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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

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The Fifth Floor: A Battle of Resources Between the Poorest of the Poor

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Demonstrator holding banner in Jo'burg to protest against xenophobic attacks in South Africa

03/03/2017 GMT

A Battle of Resources Between the Poorest of the Poor

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, A Battle of Resources Between the Poorest of the Poor

South Africa has seen a resurgence of xenophobic attacks, so what's driving them?

South African xenophobia, Congolese Libanga, fiction in Kurdish, Taliban trees and the Coptic Christians of North Sinai. With David Amanor.

South Africa has recently seen immigrant communities targeted in a spate of attacks, with Nigerians, Somalis and Zimbabweans among those whose homes and businesses have been looted. Mpho Lakaje who reports for the BBC Africa from Johannesburg compares this current wave of violence with previous xenophobic attacks. 

Congolese Libanga
With the collapse of CD sales and little to share out from concerts, Congolese musicians have found a new way to make money. It's called Libanga, with the rich and aspiring paying to get their names dropped into the music. It's keeping musicians paid but is it ruining the music? We asked Mila Kimbuini, a Congolese journalist with BBC Afrique.

Poets, carpets and reformed assassins  
I Stared at the Night of the City by Bakhtiyar Ali is thought to be the first Kurdish language novel to be translated into English. There's poetry, magic, murder and corruption, so what can this novel tell us about life in the autonomous Kurdish region? Over to translator Kareem Abdulrahman and fellow Iraqi Kurd Roj Ranjbar of BBC Monitoring.

Taliban Trees
This week the head of the Taliban in Afghanistan urged Afghans to plant more trees. So does this mark a change of direction?  BBC Afghan's Ismael Saadat explores the country's problems with trees.

Coptic Christians in North Sinai
The recent flight of Coptic Christians from North Sinai has drawn attention to Egypt's long-running struggle against an IS-affiliated group in the province,which is now targeting Christians. Mariam Rizk of BBC Monitoring in Cairo explains why it's so hard to discover what's really happening in North Sinai.

Plus Fifi Haroon rounds up the week's wackier online stories.

(Photo: Demonstrator holding banner in Johannesburg to protest against xenophobic attacks in South Africa. Credit: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images)

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