Burma’s state-controlled press has hailed the capture of a rare white elephant as a good sign for the upcoming elections.

The New Light of Myanmar reported on its front page yesterday that the elephant was found last Thursday. It’s only the fifth white elephant seen and caught in 10 years.

The paper, which serves as a mouthpiece of the ruling junta, hailed the elephant’s capture as an omen that the country will be peaceful and its people will enjoy greater prosperity and progress.

The paper suggested that the find was “auspicious” and heralded peaceful and successful elections.

The polls are scheduled for November 7. (PA)

Gunmen kill two in mosque

Gunmen opened fire on worshippers inside a mosque in eastern Pakistan yesterday, killing two people, police said.

Senior police official Babar Bakhat Qureshi said seven others were wounded in the attack in the city of Bahawalpore.

He said the motive behind the attack on the Sunni mosque was not immediately clear.

Pakistan has a history of sectarian violence often involving Sunni extremists targeting minority Shiite Muslims. But attacks on Sunni mosques are also common. (PA)

US Air Force told to reemploy lesbian

A US federal judge ruled that a decorated flight nurse discharged from the Air Force for being gay should be given her job back as soon as possible in the latest legal setback to the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.

The decision by US District Judge Ronald Leighton came in a closely watched case as a tense debate was played out over the policy.

Senate Republicans blocked an effort to lift the ban this week, but Mr Leighton is now the ­second federal judge this month to deem the policy ­unconstitutional.

Major Margaret Witt was suspended in 2004 and subsequently discharged under the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy after the Air Force learned she was in a long-term relationship with a civilian woman. She sued to get her job back.

Mr Leighton hailed her as a “central figure in a long-term, highly charged civil rights movement”. Tears streaked down Maj Witt’s cheeks and she hugged her parents, her partner and supporters following the ruling. (PA)

Soyuz returns

A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts back from a six-month mission on the International Space Station touched down safely in the central steppes of Kazakhstan.

Yesterday’s return to Earth of American astronaut Tracy Caldwell-Dyson and Russia’s Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko had been delayed by a day.

Technical glitches postponed undocking of the spacecraft.

A hover of Russian recovery helicopters took flight ahead of the landing southeast of the remote central Kazakh town of Arkalyk to intercept the capsule.

Signalling errors in the onboard computer system and a malfunction with hooks and latches on the space station side of the capsule delayed the undocking. (PA)

Needy ‘octomum’ to auction items

‘Octomom’ Nadya Suleman’s presumably well-broken-in nursing bra will be among the items up for bid at a planned auction-style yard sale at her home.

Yeterday morning’s auction at La Habra, California is being hosted by radio personality David Gonzalez who goes by the name Tattoo.

Suleman, a single mother, famously gave birth to octuplets in 2009 and has 14 children.

Gonzalez told the Orange County Register that a bikini Suleman wore on the cover of tabloid magazines and other undergarments will also be available at the sale. (PA)

Whales saved

Rescuers succeeded in saving 14 whales stranded on a remote New Zealand beach.

Late on Friday, a total of 24 whales were trucked 30 miles to more sheltered water to be refloated. Several died as a result of the transfer.

Department of Conservation staff and volunteers used three boats and two jet skis to herd the whales out to sea.

Twenty-one were guided into the open sea but seven turned back. (PA)

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