Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist.

In London, I'm Jason Palmer.

And in New York, I'm John Fassman.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Akes and pains afflict us all at one time or another.

For some, it's a lifelong curse.

The available remedies do work, but the most effective come with the most risks.

We examine the pipeline of new drugs aiming to dull pain without creating different problems.

And of all the weird sentences made possible by the Internet, the following may be one

of the strangest.

Every October, bears in a national park in southern Alaska compete online to see who's

gained the most weight.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Fat Bear Week.

On Monday, an explosion tore through a cinema in eastern Congo.

The homemade bomb wounded 10 people, including children and teenagers, marking yet another

day of mourning in the city of Potembo.

Last month, another blast in the same city wounded two Congolese Intelligence agents.

Violence in the broader region is intensifying.

Some 5.5 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been forced from their homes.

A number second only to Syria.

But international attention has been elsewhere, making the war in the DRC perhaps the world's

most neglected major conflict.

...