WEST DES MOINES, Iowa

Bachmann’s doctor’s note says migraines controlled

Rep. Michele Bachmann moved quickly Wednesday to address concerns about her health, releasing a note from a physician declaring her in “overall good health” despite suffering from migraines that must be controlled with medication.

Brian Monahan, the House’s attending physician, wrote that he and a neurologist had evaluated Bachmann, R-Minn., and found that the headaches were “infrequent” and well controlled.

The assessment was issued in response to reports that surfaced this week in which former aides, quoted anonymously, said the attacks are frequently incapacitating, raising questions about whether Bachmann is fit to serve as commander in chief.

The note confirms that doctors conducted brain scans and lab work and prescribed two types of medication that she takes when symptoms arise.

MANYANI, Kenya

Ivory stockpile burned to raise poaching awareness

Kenyan authorities have burned five tons of contraband elephant ivory in hopes of raising awareness about rising levels of poaching.

President Mwai Kibaki set fire to a six-foot-high pile of tusks at a wildlife service training center on Wednesday.

Save the Elephants founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton says poaching has increased dramatically in the last two years because of a rise in demand for ivory from China.

In addition to poaching, elephants are threatened by a growing human population encroaching on their habitat. Africa had 1.3 million elephants in the 1970s but today only 500,000 remain.

Kenya first burned an ivory stockpile in 1989 to focus attention on the alarming rate of poaching deaths.

LONDON

Al-Qaida Disney-like film aimed at recruiting children

An al-Qaida affiliate says it plans to roll out what some have called a Disney-like animated cartoon aimed at recruiting children to the terror network.

Scenes from the proposed short film show young boys dressed in battle fatigues and participating in raids, killings and terror plots.

It is the latest attempt by the terror organization to use multimedia to draw in potential recruits. Recently, a Yemen-based extremist group released an online women’s magazine with makeup and chastity tips.

News of the animated film was announced by a group called Abu al-Laith al-Yemen on the Arabic-language al-Shamouk jihadist website, the London-based Quilliam Foundation reported Wednesday.

— From news service reports