It is unfortunate that three members of a family were killed and four others were injured in a microbus CNG cylinder blast in Tangail last Tuesday.

It is not every day we find a state minister lay bare what has been public knowledge for long—that there is rampant and uncontrolled extortion on the highways.

At the time of writing this editorial, there is still no sign of Tarek Rahman, a quota reform leader who has been missing since Saturday. What is so deeply worrying is that Tarek's mother has still not been able to file a general diary due to the alleged non-cooperation of the two police stations—Motijheel and Shahbagh—which gave excuses of a “lack of jurisdiction” and the requirement of “verifying” the complaint first.

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has found that a state-owned bank is openly skirting rules when it comes to foreign exchange transactions. Several major business houses which have been allowed to open letters of credit (LC) and transfer funds abroad, have not submitted bills of entry, which is a proof of goods entering country.

After a month of heightened tensions, eager waits and nail-biting moments, the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia is over. With a final between the favourites France and the underdogs Croatia, football fans could not have asked for a more entertaining World Cup.

We have, over the last few weeks witnessed the vicious attacks on students at Dhaka University and Rajshahi University by members of the student wing of the ruling party, attacks that left these students severely injured and then arrested by law enforcement agents.

Light engineering is showing potential as an emerging sector that supplies machinery to our principal foreign exchange earning garments manufacturing base. These small-scale factories make equipment used in washing, dyeing and finishing for use in the textile industry and are also involved in the process of transforming polythene into plastic film for packaging purposes.

With three city corporation elections coming up, we hope the Election Commission and other authorities will take all the necessary steps to ensure free and fair elections in Rajshai, Sylhet and Barisal.

People of Patuakhali town have been suffering from a serious water crisis, as reported by this newspaper yesterday, amidst a blazing summer, with around half the town's tube wells unusable due to a significant drop in underground water levels.

While we compliment Biman for starting the Hajj flight schedule on time,we are dismayed that its Hajj operations are likely to cause dislocation of regular flights, as reported in this paper yesterday.

The government seems fixated on flyovers and mega projects, which have always been plagued with cost overruns and years of delay. The construction of the 8.7km Moghbazar flyover for instance was supposed to start in 2011 but ended up with a two-year delay and was finally completed in 2017—resulting in a cost overrun of nearly Tk 450 crore.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, as the saying goes. After the injuries of two nurses in an unfortunate incident on Wednesday, in which plaster came off the ceiling of the old building of Noakhali General Hospital and fell on them, the least we can expect is that the victims will recover from their injuries and the trauma of the incident...

It has been three years since a local scientist invented jute polymer, a material that is not only biodegradable but is both water and air resistant,

We applaud the UN Secretary General António Guterres for his frank admission of the failure of the international community to address the Rohingya crisis.

The Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment minister's comments that our female workers in Saudi Arabia are returning due to language problems and food habits, amount to virtual denial of the reality on the ground.

Tthere are two aspects of the Dhaka University authorities' decision to keep the campus off-limits to outsiders.

We are greatly relieved by the High Court's position expressed on Monday that strikes enforced by clinics, hospitals and diagnostic centres to justify medical negligence were unethical. Coming in the backdrop of the 20-hour strike enforced by the private clinics, hospitals and diagnostic centres in Chittagong, the observation is very timely.

In a story published in this newspaper on Tuesday, we reported how seven schoolgirls, aged between 14 and 15, were injured when chunks of the ceiling of their classroom in Rangpur fell on them. Around 30 students of grade nine were taking their half-yearly examinations when about 80 square feet of ceiling plaster collapsed.

The picture in yesterday's paper of a huge hole in Circular Road in Motijheel may leave the reader weary of repetition.

Despite the progress we have made in terms of workplace safety post-Rana Plaza, there is much more to be done to provide a decent, women-friendly working environment for female RMG workers.