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Episode details

World Service,12 Aug 2016,49 mins

Colombia: Living with the Peace

The Fifth Floor

Available for over a year

In June, the Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos, signed a historic ceasefire with the country's largest left-wing rebel group, FARC. Headlines around the world proclaimed peace after more than 50 years of fighting. But the final deal has proven elusive as for many the price of peace is difficult to swallow. Rafael Abuchaibe is with BBC Monitoring in Miami, and gives his perspective on the situation in his home country. Erdogan and Putin through the headlines Friends to enemies to friends again. The highs and lows of the Turkish Russian relationship through their headlines. 'Pointless activities' for part-time schoolchildren Indonesia, like many countries, operates a shift system for schools. But there's a proposal to change to a full school day, and stop what the Education Minister calls the 'pointless activities' students are believed to get up to when they're not in class. So what activities did the half day alumni of the Fifth Floor get up to outside school hours? A tale of two Syrian footballers In early 2011, two young and talented Syrian footballers were both tipped for great things. One a 19 year old goalie for Al-Karamah in Homs, the other a prolific goal-scorer for Al-Futowa in north east Syria. Then the Syrian revolution broke out in March 2011, and their lives spiralled in radically different directions. So what light do their stories shed on the ongoing conflict in Syria? BBC Monitoring's Elma Hasum has been following their respective careers. Martial Arts literature in Hong Kong This year the Hong Kong Book Fair chose Chinese martial arts literature as its theme. It's a hugely popular genre, read right across the Chinese-speaking world. So what's the appeal? And are the books, like the films, all karate chops and kapows? Avid fans Yashan Zhao and Tzu-Wei Liu from BBC Chinese share their passion. Tajikistan campaigns against "incomprehensible" words The authorities in Tajikistan recently launched a campaign against what they call "incomprehensible" words. Journalists who use them have been threatened with fines, even though some are words which have been used for centuries. What does this story tell us about the politics of language? We turn to BBC Persian's Dariush Rajabian, who is from the capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe. And Fifi Haroon's pick of the worldwide web. With guest presenter Emilio San Pedro Image: Colombia's President Santos (L), Cuban President Raul Castro (C) and 'Timochenko' (R), head of FARC signing the ceasefire, Credit: AFP/Getty Images

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