An Indian man died on Monday after setting himself on fire over the denial of land rights by the northeast Assam state government, officials said.

Pranab Boro, a 45-year-old farmer activist, set himself ablaze after pouring kerosene oil over himself in Guwahati city, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswas Sarma told Agence France Presse.

China on Saturday accused the United States of meddling in its domestic affairs after President Barack Obama met the Dalai Lama at the White House, and said it is up to Washington to take steps to avoid further damaging ties.

"The U.S. seriously interfered in China's internal affairs by allowing the Dalai's visit to the United States and arranging the meetings with U.S. leaders," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.

India's upper house of parliament Thursday passed a contentious bill to create a new state by splitting southern Andhra Pradesh in two despite raucous protests by lawmakers opposed to the move.

The bill to create Telangana as the 29th state was passed with the backing of the governing Congress party and the leading opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.

Italy on Tuesday recalled its ambassador to India and summoned the Indian ambassador to express its concern over a delay in court proceedings against two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen.

Ambassador Basant Kumar Gupta was summoned "to express the bewilderment and profound disappointment of the Italian government", the foreign ministry said.

Indian police killed seven Maoists Tuesday during an operation hailed as a victory for security forces in a rebel stronghold known as the "Red Corridor."

Police came under attack in a jungle area of Gadchiroli district in the western state of Maharashtra, sparking an exchange of fire between the two groups, said local police spokesman Dharmendra Joshi.

India's normally disruptive parliament was widely derided on Friday as having hit a new low after lawmakers fought, broke equipment and pepper-sprayed the chamber over a bill to create a new state.

India's media condemned the lawmakers' behavior as "revolting" and a "disgrace to democracy" after mayhem erupted on Thursday over the bill to carve a new state out of existing Andhra Pradesh.

India's parliament erupted in chaos on Thursday over a bill to create a new state, as angry MPs came to blows and pulled out a microphone and one pepper-sprayed the chamber.

Holding banners and shouting slogans, lawmakers disrupted the lower house of parliament as the Congress-led government introduced the contentious bill to carve a new state out of the existing Andhra Pradesh.

The United States Thursday ended a decade-long boycott of Indian opposition leader Narendra Modi over deadly religious riots, as its envoy held talks with the man tipped to be next prime minister.

Nancy Powell, the U.S. ambassador to India, shook hands with Modi who presented her with a bouquet at his official residence in the western state of Gujarat where he is chief minister, before closed-door talks.

Indian leaders are set later Tuesday to celebrate the eradication of polio, marking one of the country's biggest public health success stories which was once thought impossible to achieve.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well as the health minister and the head of the World Health Organisation are all due at a New Delhi stadium to celebrate "India's victory over polio", the information ministry says.

Police say all 16 occupants of two jeeps returning from a wedding were killed in a head-on collision with a speeding truck on a highway in eastern India.

Police officer Kalyan Mukhopadhyay says the victims in the jeeps were returning home early Tuesday after attending a wedding at Sahapur, a village nearly 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state.