Australia's immigration minister has described an incident in which an asylum-seeker sent himself on fire as "distressing" but said it would not change the way the government handles refugee claims.

Scott Morrison said late Saturday he was waiting to be briefed about the case.

Sri Lanka's Muslim minority held shortened Friday prayer services as religious tensions gripped the island after clashes with hardline Buddhists killed four people, an official said.

The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka (MCSL) said Islamic clerics instructed mosques to conduct shorter services and asked the faithful to disperse peacefully after lunchtime prayers.

Several hundred Muslim-owned businesses shut down in Sri Lanka's capital on Thursday to protest against deadly riots by extremist Buddhists, defying President Mahinda Rajapakse's plea to stay open.

Shops and restaurants in central Colombo were shuttered following the riots in two mainly Muslim coastal resorts popular with international tourists that left four people dead and Muslim homes and businesses razed.

Sri Lanka's parliament Wednesday rejected a U.N.-mandated investigation into alleged war crimes while crushing separatist Tamil rebels five years ago.

Ruling party lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to resist a probe by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in line with a U.S.-initiated censure move in March.

Sri Lanka's police arrested 49 people overnight over deadly anti-Muslim riots in a tourist region where Buddhist hardliners have set shops and homes ablaze, a senior officer said Wednesday.

Both Buddhists and Muslims were arrested during a police crackdown in the southern resort towns, where two nights of violence have left four people dead, the officer said. 

More deadly violence flared in a Sri Lankan resort region where Buddhist hardliners set shops and homes alight for a second night running in defiance of a curfew, police and residents said Tuesday.

Amid mounting international concern at the unrest, residents of a town which has borne the brunt said an unarmed security guard was killed in an attack outside a Muslim-owned farm, raising the overall death toll to four.

More deadly violence flared in a Sri Lankan coastal resort where Buddhist hardliners set shops and homes alight for a second night running in defiance of a curfew, police and residents said Tuesday.

Amid mounting international concern over the unrest, residents of a town which has borne the brunt said a security guard was killed in an attack outside a Muslim-owned farm, raising the overall toll to four.

Sri Lankan police extended a curfew across two popular coastal resorts Sunday as Muslims and hardline Buddhists clashed sparking street rioting that renewed religious tensions in the country.

Police said they fired teargas and widened the curfew to Beruwala, a predominantly Muslim area, after initial violence broke out in the neighboring town of Alutgama, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of the capital Colombo.

Sri Lankan opposition parties on Friday asked Colombo to hold a credible domestic investigation to head off a U.N. probe into mass killings during the final stages of its ethnic war.

Two parties drawing their support from the majority Sinhalese community said they would not support the U.N. inquiry, set up to investigate widespread allegations of rights abuses and mass killings of civilians as the Tamil separatist war drew to a bloody close in 2009.

Nigeria's military indicated on Thursday that it could follow the example of Sri Lanka in fighting terror, to bring an end to an increasingly deadly insurgency by Boko Haram militants.

A high-ranking military delegation from the South Asian island nation, led by Chief of Defense Staff General Jagath Jayasuriya, was in the capital, Abuja, to meet their Nigerian counterparts to share experience and expertise.