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The Fifth Floor

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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

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The Fifth Floor: Beirut's 'You Stink' Protests

Documentaries

Beirut demonstation against uncollected rubbish

28/08/2015 GMT

Beirut's 'You Stink' Protests

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Beirut's 'You Stink' Protests

On the frontline of Beirut's protests over rubbish.

Living through Beirut's rubbish crisis; An ode to the monsoon; Acrobatics at the Edinburgh Festival and a glossary of Iran's foreign relations - from old fox to vicious wolf.

Rubbish has been piling up on the streets of Beirut for over a month since the closure of the city's main landfill site. But protestors believe that the rubbish is just the tip of a huge iceberg of corruption. They are angry at the government's inability to maintain order and basic amenities in a country which has been without a president for the past 18 months. Carine Torbey of BBC Arabic is there among the bin bags. 

Ode to the Monsoon
Romance, poetry and the promise of plenty. As Pakistan enjoys monsoon rains after the burning heat of early summer, BBC Urdu's Amber Shamsi tells us why she loves this season.

Old Foxes: Insults Old and New in Iran
The re-opening of the British embassy in Tehran has given new life to the traditional term of abuse the Iranians have used for Britain for at least a hundred years - the Old Fox.  Parham Pourparsa of BBC Monitoring has been investigating other rhetorical terms used in the Iranian media.

Acrobatics in Edinburgh
High jinks at the Edinburgh Festival with two acrobatic troupes - Kim Chakanetsa meets La Meute, the wolf pack, from France, and Ghana's Fanti Acrobats. The six daredevil members of La Meute catapult themselves into the air wearing little more than towels, and the Fanti Acrobats perform contortion, pan-spinning, limbo and traditional dancing.
 
Diary of a Cuban Poet
One morning when BBC Monitoring's Emilio San Pedro was checking his post he found a letter from a listener with a copy of the diary of a young Cuban poet, Isidro Suarez Vega. Isidro was an acclaimed academic and writer who fled the country in the 1970s because he was gay. He lived in exile in the United Kingdom until his life was tragically cut short. On a recent visit to Havana, armed with Isidro's diary, Emilio decided to seek out people who knew him, to find out how the path of this talented writer led to a tragic end.

Yemen Before the Storm
Gaith Abdel Ahad relives his experiences covering Yemen's disintegration into civil war and in particular the chaotic seven days in March preceding the Saudi-led air strikes. The South Yemenis believed that they were finally on the verge of independence from the North, only to see their dreams shatter around them. Gaith witnessed the retreat and the collapse of Aden into anarchy for his BBC film Before The Storm.

And Fifi shares her favourite stories from the web this week.

(Picture: A Beirut protest against uncollected rubbish. Credit: Getty Images)

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