News In Brief

MX missile test a success, after close vote in Senate

The controversial MX missile scored its fifth successful test flight in a row Friday, sending six unarmed warheads into a target area in the mid-Pacific from the California coast, the Air Force announced.

The test came one day after the Republican-controlled Senate defeated a surprisingly strong attempt sharply to limit the controversial MX intercontinental missile program.

The Senate voted 49 to 48, with Vice-President George Bush casting a rare, tie-breaking vote, to kill a Democratic bid to produce 21 of the 10-warhead missiles but not to deploy them in deep silos targeted at the Soviet Union.