Four insurgent gunmen launched a pre-dawn attack on India's consulate in the western Afghan city of Herat on Friday before being repelled by security forces, in an assault highlighting instability as NATO troops withdraw.

There were no casualties among Indian staff but at least one policeman was wounded when the attackers stormed a house close to the consulate and opened fire on the building.

A 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck in the Bay of Bengal off India's east coast on Wednesday, U.S. seismologists reported, but no tsunami warning was immediately issued.

The epicenter of the quake, which hit at 1621 GMT, was located 275 kilometers (170 miles) southeast of the coastal Indian town of Konarka, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said. The quake struck at a depth of 39 kilometers.

Indian prime minister-elect Narendra Modi has invited Pakistan's premier Nawaz Sharif to his swearing-in ceremony next Monday, his party said, in a bold diplomatic statement that he intends to improve strained ties.

Nirmala Sitharaman, spokeswoman for Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told Agence France Presse Wednesday that all heads of government from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation "have been given invitations to be present at Mr. Modi's swearing in."

India's prime minister-elect Narendra Modi, making his first visit to parliament since his election triumph, choked back tears Tuesday as he urged party colleagues to dedicate themselves to serving the nation.

The 63-year-old leader bowed and kissed the steps of the building as he entered for a meeting of his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and its political allies, which elected him as leader in the national parliament.

India's Sonia and Rahul Gandhi offered to resign Monday after leading the once-dominant Congress party to its worst-ever election defeat last week, only for colleagues to insist the dynasty stay in place, an MP said.

Congress won just 44 seats in the 543-member parliament in the parliamentary election as the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power with the first majority in 30 years.

An Indian army soldier has been killed and two others wounded in a skirmish near the heavily militarized de facto border with Pakistan in Indian Kashmir, a defense spokesman said Monday.

"A patrol of the army was targeted by mines and small arms fire by a group of unidentified armed personnel," a defense statement said, referring to the clash on Sunday night.

The election of Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi has sent shivers through many among India's 150-million strong Muslim community, but neighboring Pakistan is cautiously hopeful for a thaw in long-fraught ties.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is himself a center-right leader, has hailed Modi's "impressive victory" which saw the hardliner gain an outright majority in India's parliament for the first time in 30 years.

Prime minister-elect Narendra Modi summoned senior figures from his Hindu nationalist party on Sunday for talks on building a new government that is set to steer India sharply to the right.

Modi was holding meetings in New Delhi with his closest aides as well as senior state leaders of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after storming to power at general elections with a strong mandate for economic reform.

U.S. President Barack Obama called India's outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday to convey "gratitude" for "his critical role" in deepening ties between the two allies.

India is a key part of Obama's policy of pivoting U.S. power to Asia. On his 2010 visit, Obama called the budding strategic relationship between the world's two largest democracies "one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century."

Only one in ten lawmakers elected at India's national poll are female, despite pledges by politicians from all sides during the campaign to empower women, research published Saturday said.

Women candidates won 61 out of 543 seats in the newly-elected national parliament, a small increase on the number in the outgoing one, data from the parliamentary think-tank PRS Legislative Research showed.