Syed Ashfaqul Haque

Luis Suarez was an instant impact. Back from a surgery table four weeks ago and having trained  with the team only for a day, Suarez appeared as lethal as before. He sat out the first match that Uruguay played against Costa Rica for not being fully fit.

Luis Suarez does not bark; he bites. The Uruguay striker seems to have a clear hunger for goals and opponents. Banned or fined, Suarez keeps biting.

It was because of the outstanding goalkeeping exploit of Guillermo Ochoa the match between the two South American countries ended in a goalless draw. Ochoa could get himself in the right time and at the right position on the goal line to deny Brazil poster-boy Neymar twice and skipper Thiago Silva once.

It's a huge sigh of global relief. Argentina scarped through in their opening match with a 2-1 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina, a team who were playing for the first time in a World Cup.

What a brilliant display of marksmanship by German striker Thomas Mueller! His triple strike reflected the typical grit and guile of a German, whose nerve never frays under any situation. He was always cool, composed and almost mechanical.

No man on earth will be so closely watched, possibly in many years to come. At least 300 million people will keep their eager eyes on one man. Several hundred high-tech cameras will be out there to capture every move of this short and shy man of 26.

The moment has come.  The moment is to decide who will take the World Cup home—Argentina or Germany? Who will have the final smile— team with a superstar or an all star team?

Brazil got off to a winning start to its Hexa Mission for the World Cup. Score in the inaugural match of the 2014 World Cup will read: Brazil 3 - Croatia 1. It's one of the best score in an opening match.

Too near, yet too far. Lionel Messi came so close to what was required to surpass Diego Maradona, the football god of his country. But the World Cup, tragically for the Albiceleste, remains elusive for a player considered one of the greatest of all time.

Politics in Bangladesh seems to have been possessed by the devil of late. It looks as though both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia have lost their grip on the goings-on.

A dinghy waiting at the poolside and patches of green inside a Gulshan dwelling.  

Politics in Bangladesh seems to have been possessed by the devil of late. It looks as though both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia have lost their grip on the goings-on.

Rafiq Azam wanted to be a painter, just a painter and nothing else. At the age of only seven, he picked up paint and brush to try his hand on a canvass. He tried to capture what was in abundance all around him back then in the early fifties -- a green Bangladesh. In the eyes of the young boy, the land of rivers and six seasons appeared to be a mystic artwork of nature. So, he went on to capture it, pouring lots of green and light in his painting.

In a city of concrete mess, life is not what one wants it to be. Dream, love and passion for life get buried deeply somewhere in the ways of nonstop urbanisation and thoughtless building designing. Zest for life fizzles out just the way greens and waters disappear from this once beautiful city. So, you live a life in Dhaka without loving it.

Shaheena is finally out of the building, but not alive. Rescuers on Sunday made a frantic effort to pull out Shaheena from the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza.

The government wishes to get a grip on the unregulated business of the multi-level marketing and illegal banking of cooperative societies.

The wages of garment workers should be immediately readjusted in line with inflation and the consumer price index to quell persistent unrest in the industry.

An ever-growing China continues to offer a plateful of concern as well as curiosity to the world outside. Concerned, as this reformed communist country shows no respect for human rights, and its socialist market economy is ominously aggressive. Curious, as the strange Chinese system shows no signs of failing.

The world's top buyers of Bangladeshi garment products yesterday gathered in Dhaka to share their concerns over persistent labour unrest in the industry and to finalise an SOS message to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Buyers from about 19 leading brands, including Walmart and Gap, appear deeply troubled at the conditions of the garment and textile sectors and the prospects of their business in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh can learn a lot from China about tackling corruption and the role a clean government can play in executing a billion dollar-plus project like the Padma bridge. China, poised to become the world's largest economy, gives most of the credit for its amazing run of over 11.5 percent economic growth for a decade to its policy of zero tolerance for corruption.