. The Iskander missiles will be sent to the Kaliningrad region that borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania as part of the maneuvers, said a Defense Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to comment publicly.

The official also said Russia will deploy long-range, nuclear-capable Tu-22M3 bombers to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine a year ago. In a statement, the Defense Ministry said the Baltic Fleet, the Southern Military District and the Airborne Forces have been brought to the highest stage of combat readiness and have started moving to shooting ranges as part of the drills.

The wide-ranging exercise started Monday, when President Vladimir Putin ordered the Northern Fleet and other military forces on combat alert as part of the exercise in the Arctic. Other units in the Pacific region, southern Siberia and southwestern Russia also launched drills.

The Iskander missiles deployment to Kaliningrad reflects Moscow's readiness to raise the ante in response to NATO moves to deploy forces closer to Russia's borders. The missiles, which are capable of hitting enemy targets up to 500 kilometers (310 miles away) with high precision, can be equipped with a nuclear or a conventional warhead. From Kaliningrad, they could reach several NATO member states.

Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz interpreted the move as an attempt by Russia to pressure EU nations as they consider possible new sanctions against Russia over Ukraine. "Russia is making this gesture before the European Council meeting," she said. "It is trying to influence European Council decisions concerning extending or adding new sanctions."

Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics of Latvia, which holds the EU presidency, said Tuesday he did not expect "a discussion of new sanctions or any decisions" when EU leaders meet Thursday in Brussels. Igor Sutyagin, a Russia expert at the Royal United Services Institute, said beefing up forces in the Baltic exclave was a top priority for the Russian military.

Iskander missiles already had been sent briefly to Kaliningrad during December's military maneuvers, but were pulled back afterward. U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO's supreme commander in Europe, has termed Russia's "threats to deploy nuclear-capable Iskander-M missiles in Kaliningrad" part of what he called the Kremlin's "pattern of continuing behavior to coerce its neighbors in Central and Eastern Europe."

The Kremlin, in its turn, has voiced concern about U.S. plans to beef up its military presence near Russia's borders. Later this month, U.S. troops are holding joint exercises with forces from EU nations Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Four Polish NATO MiG-29s flew training missions in Lithuania on Monday, under the command and control of an alliance AWACS surveillance aircraft in a small corridor between Belarus and the Kaliningrad region. The mission — described as 'routine' by NATO officials — prompted the Russian military in Kaliningrad to scramble half a dozen fighter jets to monitor the exercise.

Monday's AWACS mission was flying from Oerland airbase, near Trondheim in Norway. The AWACS flights were part of efforts to reassure NATO members in eastern Europe, in particular the Baltic states, which are concerned about Russia's intentions amid the Ukrainian crisis.

Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said Tuesday that a battery of U.S. anti-aircraft Patriot missiles will be coming to Poland later this month for a major exercise. He previously said 10,000 foreign troops will be taking part in NATO exercises in Poland this year, the highest number ever.

Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels and David Keyton aboard a NATO AWACS plane contributed to this report.

Russia Grows Maritime Potential, Returns to Global Geopolitics

Moscow (Sputnik)
Mar 13, 2015

Russia returns to global politics, signaling of intention to regain its geopolitical positions as a naval power.

Ekaterina Blinova - Russia is growing its maritime potential, signaling its intention to regain geopolitical power as a naval force, according to experts.

In the midst of withstanding NATO expansion in Eastern Europe and closely observing its national interests in the Middle East, Russia is also strengthening its military presence off its eastern coasts - in the Pacific region - where the geopolitical interests of Moscow and Beijing are overlapping.

Experts point out that for Russia and China the American pivot to East Asia and the Asia-Pacific poses a serious challenge. At the same time both Moscow and Beijing are in territorial disputes with Tokyo; with the balance of power in the Korean peninsula also viewed by the two global players as a guarantee for stability in the region.

So far, Moscow has been upgrading and modernizing its Pacific Fleet units, and holding joint naval drills with China on a regular basis for the last five years. Additionally, Russia's Pacific Fleet is participating in multi-national anti-piracy operations off Northeast Africa's coasts and expanding its Arctic missions.

Military analysts point out that over the last two years the Pacific Fleet has obtained new Borei-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) and Dyugon-class landing craft; Russia's second-biggest fleet will also receive the multipurpose Steregushchy-class corvettes and Yasen-class multipurpose attack nuclear submarines (SSGN) as a part of 20-year naval re-armament program.

It is also worth mentioning that Russia expects eight Borei-class vessels to enter service by 2020, while the missile-carrying nuclear submarines "Vladimir Monomakh" and "Alexander Nevskiy" will join Russia's Navy Force in the Far East this year.

Each Borei-class submarine can carry up to 16 Bulava ballistic missiles (SLBM) which are reportedly capable of overcomng US missile defense systems, making the Pacific Fleet an effective military "shield" of Russia in the Far East and bolstering its retaliatory capacity.

Meanwhile, in 2014 Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced of an ambitious plan to expand Russia's naval presence overseas, setting up access rights for Russia to foreign ports.

Remarkably, during his last visit to Latin America in February 2015, Sergei Shoigu signed a number of important deals strengthening military collaboration between Russia and Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, including agreements, allowing Russian warships to enter the countries' ports.

According to experts, Russia's naval visits to overseas havens have increased substantially over the last three years, including ports of Vietnam, the Seychelles and Singapore.

Russia's gradual naval expansion demonstrates the country's intention to regain its global position as an influential naval power, experts noted, marking Russia's return to classic geopolitics backed up by strong military fleet.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Russia_Grows_Maritime_Potential_Returns_to_Global_Geopolitics_999.html.

Google restores Gaza Man

Monday, 16 March 2015

Google has decided to restore the Gaza Man game to its Play Store after removing it following Israeli pressure to remove it earlier this month, Palestinian newspaper Al-Resalah reported yesterday.

The decision was taken after massive international popular pressure put on Google through different mediums, including social media, radios and satellite channels.

Bridgeview For Trading, which owns the game, said in a statement: "We appreciate this measure, which we consider a correction of a big mistake."

Immediately after it was launched, the game came under intense attack and Google removed it from its Play Store after only three days.

The game shows a Palestinian man with light and primitive weapons facing multiple attacks by fighter jets, helicopters, drones, tanks and other weapons.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/americas/17533-google-restores-gaza-man.

Modi in landmark visit to steer Sri Lanka away from China

By Amal JAYASINGHE
Colombo (AFP)
March 13, 2015

Narendra Modi began the first official visit by an Indian premier to Sri Lanka in nearly three decades Friday, looking to reassert New Delhi's influence over Colombo after its drift towards China.

Modi will hold talks with Sri Lanka's new President Maithripala Sirisena, who has promised to repair international ties damaged under his predecessor Mahinda Rajapakse's China-friendly regime, after a ceremonial welcome in Colombo.

The Indian prime minister will also address parliament and visit the Tamil-dominated northern Jaffna region on a visit that comes just weeks after Sirisena made India his first foreign port of call since his election in January.

While observers don't expect major policy initiatives so soon after the neighboring leaders' last meeting, it is seen as an important signal of a desire to reset ties.

"I am sure together we are going to script a golden chapter in the history of India-Sri Lanka relations," Modi said this week as he set off on a three-nation Indian Ocean island tour that has already taken him to the Seychelles and Mauritius.

He travels north on Saturday for a landmark visit to the Jaffna peninsula, home to the island's Tamil minority and which bore the brunt of a 37-year separatist war in which India was intricately involved.

Modi is expected to push for demilitarization in the former war zone and more autonomy for minority Tamils who share close cultural and religious ties with those across the Palk Strait in Tamil Nadu.

Modi will be the first Indian prime minister to hold bilateral talks in Colombo since 1987, although several predecessors attended regional summits.

- Rifle assault -

When Rajiv Gandhi visited in 1987, the then premier was famously assaulted with a rifle butt by a Sri Lankan naval rating while inspecting a guard of honor.

Gandhi had gone to sign a bilateral pact that sought to end a guerrilla war by Tamil separatist rebels who had effectively enjoyed a safe haven in India since the mid 1980s.

The main rebel group, the Tamil Tigers, repudiated the peace accord and India ended up fighting the militants they had once trained and armed.

Around 1,140 Indian soldiers lost their lives during the 32-month deployment in Sri Lanka and Gandhi himself was assassinated in 1991 by a female Tiger suicide bomber while campaigning in Tamil Nadu.

After the war ended in 2009, relations remained strained and Sirisena's predecessor Rajapakse caused unease in New Delhi by forging close ties with Beijing.

India, which traditionally regarded Sri Lanka as within its sphere of influence, was furious last year when Rajapakse allowed two Chinese submarines to dock in Colombo.

Under Rajapakse, Sri Lanka built up steady debts as Beijing funded a string of major construction projects.

Since his loss to Sirisena in a January election, the pendulum has swung back towards India with the new president making attempts to renegotiate the terms of some loans.

Sri Lanka's new rulers last month also ordered a suspension of China's biggest investment project, a $1.4 billion new city on reclaimed land just next to Colombo's main sea port.

- 'Diplomatic recalibration' -

Mangala Samaraweera, Sirisena's foreign minister, has said that while Colombo wants to retain good relations with China, "we will not go overboard like the Rajapakse regime".

Charu Lata Hogg, a Sri Lanka expert at London's Chatham House think-tank, said there were signs of "a recalibration in its previous relationships with China in favour of improved ties with the West and India".

Modi is expected to finalize energy and construction deals, including funding for Sri Lanka's creaking railways.

He will also lay the foundation stone for a cultural center in battle-scarred Jaffna where he is expected to receive a rapturous reception.

He will be only the second foreign leader since independence to visit the region, where India is seen by locals as a crucial protector against the dominance of the ethnic Sinhalese majority.

Beijing was a key defender of Sri Lanka at international forums when Rajapakse came under criticism over its rights record and allegations that 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed at the end of the war.

Modi's predecessor, Manmohan Singh, pointedly shunned a Commonwealth summit hosted by Rajapakse in 2013 over the treatment of Tamils.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Modi_in_landmark_visit_to_steer_Sri_Lanka_away_from_China_999.html.