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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: 30/10/2015 12:06 GMT: Nepal: A Country Still in Ruins

Documentaries

Nepal: tents and tarpaulin six months on

30/10/2015 12:06 GMT

30/10/2015 12:06 GMT: Nepal: A Country Still in Ruins

Nepal: A Country Still in Ruins

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Nepal: A Country Still in Ruins

'The colour of tents fading away, the hopes of people fading with that'

'The colour of tents fading away, the hopes of the people fading away with that' - six months after the devastating earthquakes, why is Nepal still a country in ruins?

It's 6 months since the earthquakes in Nepal which killed over 8,000 people and destroyed many of the country's buildings. Four billion dollars was pledged towards reconstruction, so why hasn't reconstruction started?  BBC journalist Jitendra Raut sheds light on why Nepal is still a country of tents.

Arabic Film Festival
The BBC Arabic Film Festival launches today with twenty new films and documentaries on the theme of rulers and ruled. BBC Arabic's Sheyma Buali, the festival director, discusses the insights they offer into this complex and troubled region.

Taiwan Ghosts
It's Halloween this weekend and many countries will be celebrating with pumpkin carving, trick or treating, and elaborate costumes. Few people taking part will think about real ghosts. But in Taiwan and many parts of Asia, the belief in ghosts is taken very seriously - especially during the so-called Ghost Month, the seventh month of the lunar calendar. Cindy Sui, who reports from Taipei, tells us how she came to realise the power of ghosts in traditional Chinese society.

Living with Five Year Plans
As China announces the details of its next Five Year Plan, we hear from Diloram Ibrahimova of BBC Uzbek and Amir Azimi of BBC Persian about the Five Year Plans they lived under. In Iran, they tended to fade away, while in Soviet Uzbekistan, they were promoted at every opportunity. Zhuang Cheng of BBC Chinese talks us through China's new plan and explains why it's being promoted in English with a cute video and catchy song.

Being a Career Woman in Afghanistan
For career women in Afghanistan, the challenge is not just qualifications and job opportunities, it's where to live. Unmarried women are expected to live at home, and many parents forbid them to move away to take up a job in a different city. Tamana Jamily, who works for BBC Monitoring in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, tells us how hard it is to live an independent life.

And Fifi's pick of the worldwide web.

Picture: Nepali family still living in a tent 
Credit: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images

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