PARIS (Reuters) – France has test-fired an M51.3 long-range ballistic missile, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

The missile, which did not carry a nuclear weapon, was fired from the French army’s Biscarosse missile testing site in southwest France and landed in the North Atlantic, “hundreds of kilometers from any coastline” the ministry said, without giving further detail. The M51.3 missile is an upgraded version of the M51, a three-stage sea-land strategic ballistic missile designed to be launched from French Navy submarines. The M51 was first test-fired from a ground base in 2006 and from a submarine in 2010, the year it was commissioned. The new M51.3 missile, which is expected to enter service around 2025, is developed by aerospace firm ArianeGroup, a joint venture between Airbus and French defence group Safran.

 

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NAIROBI (AFP) – Kenya on Sunday said tens of thousands of people across the country had been impacted by heavy rainfall, flooding and landslides that had also interrupted cargo services at Mombasa port. The Horn of Africa has experienced intense rainfall linked to the El Nino weather phenomenon in recent weeks that has claimed dozens of lives, including at least 46 in various parts of Kenya. Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said at least 80,000 households in Kenya had been affected “with numbers rising every day”. He said the government was responding to “save our people” including with helicopters and other emergency services to deliver aid and rescue marooned families. “This situation has continued to threaten lives,” he said in a statement issued Sunday, urging the public to avoid floodwaters and evacuate homes in low-lying areas. The prolonged rainfall was expected to extend into the first quarter of next year, he added.

 

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NAIROBI (Reuters) – A third round of United Nations negotiations to try to deliver the world’s first treaty to control plastic pollution has drawn more than 500 proposals from those involved, participants said on the last day of the talks on Sunday. Negotiators, who have spent a week meeting in the Kenyan capital at talks known as INC3, have until the end of next year to strike a deal for the control of plastics, which produce an estimated 400 million tonnes of waste every year. The plastics industry, oil and petrochemical exporters, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, have said a global deal should promote recycling and re-use of plastic, but environmental campaigners and some governments say much less needs to be produced in the first place. Environmental group Greenpeace said a successful deal would require the United States and the European Union to show greater leadership than they have so far. “The hard truth is that INC3 has failed to deliver on its core objective: delivering a mandate to prepare a first draft of a treaty text,” Graham Forbes, head of delegation for Greenpeace, said. Two more rounds of talks will take place next year to try to finalize the deal.

 

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MALE (Reuters) – Maldives new President Mohamed Muizzu, who campaigned on altering the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago’s “India first” policy, has requested India withdraw its military from the country. Muizzu won the presidential election in September, ousting Ibrahim Solih in a runoff after promising to remove a small Indian military presence of some 75 personnel. India and China have been vying for influence in the region, with the coalition backing Muizzu considered to be leaning more towards China. “The Maldivian people had given him (Muizzu) a strong mandate to make the request to India and expressed the hope that India will honor the democratic will of the people of the Maldives,” the president’s office said in a statement.

 

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CARACAS (AP) – Colombian President Gustavo Petro, visiting Venezuela, said he had proposed to the United States that it pay an “economic stabilization” bonus to Venezuelan migrants who stop in Colombia en route to the U.S. “We must reach an agreement with the United States on migration,” Petro said alongside Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “We have proposed economic stabilization bonuses to the United States.” Petro did not provide details about the bonuses nor did he say when he made the proposal. But he said the payments would allow families “to return to their home, to their land.” Close to 2.8 million Venezuelans live in Colombia, part of an exodus of over 7 million who have left the OPEC member country since 2017 because of its prolonged economic crisis. “I believe that this exodus ... should reroute toward their country of origin because, for the most part, they are Venezuelans,” Petro added, emphasizing that migrants could choose to return to Venezuela or stay in Colombia.