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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: Afghanistan’s opium problem

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Fifth Floor Afghan poppies.jpg

09/06/2023 GMT

Afghanistan’s opium problem

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Afghanistan’s opium problem

How Afghanistan became the world's biggest producer of opium

How Afghanistan became the world's biggest producer of opium and what the Taliban authorities are doing about cultivation and addiction.

The Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have sent anti-narcotics units across the country to destroy this year's opium poppy crop. BBC Afghan's Dawood Azami explains how Afghanistan became the world’s biggest producer of opium, and why this campaign is succeeding after years of failure.

Pakistan's Bombay Bakery 
The Bombay Bakery in Hyderabad, Pakistan has been serving its famous cakes since 1911 and has recently been recommended by the government to become a national heritage site.  BBC Urdu’s Riaz Sohail of BBC Urdu is from Hyderabad and shares memories of the bakery. 

Burying the dead in Sudan 
In the war-torn Sudanese capital Khartoum, the violence and danger has forced many people to bury their loved ones and neighbours in makeshift graves in the streets and even in homes, as BBC Arabic's Ethar Shalaby reports.  

Sexual assault for sale  
A BBC investigation has exposed an online business which sells thousands of videos of men sexually abusing women on trains and buses and in other public spaces across East Asia. Zhaoyin Feng and Shanshan Chen from BBC Eye Investigations tell us how they travelled to Tokyo to track down the man responsible, for the documentary Catching A Pervert. 

(Photo: Afghan farmers harvest opium poppies. Credit: Noorullah Shirzada/AFP via Getty Images)

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