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The Fifth Floor

Factual: Life Stories

Global stories from the BBC’s 40 Language Services, with Faranak Amidi

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services.

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services

The Fifth Floor: 21/04/2012

Discussion & Talk

21/04/2012

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, 21/04/2012

What do you say to a suicide bomber? Also, life in volatile Kabul for a journalist.

A fresh look at the week's global news from the World Service's 27 language sections

A fresh look at the week's global news from across the World Service's 27 language sections, with David Amanor.

AFGHAN ATTACKS
What do you say to a suicide bomber? The BBC's Kabul bureau chief Waheed Massoud tells us of his extraordinary telephone encounter with two young men on a suicide mission for the Taleban. He took the call as the city was being rocked by one of the most violent and elaborate insurgent attacks in recent years. 

THE SANITATION TSAR
Gennady Onishenko is Russia's chief public health official, but he is becoming well known for the unlikely and surprising things he has banned, claiming they are bad for Russian people's health. This week, he sprang another surprise by lifting his own ban on cheese from Ukraine. He's made quite an impression on Russians including our own Maria Vassilieva in the Moscow Bureau.

COUP PLOTTERS: PART ONE
Following the recent coup d'etats in Mali and Guinea Bissau, we take a leaf from the BBC's African service to present the first installment of our three-part series: Coup Plotters. Captain Mbango and Sergeant Zumzoom, inspired by The Resident Presidents as heard on the African stream, seized the Fifth Floor microphone this week using that dastardly weapon - the pen of former editor Robin White. What follows is simply unreal...

PAPPON'S PICKS
Our internet guru Thomas Pappon gives a rundown on the big-hitting stories across the World Service language sites this week - including a child genius, an eye-spy smart phone and turkish testosterone.

MEMORY LANE: ARABIC SERVICE
The BBC's oldest language section, the Arabic Service, is looking back at its seventy-four year illustrious history through a special programme - Memory Lane. It's presenter Fouad Abdelrazak and Arabic service veteran, Aftim Kreitim take us through some of their favourite milestones in broadcasting along with some remarkable archive audio that they have dusted off for this series.

(Photo: Afghan policemen and officials stand next to the wreckage of a car used in a suicide attack in front of the building from which insurgents launched an attack, in Kabul on April 16, 2012. Credit: Getty Images)

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