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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: Astana, City of the Steppes

Documentaries

Astana

17/03/2017 GMT

Astana, City of the Steppes

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Astana, City of the Steppes

An insider's guide to one of the world's strangest capitals

A guide to Astana; Brazilian ghosts; Zimbabwe potholes; Belarus protests; Norwuz fire jumping; Somali pirates, with David Amanor.

Kazakhstan's purpose-built capital Astana is currently hosting Syria's peace talks, 6 years after that conflict began.  The ultra-modern city rises out of the semi-arid flat landscape known as the Steppes, lightening bright but with a gloomy past. BBC journalist Abdujalil Abdurasulov is based in Kazakhstan, and has visited the city many times.  

Brazilian ghosts
Brazil's acting president Michel Temer seems ill at ease with the official residence he moved into last year following the impeachment of his former boss Dilma Rousseff.  He told a Brazilian magazine that he was moving out because it was spooky.   He wasn't being entirely serious, but according to Neli Pereira of BBC Brasil, superstition is alive and well in Brazil.

Zimbabwe Potholes 
This year's rains have wreaked havoc on roads of the capital Harare.  Potholes proliferate, and the government has declared the roads to be in a state of disaster.   So pity the poor drivers, weaving around the potholes, and dealing with constant punctures, including Shingai Nyoka who's been reporting on the story for BBC Africa.  

Belarus protests
How did a demonstration over plans to build a shopping mall on the site of a Stalin era mass grave trigger protests and calls for the country's leader to step down? It all centres on a place called Kurapaty in the former Soviet republic of Belarus.  Gennodiy Kot is with BBC Monitoring and grew up in the country, and has been watching developments.

Jumping fire 
Next week is Nowruz, the Persian New Year, the biggest festival of the year for millions of people across Asia and around the world.  On Wednesday Iranians took the important first step, or first jump - the ancient tradition of leaping bonfires. Feranak Amidi of BBC Persian remembers the fun fire-leaping of her childhood and explains how it has become much more hazardous. 

Somali Pirates
The hijacking of a merchant ship in Somali waters made headlines this week, almost five years since the last major incident.  This act of piracy seems to have been resolved peacefully and allegedly without any money changing hands, a far cry from the past.  Then was a phenomenon new to Somalia and our Somali journalists back in 2008. Mohammud Ali of  BBC Somali explains.

And Fifi Haroon rounds up strange stories from the web.

Image: Astana seen from Presidential Palace
Credit: LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images

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