A decades-long dispute between members of one of India's former royal families over palaces, diamonds and other items worth billions of dollars has been settled, a family member said.

Members of the Gaekwad family Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding before a judge in the western city of Vadodara over property that includes a palace reportedly four times the size of Britain's Buckingham Palace.

India said Wednesday a soldier was killed during heavy cross-border firing with Pakistan, which the army described as among the worst since a ceasefire agreement a decade ago.

India's paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF), which patrols the internationally recognised border south of the disputed frontier in Kashmir, said one soldier had been killed and six injured in overnight firing.

China and India signed an agreement Wednesday on border defense cooperation after a stand-off along their disputed frontier in April fueled fears of conflict between the Asian giants.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, visiting Beijing to seek a breakthrough in the border row that has soured relations for decades, witnessed the signing of the pact alongside Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed Tuesday to go the "extra mile" to make peace with India, saying the historic rivals can resolve all issues including Kashmir through dialogue.

Sharif, on a visit to Washington where he will see President Barack Obama on Wednesday, regretted that periodic incidents such as violence on the disputed border in Kashmir had set back peace attempts.

Scientists on Tuesday set November 5 for the delayed launch of India's first mission to Mars, which was postponed due to problems in positioning a seaborne tracking system.

Blast-off for the unmanned Mars Orbiter Mission had to be rescheduled after the state-run Indian Space Agency Organization (ISRO) said at the weekend that it would be unable to launch as expected on October 28.

Police in northern India have arrested 12 people after at least 39 villagers died from drinking toxic home-brewed liquor, an official said Monday.

The deaths -- the latest from bootleg liquor often called "moonshine" -- were reported last week from several villages in Azamgarh district in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday amid signs that the two giants had failed to reach a breakthrough on a long-delayed nuclear power deal.

Singh is using one of his last major foreign trips as prime minister before 2014 general elections to seek resolutions to lingering issues with two of India's most important regional partners.

Pakistan accused Indian military forces of killing a civilian and wounding two others in "unprovoked firing" across the border Saturday in the latest frontier flare-up between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

A spate of cross-border skirmishes this year have raised tensions between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.

Archaeologists began digging for treasure beneath a 19th century fort in northern India on Friday, after a popular Hindu holy man said a former king appeared to him in a dream and told him of the cache.

The treasure hunt began after Hindu swami Shobhan Sarkar relayed his dream to an Indian government minister who was visiting the swami's ashram last month.

An Indian photographer gang-raped in Mumbai in a case that shocked the country collapsed in court on Thursday while she was testifying against her alleged attackers, reports said.

The 22-year-old had taken the stand to recount her ordeal that took place in an overgrown and abandoned mill compound in central Mumbai in August, while she was out on assignment taking photographs.