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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: Unravelling My Father's Mystery Life

Documentaries

Manoshi Barua holding a newspaper cutting

13/04/2018 GMT

Unravelling My Father's Mystery Life

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Unravelling My Father's Mystery Life

A Chinese news cutting, and an Indian family enigma: solved on the Fifth Floor

An Indian family enigma unravelled; crossing the Darien Gap; Saudi fashion week; home to Uzbekistan; Dhaka's mischievous mosquitoes; South Korean drop-outs.  With David Amanor.

40 years ago Manoshi Barua inherited a notebook with an old newspaper clipping inside. It was in Chinese, and showed a photo of her father as a young Indian doctor working in China.  So what did it say?  When chance brought Manoshi together on the fifth floor with BBC China's Yuwen Wu, she had the opportunity to crack the mystery.  

Crossing the Darien Gap 
The Darien Gap is a huge jungle area along the Panama-Colombia border, notorious for armed gangs, smugglers, and impenetrable undergrowth.  BBC Mundo's Alejandro Millan had a childhood dream to go there, but his dream became a nightmare.

Saudi Fashion Week 
This week Saudi Arabia hosted its first Arab Fashion Week, with BBC Arabic's Hanan Razek catwalk-side.

Return to Uzbekistan
BBC Uzbek's Ibrat Safo has just visited Uzbekistan after an absence of 14 years.  Family feasts, high-brow taxi drivers, selfies with fans and fresh spring air:  impressions from an overdue homecoming.

Living with mosquitoes
When mosquitoes are sitting happily on smoking mosquito coils you know you have a problem. BBC Bangla's Rocky Shahnewaj lives in the capital Dhaka and knows all about these disease-spreading, high-pitched nuisances.  

Dropping out in South Korea
South Korean schoolchildren spend upwards of 12 hours a day in education, often not returning home until midnight.  Competition is intense, and drop-outs face stigma and discrimination.  William Lee of BBC Korean has been asking drop-outs about life outside the system.

Image: Manoshi Barua holding a newspaper cutting
Credit: BBC

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