India is failing to tackle a tuberculosis epidemic because of chronic shortages of funds and the government's inability to regulate an "exploitive" private health sector, an article in the British Medical Journal said.

The article, published ahead of World Tuberculosis Day on Tuesday, called for a massive investment in public health infrastructure to diagnose and treat what it called India's biggest health crisis.

Pakistan Monday held its first national day military parade for seven years, a display of pageantry aimed at showing the country has the upper hand in the fight against the Taliban.

Mobile phone networks in the capital were disabled to thwart potential bomb attacks, some roads were closed to the public and much of the city was under heavy guard for the event.

Indian police said Monday they have arrested six people after Hindu fundamentalists were shown vandalizing a cathedral in central India, the latest attack on Christian establishments in the Hindu-majority country.

CCTV footage showed a group of men smashing plant pots, breaking down doors and shattering windows in the grounds of the cathedral in Madhya Pradesh state late Friday.

Sri Lanka's new president heads to Beijing this week for talks with China's leadership, seeking to smooth ruffled feathers after scuttling Chinese-funded projects and seeking stronger ties with regional rival India.

Maithripala Sirisena swept to power in January, ending a decade of rule by Mahinda Rajapakse, whose close alliance with Beijing had irked the island's traditional close ally India.

Senior Indian and Chinese envoys will this week hold talks aimed at resolving a bitter border dispute, the first such discussions since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power.

China's special representative Yang Jiechi will visit New Delhi from Sunday until Tuesday for talks with national security adviser Ajit Doval, the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

A blaze which erupted Sunday at India's national parliament brought firefighters rushing to the historic building in the center of New Delhi.

Smoke was seen billowing from above the red sandstone boundary wall of the parliamentary complex as police tried to clear the streets around the building.

Police in eastern Indian were left red-faced when a raid on a sex district discovered four of their own along with a convicted murderer whom they were supposed to be guarding, a report said Sunday.

The four constables had been tasked with transporting the murderer from a jail in the underdeveloped state of Jharkhand to hospital for a check-up, the Hindustan Times reported.

A court in New Delhi on Saturday cleared all sixteen policemen accused of murdering dozens of Muslims 27 years ago in a north Indian city, a lawyer said.

More than 40 Muslims were killed in 1987 during riots in Meerut city, some 70 kilometers (43 miles) northeast of New Delhi, after local armed forces picked them up for crowding a local mosque.

Government forces in Indian Kashmir on Saturday killed two suspected rebels, a day after two other militants were shot dead in a gun battle with police.

Forces "moved in cautiously" on Saturday and killed the two militants after tip offs that they were hiding out in the Samba sector, some 350 kilometers (217 miles) from the region's main city of Srinagar, army sources told AFP.

Authorities in eastern India were left red-faced on Thursday after images of relatives scaling the walls of a school exam centre to pass notes to candidates were broadcast on local television.

Dozens of people were shown clinging to the windows of one four-storey building in the eastern state of Bihar, where more than 1.4 million teenagers are sitting their school leaving exams.