Fifth Floor

BBC World Service
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Nov 2, 2018 • 9min

My Hanoi Childhood in Five Pictures

Queuing for vegetables, fetching boiling water, and jumping the trams: a newly published collection of black and white photographs of Hanoi, taken not long after the end of the Vietnam War, has transported Ha Mi of BBC Vietnamese back to her childhood. Image: A queue outside a Hanoi vegetable shop Credit: John Ramsden
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Oct 26, 2018 • 8min

Edible Gold

Renowned for its colour, price and fragrance, 90% of the world's saffron is grown in Iran. The BBC's Golnoosh Golshani has family ties to a famous saffron-growing region and she tells us about her relationship with this precious spice. Image: Iranian saffron in a gold box Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
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Oct 19, 2018 • 8min

Makoko: Stories of Hope

Makoko is a floating slum in Lagos with a lawless reputation. BBC Pidgin’s Dan Ikpoyi has been a victim of extortion there himself, but his latest video shows a community full of life and optimism. (Image: Makoko floating slum in Lagos. Credit: BBC)
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Oct 12, 2018 • 10min

Spies In The Spotlight

The two Russian "tourists" linked to the Salisbury poisoning have been unmasked as secret agents, using little more than open source websites. So is the golden age of Russian spycraft over? Famil Ismailov and Andrei Soshnikov of BBC Russian share insights. Image: A Man Silhouette In The Night Credit: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
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Oct 5, 2018 • 9min

Bolsonaro: The Man Dividing Brazil

Brazilians vote this weekend for a new President and currently ahead in the polls is right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro. To his supporters he’s the man to clean up politics and restore order, to his detractors he’s a misogynist who openly supports the former military dictatorship. Camilla Costa of BBC Brasil has been following a campaign she describes as “quite a ride”. Image: Brazilian Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro Credit: HEULER ANDREY/AFP/Getty Images
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Sep 28, 2018 • 10min

Don’t Tell Us What to Wear

Kyrgyz singer Zere Asylbek showing her bra in music video, Uzbek teachers in mini-skirts, and controversial portraits of Tajik women. Diloram Ibrahimova of BBC Uzbek and Gulnara Kasmambet of BBC Kyrgyz discuss stories from Central Asia that have started a debate about how women should behave and what they should wear.Image and credit: Zere Asylbek, Kyrgyz singer
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Sep 21, 2018 • 9min

Reclaiming Mogadishu’s Sports Stadium

In 1979 Somalia opened a state of the art sports stadium to host international sporting events. But with the beginning of the civil war in the 1990s the stadium became a base for successions of fighting forces. Last month it was formally handed it back to the state, so can it reclaim its former glory? BBC Somali’s Ahmed Abdinur was a sports official at the stadium during its glory days.Image: Mogadishu athletics track overgrown with grass and trees after decades of war in Somalia Credit: Mohamed Abdiwahabafp/Getty Images
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Sep 14, 2018 • 10min

Pakistan's Ahmadiyya Problem

Last week Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan, appointed a renowned Pakistani economist to an advisory economics panel. But Professor Mian is also a member of the Ahmadiyya religious community, which many Muslims consider to be sacrilegious. Following protests he resigned. So why do the Ahmadiyya stir such passions in Pakistan? BBC Urdu's Khalid Karamat explains.Image: A man cries as he prays at the graves of victims killed in attacks against Ahmadiyya community mosques in 2010. Credit: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images
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Sep 7, 2018 • 10min

The Bengali Kitchen Divide

Bengalis are united by a love of good food, but divided over who cooks it. West Bengalis love poppy seeds and sugar, East Bengalis dried fish and chilli. BBC Bangla journalists Manoshi Barua from India's West Bengal state, and Masud Khan from Bangladesh, shed light on the Bengali kitchen divide.Image: Shukti, or dried fish, is popular in Bangladesh Credit: Majority World/UIG via Getty Images
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Aug 31, 2018 • 10min

Lost Stories from Uzbekistan

A chance encounter in a Tashkent street brought BBC Uzbek's Ibrat Safo an amazing story. A local academic took him to a museum dedicated to the Uzbek victims of Stalin's purges, and shared some of the stories he'd uncovered.Image: Brothers Muhammadjon and Rahmatjon Avazjanov Credit: Bahrom Irzayev

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