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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a nearly $3 billion bailout for Sri Lanka, which could help the country unlock up to $7 billion more from other lenders such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Here are some key developments in the island nation's worst economic crisis in about 75 years.

2022

MARCH 31: Demonstrators march to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's private residence to protest over worsening economic conditions.

MAY 9: Following widespread clashes between pro- and anti-government protesters, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president's elder brother, resigns. Countrywide violence leaves nine dead and about 300 injured.

MAY 18: Sri Lanka falls into default after a 30-day grace period on a $78 million coupon payment expires.

JULY 13: After protesters storm his office and residence, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa flees Sri Lanka, initially going to the Maldives, before moving on to Singapore.

JULY 15: Parliament accepts Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignation. Ranil Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister, is sworn in as acting president.

JULY 15: Sri Lankan lawmakers vote in Wickremesinghe as the new president.

AUG 9: The country's power regulator approves a 75% hike in power tariffs.

SEPT 1: Sri Lanka reaches a preliminary agreement with the IMF for a loan of about $2.9 billion.

NOV 14: Sri Lanka's budget lays down several measures, including reducing the government's deficit in its efforts to secure the IMF bailout.

2023

JAN 17: India tells the IMF that it will support Sri Lanka's debt restructuring plan.

JAN 24: Reuters reports the Export-Import Bank of China had offered Sri Lanka a two-year moratorium on its debt and said it would support the country's efforts to secure the IMF loan. A Sri Lankan source it is not enough to secure an IMF deal.

FEB 7: The Paris Club of creditors gives financing assurances to support the IMF's approval of an extended fund facility for Sri Lanka.

FEB 8: Sri Lanka's economy is expected to grow again from the end of this year and the government hopes the country will emerge from an economic crisis by 2026, the president said, as hundreds protested a rise of up to 36% in income taxes amid high inflation.

FEB 16: The country raises electricity prices by 66%.

FEB 21: Government data shows Sri Lanka's National Consumer Price Index eased year-on-year to 53.2% in January, after a 59.2% rise in December.

MARCH 8: The Export-Import Bank of China tells Sri Lanka it will try to finalise in the months ahead how it treats debt owed by the crisis-hit nation, according to a letter seen by Reuters, which also reiterated a moratorium for debt due in 2022 and 2023.

MARCH 20: The IMF says its executive board approved a nearly $3 billion bailout for Sri Lanka. The decision will allow an immediate disbursement of about $333 million. (Reuters)

South Korea on Tuesday announced a "watch-list" to prevent export of items linked to North Korea's satellite development, days after Pyongyang launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan.

A total of 77 materials on the list will be banned from export to North Korea via a third country, South Korea's foreign ministry said, adding the move was aimed at stepping up implementation of sanctions on the reclusive regime.

The list specifically targets North Korea's satellite development after Pyongyang said it will develop a new spy satellite by April this year.

North Korea has conducted a record number of weapons tests last year and fired its largest Hwasong-17 ICBM on Thursday in what it called a "warning" to enemies.

South Korea also imposed new sanctions on four individuals and six entities connected to the North's illegal weapons programmes, the ministry said.

The move comes as the United Nations Security Council remained divided over how to deal with North Korea's repeated ballistic missile launches. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions for its missile and nuclear programs since 2006.

China and Russia blamed joint military drills by the United States and South Korea for provoking Pyongyang while Washington accuses Beijing and Moscow of emboldening North Korea by shielding it from more sanctions. (Reuters)

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Pakistan has made "substantial progress" toward meeting policy commitments needed to unlock loans the country needs to avoid default, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. (Reuters)

The United States, China and Russia argued during a United Nations Security Council meeting on Monday over who was to blame for spurring North Korea's dozens of ballistic missile launches and development of a nuclear weapons program.

The 15-member council met over what Pyongyang said was the launch on Thursday of its largest Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions for its missile and nuclear programs since 2006.

China and Russia blamed joint military drills by the United States and South Korea for provoking Pyongyang while Washington accuses Beijing and Moscow of emboldening North Korea by shielding it from more sanctions.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "remains deeply concerned over the divisions that have prevented the international community from acting on this matter," a senior U.N. official said at the meeting.

Russia's deputy U.N. Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva described the U.S. and South Korean military activity as "unprecedented," while China's deputy U.N. Ambassador Geng Shuang questioned whether they were defensive drills and blamed them for heightening tensions.

"These exercises are long standing, they are routine. They are purely defensive in nature ... The United States harbors no hostile intent toward the DPRK," said U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, using its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

For the past several years the council has been divided over how to deal with Pyongyang. Russia and China, veto powers along with the United States, Britain and France, have said more sanctions will not help and want such measures to be eased. Geng said it was intended as a goodwill gesture to try and create favorable conditions for a detente.

Thomas-Greenfield said lifting U.N. sanctions would reward Pyongyang "for doing nothing to comply with Security Council resolutions." She accused Pyongyang of depriving North Koreans of needed humanitarian assistance.

Russia and China also again raised nuclear concerns over a security pact known as AUKUS that will see Australia develop a nuclear-powered submarine program with the United States and Britain.

The United States and Britain both rejected their concerns and told the council that AUKUS does not violate the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty.

"North Korea's illegal nuclear and ballistic missile programs violate multiple Council resolutions. So there's simply no comparison to the AUKUS," Britain's deputy U.N. Ambassador James Kariuki told the council. (Reuters)