It defies logic that every year we have to editorialise on the onslaught of mosquitoes before the rainy season begins.

Every time an incident of militancy or extremist violence occurs in the country, the matter enters the realm of politics with the predictable mutual blame game between the AL and BNP.

We condemn the heinous attack on Professor Dr Muhammed Zafar Iqbal. We are horrified at the audacity of the assailant who stabbed the respected teacher and writer on Saturday. Thankfully, Dr Iqbal is out of danger at the moment, and the assailant is in custody. We hope for a proper investigation of this cowardly attack and that due punishment is meted out to the assailant, and his accomplices, if any.

The Daily Star is delighted to have recognised the contribution of seven truly awe-inspiring women, whose relentless determination earned them The Daily Star-IPDC Unsung Women Nation Builders Award 2018.

The barbaric attack on a second year student of Rajshahi Government College by some Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists has left us shocked and outraged.

We are deeply concerned at the events taking place along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

The news that Bangladesh has more green RMG factories than any other country in the world is a delightful one. Over the last few years, Bangladesh's garment industries, the lifeline of the country's economy, have faced repeated calls to strengthen their factory safety and security.

Two incidents of rape reported by this paper on Wednesday, while tragic and shocking, brought out a stark reality about the culture of rape and how sometimes, the role of the local community leaders in patching up the matter instead of handing the perpetrators to the police sustain the crime rather than prevent it. The incidents occurred in Narayanganj and Noakhali respectively.

The painful experiences of Rohingyas have once again been poignantly narrated to the visiting Nobel trio, and anyone who hasn't really been through the harrowing experiences cannot actually comprehend the horrendous nature of violence that these people have been through.

We are horrified to learn that two members of the Detective Branch (DB) of police have sold off more than 700,000 seized yaba tablets and made a profit of Tk 8 crore! That the very custodians of the law are now increasingly engaged in criminal activities is a very ominous sign for law enforcement in the country. Such acts cannot be tolerated because the illegal yaba trade has been declared the number one problem in narcotics by the government! Reportedly, there are ongoing investigations into the matter.

A government report has revealed that the dropout rate of girls at the secondary level stands at 42 percent. It is higher than the dropout rate of boys at secondary level, which is 33.43 percent. When the overall secondary school dropout rate has been declining, this high dropout rate of girls is worrisome.

We reported a road crash on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway that resulted in 10 deaths and 30 injured on February 27 because the driver was busy talking on his mobile phone! The very next day we caught on film, a covered van driving on the wrong side of the highway in the Sonargaon upazila of Narayanganj district.

The recent comments made by three Nobel laureates when they visited Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, have brought to the fore the need for the international community to be unanimous in taking concerted action against the genocide that forced more than a million Rohingyas to flee their homeland, Myanmar.

Women in general face many obstacles in our society, and for women who are challenged physically or emotionally, those challenges increase exponentially. These women represent one of the most underprivileged groups in society who remain outside the development process altogether and are deprived of work opportunities.

Air pollution is a common phenomenon in major urban centres around the world.

The demonstrations held by various university and college students on February 25 demanding an end to the existing Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) quota system are unsurprising given that such calls have been made numerous times in the past.

Despite repeated assurances from the government that political space will be afforded to all, the way the police cracked down on BNP activists on February 24 seems to indicate otherwise.

The remarks of the Indian Army Chief regarding “planned migration” from Bangladesh and “proxy war” are not only irresponsible but also insensitive.

The satellite images by Human Rights Watch, an international rights group, reveal the extraordinary cover-up efforts by Myanmar to suppress the evidence of the widespread atrocities against Rohingyas that its forces have carried out.

Currently, over 30 percent of women in Bangladesh are participating in the workforce, and according to the current rates this percentage is set to rise to above 80 within the next decade.