Myanmar's president has rejected criticism that his government has stalled on crucial reforms and has defended the powerful army's hold over politics. 

Thein Sein, a former general who has run Myanmar since 2011 when the junta ceded power to a quasi-civilian government after decades of brutal rule, insisted his country was on the path towards genuine democracy. 

At least 32 people, including children, were killed and dozens more injured when an express train derailed in northern India on Friday, authorities said.

Television images showed two mangled carriages lying beside the track after the accident, which occurred around 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Lucknow, capital of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Two suspected rebels stormed a police station in Indian Kashmir on Friday, killing three officers and a civilian before being shot dead by government forces, police said.

The heavily armed militants hijacked a private jeep and killed the driver before lobbing grenades into the station, triggering a gun battle with government forces, inspector general of police for the region Danish Rana told Agence France Presse.

An Indian state government under pressure over the rape of an elderly nun said Wednesday it was handing over the case to the country's top investigators after coming under fire over the lack of arrests.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said the case was being transferred from local police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) given the "sensitivity" of Friday's attack on the nun, who was raped during a robbery at a convent.

Shops and schools in a town in eastern India where an elderly nun was gang-raped closed Tuesday in protest over perceived police inaction, as anger mounts over the "inhuman" crime, business owners said.

Police have detained around 10 people for questioning but no arrests have been made over the Friday attack on the nun, aged in her 70s, the latest in a string of high-profile rapes in India.

Indian police fired water cannon and baton-charged demonstrators at a protest near parliament Monday against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's land reforms, which opponents say will harm millions of farmers.

Hundreds of protesters, led by the opposition Congress party, tried to break through barricades erected to stop them marching on parliament over a controversial land bill, one of Modi's key reforms.

Hundreds of priests, school girls and other protesters staged a peaceful rally Monday in the Indian city of Kolkata to support an elderly nun who was gang-raped at her convent school.

Nuns dressed in white habits joined other women of all backgrounds and ages, including girls still in their uniforms, to express their sorrow over the attack and anger over incessant levels of sexual assault in India.

Thousands are expected to join a rally led by priests in India's Kolkata later Monday in support of a 71-year-old nun who was gang-raped at her convent school, the city's archbishop said.

The rape by a gang of robbers late on Friday is the latest in a series of high-profile sexual assaults in India that have intensified outrage over high levels of violence against women.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde hailed India as a bright spot in the otherwise gloom-ridden global economy Monday, saying the recovery from the 2008-2009 financial crisis was still fragile.

Speaking at the start of a two-day visit, Lagarde said India was bucking the trend of declining growth seen in other major economies and was on course "to become a key engine for global growth".

Prayers were said at churches across India Sunday for an elderly nun who was gang-raped at a convent in an attack that has intensified anger over sexual violence and fueled fears among beleaguered Christians.

The assault on the 71-year-old is the latest in a string of high-profile rapes in India and comes after a spate of attacks on churches that prompted Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promise a crackdown on religious violence.