Russia test-fires ballistic missile

Russia for the first time test-launched a strategic missile to the equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean today, a navy spokesman said.

The spokesman said a Sineva missile had been launched from the nuclear-powered submarine Tula in the Arctic Barents Sea in the course of military exercises observed by President Dmitry Medvedev.

"For the first time in the history of the Russian navy, the target of the missile was in an equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean rather than the Kura testing ground on the Kamchatka Peninsula," he said.