Hackers have attacked Sri Lanka's media ministry by placing a documentary about alleged war crimes during the island's ethnic conflict on its website, an official said Monday.

The hackers identifying themselves as "H4x0r HuSsY" uploaded a link to an Australian Broadcasting Corp report on atrocities during the final stages of Sri Lanka's battle against separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009.

Saudi Arabia has recalled its ambassador from Colombo in a tit-for-tat move amid tensions after a Sri Lankan nanny convicted of murder was beheaded in the kingdom, the official SPA news agency reported.

"Based on the decision by the Sri Lankan government to withdraw its ambassador from the kingdom, the (Saudi) foreign ministry has recalled its ambassador in Sri Lanka for consultations," SPA reported late Tuesday quoting a ministry spokesman.

Sri Lanka's nationalist Buddhist monks and their supporters launched a campaign Sunday to boycott Islamic halal-slaughtered meat amid mounting religious tensions in the ethnically divided nation.

Thousands of men and women led by hundreds of monks of the Bodu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Force, staged a rally outside Colombo to announce the boycott, demanding that shops clear their stocks of halal food by April.

Gunmen shot and wounded a journalist near Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, police said on Saturday, the latest in a string of attacks against media in the country.

Faraz Shauketaly, 54, a reporter with the privately owned Sunday Leader, whose editor was shot dead in 2009, was rushed to hospital for surgery following the midnight attack at his home, according to colleagues.

Sri Lanka on Tuesday dropped plans for a fresh $1.0-billion loan from the International Monetary Fund following disagreements over how the money should be spent, the central bank said.

The government announced last month that it was seeking a new cash infusion from the IMF after drawing down a previous $2.6-billion bailout loan six months ago.

India's defense minister said Wednesday that New Delhi was concerned by Pakistan's decision last month to transfer management of a strategically located deep-sea port to China.

"In one sentence, it is a matter of concern for us," A.K. Antony told reporters in Bangalore where he inaugurated the Indian air show. "My answer is very straigtforward and simple."

Sri Lanka said Tuesday it had rejected a U.S. request to send troops to Afghanistan but retracted the claim within hours, triggering angry responses on social media about the government's credibility.

"President Mahinda Rajapakse has rejected a call by U.S. to send Lankan troops to Afghanistan," the government's information department said in an SMS news alert which was immediately rebroadcast by almost all local media outlets.

Sri Lanka's navy on Sunday rescued 138 Bangladeshi and Myanmar nationals from a sinking fishing vessel off the island's eastern coast, officials said.

One passenger was found dead while many of the 138 plucked from the boat were dehydrated, navy spokesman Kosala Warnakulasuriya said, adding that the vessel had been adrift for 10 days before it sank on Sunday.

Sri Lanka's Labor Minister Dylan Pereira said Wednesday that there will be no ban on the travel of female domestic workers and laborers to Lebanon following banning their travel to Saudi Arabia.

“There will be no ban on the travel of female domestic workers and laborers to Lebanon,” the minister assured after meeting Lebanon's Labor Minister Salim Jreisati where talks focused on drafting a new agreement that will soon be signed regarding Sri Lankan labor rights.

Sri Lanka's president Sunday urged nationalist Buddhist monks not to incite religious hatred and violence as he moved to stem a wave of attacks targeting minority Muslims.

President Mahinda Rajapakse met with monks with the group known as "Bodu Bala Sena", or Buddhist Force, and urged them to help maintain religious harmony in a country emerging from decades of ethnic violence, according to a statement released by his office.