Magazine reports A-alert that missile set off

In Life magazine's August issue, Deborah Shapley, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, claims there has been a fourth nuclear attack alarm since November, sounded "when a missile was launched somewhere in the world -- the Pentagon won't say here." But an Air Force spokesman denies any knowledge of a fourth alert, Pentagon correspondent Steven Webbe says.

"We were told by a military official that there had been a fourth false alert since last November caused by a friendly missile launch which was read as a hostile one," says Ms. Shapley, suggesting a Soviet satellite launch may have been misconstrued as a missile attack.