Five policemen have been arrested for allegedly gangraping a teenage schoolgirl in northern India, police said Friday.

The alleged sexual assault is the latest in a string of attacks reported in India since the fatal gang-rape of a student in Delhi a year ago shocked the nation and resulted in lawmakers passing tougher penalties for crimes against women.

India Thursday urged the United States to drop the case against a female diplomat who was arrested and strip-searched and apologize for her "terrible" treatment, ratcheting up pressure in the blistering diplomatic row.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed "regret" over the episode in New York, and India's Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said he hoped the "valuable relationship" with Washington would soon return to an even keel.

India has transferred a diplomat at the center of a political row with the United States to its U.N. mission in New York to give her full diplomatic immunity, local media reported Wednesday.

The transfer of deputy consular general Devyani Khobragade to the United Nations Permanent Mission came after Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid pledged to "restore the dignity" of the diplomat who was strip-searched during her 48-hour detention in New York last week.

India's parliament Wednesday passed legislation to create a powerful anti-graft watchdog following a mass anti-corruption movement that swept the country in 2011 and spurred politicians into action.

The ruling Congress and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) joined forces in the lower house in a rare display of unity to create a corruption ombudsman in the lower decision-making house of parliament.

India vowed Wednesday to bring home a female diplomat who was arrested and strip-searched in New York last week "at any cost" amid rising anger against the United States over her treatment.

"It is my duty to bring the lady back and we have to restore her dignity and I will do it at any cost," Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid told India's parliament.

Witch doctors and religious charlatans beware: New legislation passed in a central Indian state aims to prosecute those who use beliefs and superstition to defraud or physically harm followers.

Maharashtra became the first state to pass such legislation in multicultural and secular India, where witch doctors and Hindu holy men enjoy huge popularity and can amass millions in contributions or fees for promised miracles and health cures.

India launched a series of reprisals Tuesday against U.S. officials, foreign ministry sources said, as outrage grows over a diplomat's arrest in New York, which New Delhi has branded "humiliating".

In an escalating row over the arrest, the government ordered a range of measures including the return of identity cards for U.S. consular officials that speed up travel into and through India, the sources said.

The fatal gang-rape of a student in New Delhi shattered India's silence over sexual violence and emboldened some victims to speak out, family members and campaigners said Monday on the anniversary of the attack.

As women gathered across the capital to mark the event, the victim's father said the assault on his daughter on a moving bus on December 16 last year "shook not just us but the entire country and the world".

Christie's hopes to help revive the Indian art scene this week with its first auction in the country, where the market is yet to return to the heady days enjoyed before a crash five years ago.

The international auction house is bringing 83 lots spanning a century of Indian art under the hammer on Thursday, including works by modern master M.F. Husain and national treasures Rabindranath Tagore and Amrita Sher-Gil.

India's opposition candidate for premier Narendra Modi predicted Sunday that voters would soon "root out the corrupt" ruling Congress party nationwide, after state poll victories for his party this month.

Modi, a popular but divisive figure, struck a triumphant note at his first major public rally since the results of five state polls were released, as his party seeks to gain momentum for a general election due by May.