On November 3, a video of a stray dog getting beaten in a bathroom of a residence in Kazipara in Mirpur went viral on Facebook. The dog had supposedly bitten a 12-year-old in the region and as a result, the child's uncle, the watchman of the residence, and an accomplice were punishing it.

The year did end on a sour note for the Bangladesh national cricket team. While the South African series was bound to be difficult, the Tigers were expected to put up a much better show than the 7-0 drubbing.

Climate change, though felt ubiquitously across the globe ever increasingly, still remains a bone of contention, sometimes hard enough for many to sink their teeth into.

The long wait for a novel from short story genius George Saunders is finally over. And as anyone who knows Saunders's work would expect, his first novel is a strikingly original production, a divisively odd book bound either to dazzle or alienate readers.

The Days To Revolution

For the longest time my vocabulary in Bengali was limited to bame, dane and ekhane. Three little words that proved invaluable when navigating Dhaka traffic from the back of a rickshaw.

Bangladesh's towns and cities are infested with problems resulted from uncontrolled population growth and unplanned infrastructural developments.

While Bangladeshi trafficked victims and those looking for work have traditionally been found in various parts of Northern India, finding them in the southernmost parts of the country is a relatively new trend.

A group of undocumented Bangladeshi-Americans are in a fix but there is no talk of it in their country of origin.

We have seen him flex his muscles and unsheathe his claws. Women and men love him with equal intensity.

The world's most infamous little diamond—only the 90th largest in the world—glimmers along a bloody trail from throne to armband, (briefly) a humble paperweight, from brooch to crown, smuggled and secreted, carelessly misplaced or locked away, looted, gifted, exhibited, mocked, cut and, even today, sought by several claimants.

The slow but steady permeation of American and British TV into the lives of millennials and post-millennials has been raged at by living-room social scientists ever since Ross and Rachel found out that going back and forth in a relationship before marriage makes for good television.

Are all roads treated equally by them? Why was the initiative to improve roads, footpaths and drains in the upscale tri-state area prioritised by the incumbent Mayor and the DNCC in their first two years in office?

I was nine, perhaps eight. In a darkened room where a small television set glowed and sang, I trembled with the knowledge that I was the only person who had ever felt these things. That isn't entirely true, of course, but in my imagination, it had seemed just as good.

Most of these madrasas, including the Government Madrasah-E-Alia, Dhaka have lost their foundational spirit of producing skilled manpower by providing unified education with religious knowledge.

When Don 2 was released back in 2011, many South Asians living in Malaysia stormed the local cineplexes and halls to watch the movie. A remake of an old Indian gangster flick, a star cast, including Shahrukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra, pulled in quite the throng. As a part of an international conference in Kualalumpur at the time, a bunch of journalists from Bangladesh decided to watch the movie as well, catching one of the late-night shows after dinner.

Shoaib Hossain, a 26-year-old madrasa teacher, was well-thought-of by his neighbours for his honest and polite character. He was also venerated as a young hafiz (a person who has memorised the entire holy Quran) by the inhabitants of Charigram village under Singair upazila of Manikganj district.

The month of October is yet to come to an end, but the country has already witnessed at least 15 deaths by suicide. It won’t be a surprise if that number increases—statistics show that thousands commit suicide in Bangladesh every year.

In this special issue of Star Weekend, we tried to cover the persecution of the Rohingyas from various aspects. Written by renowned scholars with expertise in different fields, the articles argue for a more nuanced understanding of the crisis and suggest possible ways forward.

When Gauri Lankesh was killed, all quarters of Indian society condemned the killing except for the prime minister himself. Lankesh was editor of the Kannada weekly Gauri Lankesh Patrike, a secular activist and, most importantly, a staunch critic of Hindutva, the predominant form of Hindu nationalism in India.