China has expressed "strong dissatisfaction and staunch opposition" after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited a frontier area controlled by New Delhi but claimed by Beijing, state media reported.

Modi's visit Friday to Arunachal Pradesh state, to inaugurate rail and infrastructure projects, swiftly attracted Beijing's annoyance and Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin Saturday called in the Indian ambassador to lodge a "stern representation".

France's defense minister will visit New Delhi this week in a fresh bid to nail a troubled deal to sell 126 Rafale fighter jets which has been snagged for three years and now faces new questions about its cost.

Jean-Yves Le Drian will meet his counterpart Manohar Parrikar and other officials on Monday and Tuesday to prevent the sale's collapse ahead of an upcoming visit to Paris by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Indian police have arrested six people including a senior journalist on charges of stealing top-secret documents from India's petroleum ministry and selling them on to energy companies, police said Friday.

The arrests follow a major police sting operation to trap those responsible for taking the secret government documents, which police said were sold to private energy companies and consultancies. 

India police are investigating the suspected rape and hanging of a low-caste teenage girl, an officer said Thursday, a grim reminder of a similar case last year in the same state.

The 16-year-old, from India's lowest Dalit social caste, previously known as "untouchables", was found hanging from a mango tree on Tuesday morning in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

India was forced Wednesday to deny it deliberately blew up a Pakistani fishing boat after video was released showing a coast guard official apparently boasting about ordering the vessel's destruction.

The official's apparent claim has reignited controversy about the December 31 incident, which killed four Pakistanis and led to a flare-up in tensions between the two neighbors.

The tiny hut sculpted out of mud at the edge of the sea is barely large enough for Bokul Mondol and his family to lie down in. The water has taken everything else from them, and one day it almost certainly will take this, too.

Saltwater long ago engulfed the 5 acres where Mondol once grew rice and tended fish ponds, as his ancestors had on Bali Island for some 200 years. His thatch-covered hut, built on public land, is the fifth he has had to build in the last five years as the sea creeps in.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed Wednesday to end India's status as the world's number one defense importer, saying he wanted 70 percent of hardware to be manufactured domestically by the turn of the decade.

Speaking at the start of a major aviation industry conference, Modi told hundreds of foreign and local businessmen that his government would favor domestic firms when awarding defense contracts as part of a larger push to boost India's manufacturing sector.

India's Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday promised a crackdown on religious violence and freedom of worship for all faiths after a series of attacks on churches.

Modi has been heavily criticized for not speaking out earlier against religious violence, especially after the attacks on at least six Christian buildings, mainly churches, in the capital New Delhi since December.

The leaders of India and Sri Lanka vowed to strengthen their relationship after a period of tensions Monday and declared their countries' fortunes were intertwined as they held their first summit in New Delhi.

China's growing influence in Sri Lanka over recent years has been a source of disquiet in India which has long regarded the neighboring island as within its natural sphere of influence.

Sri Lanka's new president arrived in India Sunday on his first foreign trip in office, trying to rebuild ties hit by tensions over growing Chinese influence on the strategically located island.

Maithripala Sirisena landed in New Delhi for the four-day trip aimed at allaying Indian fears over China's influence on the island that strengthened under President Mahinda Rajapakse's decade-long rule.