Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday hailed his country's relations with India and Russia as Beijing looks to increase its heft on the global diplomatic stage.

Twin visits by New Delhi's foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and Sergei Lavrov from Moscow come on the heels of a high-profile trip to India by U.S. President Barack Obama last week, and with Russian leader Vladimir Putin globally isolated over the conflict in Ukraine.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China in May, the foreign minister said Sunday during her own three-day visit to Beijing.

"Mr. Modi is going to come in May. I will give them dates today. This is a preparatory visit," Sushma Swaraj told Indian reporters in Beijing, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.

Indian police have rescued hundreds of child slaves as young as six during days of raids on workshops in the central city of Hyderabad, a senior officer said Friday. 

Police discovered 120 children, some of them sick, underweight and traumatized, during the most recent raids late Thursday on bangle-making and other workshops, as part of a city-wide crackdown on child slavery, the officer said.

Police have arrested and bailed the editor of an Urdu-language newspaper in Mumbai for reprinting a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed from satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, police said Thursday.

Shirin Dalvi, editor of the Mumbai edition of the daily Avadhnama newspaper, was arrested by police in the town of Mumbra in Thane district, close to the financial capital. 

An army colonel and a police officer were killed Tuesday in a gunbattle with suspected militants in Indian Kashmir, police said.

Two suspected rebels were also killed during the encounter in Hundoora village, 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of the region's main city of Srinagar, an officer said.

Pakistan Tuesday said it opposed a new nuclear deal signed between the U.S. and India during a recent trip to New Delhi by President Barack Obama, saying it was detrimental to stability in South Asia.

The U.S. and India reached an agreement Sunday during Obama's visit to New Delhi, breaking the deadlock that has stalled a civilian nuclear power agreement for years.

Suspected militants in Indian Kashmir on Tuesday killed an army colonel and a police officer during a gun battle outside the restive region's main city of Srinagar, police said.

Another police officer later died of injuries sustained in the firefight, while two suspected rebels were also killed during the encounter, an officer said.

President Barack Obama said the United States could be India's "best partner" Tuesday as he wrapped up a three-day visit to New Delhi by highlighting the shared values of the world's biggest democracies.

Speaking to an audience of young people, the U.S. president reiterated that the relationship between Washington and New Delhi "can be one of the defining partnerships of this century" but warned the battle against climate change would be doomed unless India was fully on board.

U.S. President Barack Obama and the new Saudi king are expected to discuss the military campaign against Islamic State group extremists and the crisis in Yemen at upcoming talks in Riyadh, the White House said Monday.

Obama's brief visit to the Saudi capital on Tuesday was mainly intended as an opportunity to meet King Salman "and to pay respects to the family and to the people of Saudi Arabia" after the death last week of long-time ruler King Abdullah, a senior official said.

Rain failed to dampen spirits at India's Republic Day parade Monday as Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to attend the spectacular military and cultural display in a sign of the nations' growing closeness.

Thousands of cheering spectators braved wet weather and heavy security to watch the parade, which marks the birth of modern India and includes everything from tanks and state-of-the-art weaponry to camels and traditional dancers.