麻豆社

As China and Japan continue to eye each other cautiously over the disputed East China Sea we hear about legendary maritime rivalries - dipping our toes into the Baltic Sea and the Brazilian waters off Pernambuco. With Howard Zhang, Rodrigo Pinto and Olexiy Solohubenko.

Also on The Fifth Floor:

Pakistan's Fuming Females
New statistics suggest more women are taking up smoking in Pakistan than ever before - a country where women smokers have been frowned upon. So are they taking up the cigarettes out of defiance, pleasure or something else? 麻豆社 Urdu's Iram Abassi swaps her cigarette for her pen to explain.

Presidential Power Struggles
The backdrop to the troubles this week in South Sudan has been the long-running power struggle between the President and his former Vice President, who was sacked back in July. So how well does a president have to get on with his deputy? Alexander Kan remembers Russia's first - and so far only vice president - and from Afghanistan Abdullah Shadan talks about his country's defining presidential-vice presidential power struggle - with one man plotting to kill the other, but getting assassinated himself.

Remembering Sherko Bekas
Paying tribute to Sherko Bekas, one of Iraqi Kurdistan's most celebrated poets who died this year. With 麻豆社 Monitoring's Kareem Abdulrahman and poet Choman Hardi.

Great Lakes Baby Names
Florentine Kwizera and Ally Mugenzi are two of the most popular presenters in the Great Lakes Service. So popular in fact that new born babes in the Kibumba camp in eastern DR Congo are being named after them. Florentine and Ally tells us why.

Online Greatest Hits
Fifi Haroon gives the low down on the top-hitting stories across the Language Service websites, including a semi-naked Mexican congressman and an Indian granny running champion.

麻豆社 Burmese drama
Every year the Burmese Service broadcasts a specially commissioned Christmas play, and this year - for the first time ever - the play was recorded inside Myanmar. Soe Win Than gives us a behind the scenes preview with a synopsis of the plot - involving a double-dealing transsexual.

The Fifth Floor is presented by David Amanor.

Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images

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