In a constant on-and-off relationship, Twilight actors Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson have been straddling between yes and no — she cheated on him, he was heartbroken and later they both pretended to be normal. But not anymore!

According to eonline.com, Robsten has called it quits for now. A source revealed that the Twilight stars broke up on Saturday, after over four years of dating.

However, sources privy to the couple believe that the break-up is just temporary. A source said, “Kristen is heartbroken and so sad over the break-up. They are going to continue living at Kristen’s house because of the dogs,” the source continued. “It’s not fully over or he would have moved out.”

The couple got back together after their first break-up when Stewart started to date Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders. They celebrated Stewart’s 23rd birthday together, attended Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and also spent time together in New York, where Stewart had gone to attend the Met Gala.

However, the pair has not been spotted together since they landed at Los Angeles on May 8. We hope Robsten doesn’t make their fans too anxious and reveal something clear about their relationship status soon!

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2013.

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Residents of the twin cities on Sunday demanded the authorities concerned to cease collection of entry fees for parking at Benazir Bhutto International Airport (BBIA) Baqir Sajjad said the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) imposed a fee of Rs40 on every visitor who parked for three hours or less.

He said that the CAA was charging the fee without providing visitors any additional facilities, adding that other airport administrations across the country did not indulge in such a practice.

Another visitor, Tanveer, said that the authority was unlawfully collecting the parking fees, while expressing disappointment that the airport management had not provided vehicle security.

Muhammad Aslam said cars belonging to government employees were allowed to use the parking facilities free-of-charge whereas regular citizens were forced to pay a fee.

A CAA official said that the authority had imposed entry fees to curb the growing number of visitors accompanying those who were travelling, citing a lack of space and security concerns as the major reasons.

The official said the authority had published newspaper advertisements requesting passengers not to bring too many visitors with them, adding that “all of our efforts were in vain”.

He said the entry fee had led to a 20 per cent decline in the number of people visiting the airport.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2013.

ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has finalised arrangements to expand existing space and hire more officials to facilitate citizens with the degree attestation process.

HEC Chairperson Dr Javaid Laghari said the decision to expand the facility, which is expected to be completed by June 1, was taken during a meeting with the commission’s senior officials.

He said the commission had also decided to hire the services of more courier companies to avoid delays in dispatching degrees to or receiving degrees from foreign countries for attestation purposes.

Laghari added that degree verification was an essential requirement for overseas Pakistanis seeking jobs or looking to further business interests.

Hundreds of applicants visiting the HEC’s main office were experiencing inordinate delays for degree attestation because of a lack of manpower and insufficient space, he said.

However, new arrangements have ensured that applicants will be able to receive their degrees within three to four days while urgent cases will be processed within one day.

Laghari said the HEC had recently cleared a backlog amounting to around 40,000 degrees, which were pending for attestation.

On fee status, Laghari said the charges for urgent requests would be nominally increased.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2013.

In an answer to a parliamentary question, Foreign Minister Alistair Burt confirmed that the Foreign Office had ‘supported’ surveys which showed the proportion of respondents in the tribal areas who believed drone strikes were ‘never justified’ had risen from 59% in 2010 to 63% in 2011.

It appears to be the first time the British government has revealed it has carried out opinion polls on the CIA drone campaign in Pakistan – a programme on which it has refused to comment publicly.

Previously, British ministers have said: “Drone strikes are a matter for the United States and Pakistan.”

However, there have been claims that the UK government has been complicit in the programme, sharing locational intelligence with US agencies to help them target the strikes.

“The UK should not need to carry out polling to determine that a campaign of illegal killing is wrong,” said Kat Craig, legal director for the charity Reprieve, which campaigns for human rights around the world.

“But what this does show is that even British government surveys find that the drone campaign is increasingly unpopular.

“Ministers must come clean on the role that UK intelligence is playing in supporting drone strikes, put a stop to it, and put pressure on the US to end its campaign.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2013.

The umpires carried out several inspections and were left with the no choice but to call off the match, resulting in Pakistan taking the series 1-0 courtesy their 96-run win in the first ODI on Friday.

Pakistan are warming up for the ICC Champions Trophy tournament to start on June 6 in England and will now face Ireland in another two-match series that begins on May 23.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2013.

The event was organised by the university’s Business Management department in an attempt to examine consumer preferences with regards to the establishment of small and medium-sized enterprises, said a press release.

Around one hundred students formed five groups, representing Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan. SZABIST Islamabad Campus head Dr Bakhtiar Ali said that the event was designed to present a tough challenge to students to give them a taste of what the future holds and to help them overcome adversities. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2013.

The Finn lost practice time after changing the steering setup and struggled to get up to speed in last year’s race. Currently second in the championship, he hopes to have a better race this time around than he enjoyed last year.

“We’re not in first place, so we can’t be too happy,” he said of his season so far. “For sure it’s not a nightmare, but we’ve still got a lot of races yet to come, and anything can happen in Formula One. Monaco’s a different challenge, so we’ll have to see what happens there this year.

“We certainly won’t make the mistakes we made last time. There were a few things we didn’t do right and we suffered because of that. Sometimes that’s the way it goes, but the important thing is not to make the same mistakes again.

Raikkonen reiterated that qualifying will be the key, according to Autoweek.com.

“We have to focus on qualifying. We’ll have to see how the tires perform and if there are any good strategies to be made, but the most important thing is to qualify well.

“We can say our car has been fast everywhere else, so let’s hope it’s also fast there. We’ll do the best we can.”

‘McLaren can make small step forward in Monaco’

Meanwhile, Jenson Button is ‘confident’ McLaren can make another ‘small step forward’ in Monaco.

Despite introducing a number of new updates in Spain last weekend, the Woking-based outfit still struggled.

“Everyone at McLaren has been working flat-out since the Spanish Grand Prix,” he said. “We’re not yet where we want to be in terms of competitiveness, but I’m confident that we can make another small step forward in Monaco.

“We’ll continue to chip away at the performance of the MP4-28 until it’s capable of challenging at the front; there’s no other agenda for a winning team like McLaren. The aim for Monaco is to get both cars home in the points, as we did in Barcelona.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2013.

Helped by blistering knocks by Azhar Mahmood (80) and Shaun Marsh (63), Punjab piled up a big total of 183 for four after being put in to bat.

In reply, Mumbai were bowled out for 133 in 19.1 overs. Mahmood, Sandeep Sharma and Piyush Chawla all bagged two wickets apiece.

The outcome of the match had no impact on Mumbai’s position in the tournament as they prepare for the knockout stage. Punjab ended with 16 points from 16 matches.

Mahmood, who was declared man-of-the-match, said: “Number three is a good number to bat on and I enjoy doing it. This man-of-the-match award is for my daughters.

“Also, I’m quite fortunate to have played with a great player like Gilchrist.”

Meanwhile, Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma rued the team’s inability of forming partnerships during the chase.

“We didn’t start off well,” said Sharma, according to ESPNcricinfo. “I thought the target was not impossible. We kept losing wickets at regular intervals and couldn’t form any solid partnerships. It was very difficult to come back. I would like to congratulate Punjab. We need to regroup before the knockout stages. We have got to leave the negatives out.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2013.

The US Defence Department has made it clear that there will be no change in the policy of drone strikes against al Qaeda and its associates in Pakistan and across the world.

A senior official of the US Defence Department has said the Pentagon sees no need to change the broad congressional authorisation under which the military conducts lethal drone strikes against terrorist targets and estimated that the war with al Qaeda could continue for up to two decades, Washington Post reported.

“At this point we’re comfortable with the AUMF as it is currently structured,” Assistant Defense Secretary Michael Sheehan said of the Authorisation for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed by Congress in 2001.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2013.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education Department on Friday issued its schedule for summer vacations of educational institutions for the academic year 2013.

In a notification issued to this effect, the department stated in the plain areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, all primary schools will remain closed from June 1 to August 31 while the middle, higher and secondary schools will remain closed from June 15 till August 31. All schools in the northern region of the province will be closed for a month, from July 1 to July 31.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2013.