China's President Xi Jinping will make his first official visit to rival Asian giant India next week, officials said Tuesday, as expanding trade between the two remains overshadowed by territorial disputes.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Sri Lanka's president agreed Sunday to forge stronger maritime links between their countries in a move partly aimed at countering China's influence in the region.

Abe held talks with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse shortly after arriving from Bangladesh as part of a regional tour also designed to strengthen economic ties.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Sri Lanka's president agreed Sunday to forge stronger maritime links between their two countries in a move partly aimed at countering China's influence in the region.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he hoped Sri Lanka's war crimes probe would silence its critics ahead of his arrival Sunday on the island to push for stronger trade ties.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in Dhaka on Saturday at the start of a three-day visit to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka aimed at offsetting China's mounting influence in South Asia.

Abe, who is visiting the region to boost economic and security ties, was greeted by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Dhaka airport.

A retired Sri Lankan soldier died on Wednesday, a day after setting himself alight in what police said was a protest against U.N. moves to investigate the country's war record.

International rights groups have demanded protection for potential Sri Lankan witnesses at a U.N.-mandated war crimes investigation into the island's ethnic war which ended five year ago.

Six organizations in a joint letter expressed alarm over alleged intimidation, threats and reprisals against those likely to engage investigators probing the bloody finale to Sri Lanka's Tamil separatists war.

Water-starved South Asian nations have devised their own answer to the Ice Bucket Challenge taking the social media world by storm, instead filling buckets with rice and other supplies for the needy.

Since June, thousands of people worldwide have doused themselves with a bucket of icy water, then posted a video recording of the stunt online and challenged others to do the same or pledge a donation.

Sri Lanka will not grant visas to U.N. investigators probing war crimes allegedly committed during the island's decades-long separatist conflict, President Mahinda Rajapakse said Tuesday.

Sri Lankan officials on Monday sought more time to exhume a suspected mass grave in a former war zone after failing to secure the services of forensic experts.

The site in the eastern coastal town of Kalavanchikudy has been under investigation since a resident petitioned the local court, claiming the remains of around 100 Muslims killed 24 years ago at the height of Sri Lanka's ethnic war were buried there.