Fifth Floor

A visa-free travel agreement between Iran and Serbia meant to boost tourism has been used by thousands of Iranians trying to enter the European Union. BBC Persian's Rana Rahimpour teamed up with BBC Serbian’s Stefan Veselinovic to hear the stories of Iranians in the Serbian capital Belgrade.

Image: Iranian migrant walking down Belgrade street, Serbia.

There are only around 4000 snow leopards left in the mountains of Central and South Asia. Yulia James of BBC Russian has been to the Altai region of Siberia in search of these elusive animals.

Image: Snow Leopard

Skripal, Khashoggi, and North Korea talks: Olga Ivshina of BBC Russian, Öykü Altuntaş of BBC Turkish and Hwang Su Min, editor of BBC Korean, share their experiences of covering big news stories, as well as the smaller ones that simply raised a smile.

Social media and the news

Image: presenter David Amanor

What’s happening to the Taj Mahal, India’s most famous building? The beautiful white marble is becoming darker, cracks are appearing, and the foundations are weakening. Salman Ravi of BBC Hindi has been investigating the causes of its decline.

There have been protests in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions, where people say they are marginalised by the French-speaking majority. There have been violent clashes between rebels and government forces, with civilians caught between. BBC Africa's Peter Tah is based in Bamenda, and has found the story on his doorstep.

Image: a soldier from the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) in Cameroon

In 2014 the so-called Islamic State blew up the Nabi Yunus mosque in Mosul, and tunneled under the remains in search of archaeological artefacts in the ancient Assyrian palace beneath. When IS was expelled from Mosul the tunnels were sealed off, but BBC Arabic cameraman Namak Khoshnaw, and journalist and former archaeologist Eli Melki, got permission to film inside the tunnels earlier this year. What they found was amazing, but not everything went entirely to plan.

Image: Assyrian carving of three women

Why are there so many superstitions around the world based on cats? If a black cat crosses your path in England it's lucky, but impending doom in Vietnam. BBC Vietnamese ran a story on this recently, we thought we'll take the superstition theme further with our Fifth Floor colleagues. Starting with Khue Luu of BBC Vietnamese.

Image: black cat

Algeria’s war of independence left enduring hostility towards the Harkis, Algerians who fought on the side of the French. Rachid Sekkai of BBC Arabic, Algerian himself, has been in Paris to meet Harkis and hear their stories.

Image: Harki veterans at The Invalides ceremony, marking national day of homage to the Harkis. Paris 2018.

Hunting for wild honey is an old tradition in rural Nepal, and extremely dangerous too, as the bees make their combs on sheer cliff-faces. Villagers descend rope ladders suspended over the void to harvest the honeycomb. And this year the action was filmed by BBC India journalists Aamir Peerzada and Neha Sharma.

Image: Aamir Peerzada and Neha Sharma with wild honey hunters in Nepal

Since taking office in April, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has transformed Ethiopia. Peace has been agreed with Eritrea, the streets are largely clear of protesters, and the new cabinet is half female. Ethiopian Christine Yohannes of BBC Amharic tells us more about the man behind the changes.

Image: fan of Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed with his face on her T shirt