SRI LANKA: President Ranil Wickremesinghe of Sri Lanka said on Tuesday that China had given crucial debt restructuring assurances that mean the bankrupt Indian Ocean nation could get its International Monetary Fund $2.9 billion (£2.4bn) bailout package approved soon.

Mr Wickremesinghe told Parliament that a letter from China’s EXIM bank with the necessary assurances was received and he and the Central Bank governor sent a letter of intent to the IMF seeking final approval.

EGYPT: A passenger train derailed on Tuesday just north of Cairo, killing at least two people and injuring 16 others, Egyptian authorities said. 

It was the latest in a series of rail accidents in the country in recent years.

The train went off its tracks as it travelled through a station in the city of Qalyub on its way to the city of Menouf in the Nile Delta, state prosecutors said in a statement. 

An investigation has been opened into the cause of the crash.

SPAIN: A Spanish court ordered a man to pay his ex-wife €200,000 for 25 years of unpaid domestic labour, based on the minimum wage throughout their marriage, court documents showed on Tuesday.

The court in the southern Andalusia region ordered the man to pay the unnamed woman €204,624.86.

DRC: M23 rebels clashed with soldiers on two fronts in eastern DR Congo on Tuesday, officials said.

This comes despite a regional ceasefire deal brokered by Angola last week that was due to come into force the same day.