The revised tax policy on postal shipments to EU countries will come into effect from today (01). Accordingly, the new tax policy will apply to all postal items except letters addressed to 26 EU countries, Post Master General Ranjith Ariyaratne said. According to the EU, the tax policy applies to postal consumers, online retailers and online merchandise of postal goods to EU countries. 150 will be subject to other customs policies in addition to the country’s tax policy, so all taxes on postal items will be levied at the destination. Post Master General Ranjith Ariyaratne has informed the public that the Sri Lanka Postal Department is not responsible for any such taxes or other taxes.

The nurses’ unions have decided to go on strike today (01) and tomorrow (02) in all hospitals in the country except a few specialized hospitals. Its chairman Saman Ratnapriya stated that although the strike was not carried out in Covid treatment hospitals, including specialized hospitals, if the nurses’ problems were not resolved, a continuous strike would be launched in the future. All hospitals in Sri Lanka as well as the Public Health Service and the Nursing Education Service are joining the protest movement. 1103 nurses in hospitals, including two national hospitals, 26 teaching hospitals, 17 general hospitals and nurses in all hospitals except specialized hospitals are involved in this. There are about 38,000 nurses in Sri Lanka who will join the strike,” Ratnapriya said.

July 1, 2021 06:47 amFour areas in Jaffna, Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya districts have been isolated with effect from this morning (July 01), says the National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO). Thereby, the following localities will be under isolation orders until further notice:Jaffna DistrictKayts police area• Kalliththeru• Kalavanthalvu in Karainagar GN DivisionKandy DistrictKandy police area• Welameda Road in Suduhumpala West GN DivisionNuwara-Eliya DistrictKotmale police area• Middle area in Dunsinane GN Division

For it seems the stunning 2-0 victory has helped bring about a thaw in the icy relations between Princes William and Harry. At the socially-distanced garden party and afternoon tea, Sheeran was overheard congratulating Prince Harry on the birth of his daughter Lilibet Diana earlier this month. Prince Harry was seen speaking to Luke Fisher, far right, who won in the inspirational young person category. Tomorrow Harry will join his brother Prince William, 39, for the official ceremony to mark what would have been their mother's 60th birthday. Only William, Harry and a small group of Diana's closest family will be present.

Designed to make premium features accessible to all, Huawei Y6p, Huawei Y5p and Huawei Y7a are three of the highly embraced smartphones in the Y series. The feature packed Huawei Y6p is available in phantom purple, emerald green and midnight black colors. Yet another powerful device in Y series is the Huawei Y5p, which is more affordable than the Y6p. Huawei Y7a is the most feature packed smartphone in the Y series and one of the highly embraced devices during the recent past. Huawei Y7a is equipped with a Kirin 710A processor, which is reputed for its fast processing power and lag free performance.

President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte thanked the government of Sri Lanka for its assistance to overseas Filipino workers - particularly in their repatriation - amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement on Wednesday, the Office of the President (OP) said Duterte and his Sri Lankan counterpart, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, had a phone conversation on June 28, where the two leaders renewed their commitment to further boost bilateral ties. “The President thanked the Sri Lankan government for its assistance in the repatriation of Filipinos amid this pandemic and for the safe return of Filipino seafarers in the MT New Diamond that caught fire off the eastern coast of Sri Lanka in September 2020,” the OP said. The two leaders also discussed other areas of cooperation - including security and defense, trade and investment, labor, migration, and tourism. Duterte also conveyed the Philippines’ interest to strengthen its engagement with Sri Lanka in the United Nations on issues of common concern.

Slams free speech restrictions and discrimination tooBy Pamodi WaravitaThe Sri Lanka Collective Against Torture (SLCAT) wrote to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) condemning several incidents of custodial violations such as arbitrary arrests and detentions, deaths and shootouts during the conduct of inspections, and the new restrictions placed upon the freedom of speech under the guise of tackling fake news. “Particularly during a pandemic, when the rights of citizens are restricted due to health reasons, such incidents can cause public anxiety and unrest. While the Police should take action against those that violate the law, this should neither be arbitrary nor dependent on the identity or social status of the person, but should be fair and equitable,” the letter stressed. Furthermore, the letter pointed to the participation of the Police in the birthday party of the Kurunegala Mayor and the funeral of the mother of a monk (Ven. Iththekande Sadhdhatissa Thero) as instances of the arbitrary application of the law.

The White House is yet to send to the U.S. Senate the nomination of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, whose name has been doing the rounds for the Ambassador role in New Delhi. The U.S. State Department announced the appointment of Atul Keshap, a senior foreign service officer with years of experience in South Asia, as Chargé d’Affaires (CDA) ad interim, in New Delhi, to replace Daniel Smith, who is retiring. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives and played a key role in developing the U.S.-Maldives defence relationship. The two countries signed on to a framework for their security relationship last September. He also served as Deputy Assistance Secretary for South Asia and was posted previously to the American Embassy in New Delhi.

Experts have warned that rising fuel rates could severely derail India’s economy, which is already under pressure due to the impact of the second Covid-19 wave. Rising fuel prices have resulted in a sharp rise in retail inflation, making a host of essential commodities and services costlier for citizens. Inflation is another reason why economists are worried about rising fuel prices. The cost that consumers bear for such services – directly or indirectly – have been rising gradually over the past two months as a result of rising fuel prices. Cutting taxes necessaryExperts believe that economic recovery will become tricky if the Government continues to ignore rising fuel prices.

By Chris Jewers For MailonlinePublished: 12:14 EDT, 30 June 2021 | Updated: 12:49 EDT, 30 June 2021This is the horrific moment a woman passes out in pain after receiving 100 lashes for having pre-marital sex under a Sharia law punishment handed out in Indonesia. Footage shows the Indonesian woman collapsing after being flogged in public for having sex before marriage. The woman, whose name was not disclosed, and her male lover each received 100 lashes in the city of Lhokseumawe on Monday. A woman passed out in pain after receiving 100 lashes for having pre-marital sex under a Sharia law punishment handed out in IndonesiaThe city is in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh, the country's only region with the autonomy to enforce Sharia law. Wilayatul Hisbah chief Zulkifli said: '[She] had to be carried away from the location because she fainted after receiving 100 lashes.'

In other words, the problem of livelihoods and the problem of human dignity cannot be divorced. In that sense, human dignity is an inherent quality of a human being. This is symbolic of the problem we are discussing here about the link between human dignity and the availability of the most basic needs for people to live, and even to be buried, with dignity. Thus, the whole issue of governance needs to be understood differently when looked at from the point of view of human dignity. The result is quite an absurd situation, where a lot of documentation is produced asserting the problems of human dignity and human rights, while for quite a sizable section of society most of the time, and even for the entire society on some special occasions, the possibilities do not exist to get treatment that respects their human dignity.

Spicing things up further and in an ultimate quest to bring the utmost choice to the customer, Realme also created the Realme GT Neo. Beyond this chipset swap, the X7 Max / GT Neo is pretty much identical to the vanilla Realme GT. For instance, the Realme X7 Max 5G is capped at 50W of fast charging on its 4,500 mAh battery, instead of the 65W the vanilla Realme GT gets. Finally, to the best of our knowledge, there is no 6GB RAM version of the Realme X7 Max 5G available, while the Realme GT Neo does offer that in its base tier. The Realme X7 Max 5G kicks it off with 8GB of RAM and goes up to 12GB.

June 30, 2021 09:08 pmThe Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry reports that another 606 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Sri Lanka, moving the daily total of new cases to 1,786. This brings the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus reported in the country to 259,011. As many as 225,952 recoveries and 3,077 deaths have been confirmed in Sri Lanka since the outbreak of the pandemic. The Epidemiology Unit’s data showed that 29,606 active cases are currently under medical care.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lankan author Kanya D’Almeida has won the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. D’Almeida, from Colombo, Sri Lanka, was named the winner by British-Jamaican actress Dona Croll who presented the online ceremony. D’Almeida is the first Sri Lankan to win the overall prize and the second to win for the Asia region. Kanya D’Almeida is a Sri Lankan writer. The 2021 regional winners are:Africa winner Rémy Ngamije (Namibia), Asia winner Kanya D’Almeida (Sri Lanka), Canada and Europe winner Carol Farrelly (United Kingdom), Caribbean winner Roland Watson-Grant (Jamaica), and Pacific winner Katerina Gibson (Australia).

In a TikTok that has been viewed more than 143,000 times, Tharusha Mudalige (@tharusha_mudalige) lip-syncs along to a modified version of a popular audio clip. In this regard, Mudalige and a small handful of other LGBTQ+ creators stand out by having accumulated a generally mainstream audience base, something that hasn’t been easy for LGBTQ+ creators on other social media platforms. With roughly 12,700 followers on the app, much of her content emulates global TikTok trends with a Sri Lankan twist. Like, why do you care?”Meanwhile, Mudalige is aware that the largely positive reception to his content online may not necessarily translate in his day-to-day life. ‘It opens people up in an unbiased way’“The nature of TikTok is that it’s built to be a hyper-exposure-driven app.