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Malaria: Eastern DR Congo’s other battle Congolese women demanding life-saving mosquito nets On a muddy back street on the outskirts of Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 100 women are laying siege - with cheerful determination - to the rickety gates of a small clinic where aid workers are handing out free items. It is a familiar scene in a region still rated one of the poorest, and most dangerous, in the world. But instead of the more familiar search for food, shelter or medicine, the women here - many displaced from their homes by years of conflict - are after nets: cheap, simple, insecticide-soaked, life-saving, mosquito bed nets. "Malaria is the main killer here in Congo, especially for pregnant women and children," says Dr Vincker Lushombo, from Save the Children, watching as each woman's details are recorded, and a net handed over with brief instructions. "But in one badly affected area here, we distributed 10...

China gets approval for Afghanistan oil exploration bid   China's rapid economic expansion has resulted in a surge in demand for fuel in the country China has gained potential access to millions of barrels of oil after it won approval for oil exploration and extraction in Afghanistan. The country's cabinet approved a deal to allow China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to develop oil blocks in the Amu Darya Basin. The basin is estimated to hold around 87 million barrels of oil. The deal comes as China is looking to expand its oil resources in wake of a growing domestic demand. "The Afghan cabinet has ordered mines minister Wahidullah Shahrani to sign an oil exploration contract for Amu Darya with China National Petroleum Corporation," Afghanistan president's office said in a statement. 'Taking a punt' “It is about five to ten years before they can get a feel of what is under the ground and start commercially producing ...

Profits slow at Chinese industrial firms, report says China's biggest companies have funded and built its recent economic boom China's industrial companies are posting slower profit growth, a further sign that the country's economy is losing pace. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, industrial firms saw their net income rise by 24.4% in November, compared with 25.3% in October. The industrial sector has been one of the main drivers of China's expansion. However, over the past year the government has been trying to slow growth to make it more sustainable. Recent figures show that it has been successful in taking some of the steam out of the economy. In the three months to the end of September, gross domestic product increased by 9.1%, down from 9.5% in the previous quarter. China's growth has slowed for three quarters in a row and some forecasts see it dipping below 9% in 2012, which would be the weakest expansion in more than a dec...

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Science news highlights of 2011 The year 2011 offered up glimpses of Earth-like planets, hints of the Higgs boson and suggestions of a discovery that could turn modern physics on its head. Headlines were dominated by the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which resulted in the loss of thousands of lives and plunged the country into a nuclear emergency. The BBC News website's science editor Paul Rincon looks back at an eventful year in science and the environment. January - Another Earth?   Kepler has revolutionised the search for distant Earth-like planets   The scientific year kicked off with the American Astronomical Society meeting in a chilly Seattle. Among the most anticipated results were those from Nasa's Kepler space telescope , which had hit its stride after being launched in 2009. At the conference, Dr Natalie Batalha outlined details of Kepler 10b, which was at the time the smallest planet yet discovered outside our Solar System ...