The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has added 74 new documentary heritage collections to its Memory of the World Register, bringing the total number of inscribed collections to 570. 

The entries – from 72 countries and 4 international organizations – cover topics such as the scientific revolution, women’s contribution to history and major milestones of multilateralism.

Among them are Sri Lanka’s Trilingual Inscription (Tribhasha Sellipiya) and a collection of documents connected with the Pānadurā Vādaya (The Great Debate of Panadura) in 1873 have been inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has announced.

The Trilingual Inscription is a joint submission with China.

Trilingual Inscription (TribhashaSellipiya)
Submitters: China and Sri Lanka.

The Trilingual Inscription is a stone tablet with Chinese, Persian and Tamil inscriptions, praising Buddha, God Vishnu and Allah. Discovered in 1911 in Sri Lanka by a British engineer, it is now preserved in the Colombo National Museum, with a replica exhibited in the Galle National Museum. Dated 15th February 1409, the tablet was installed by the Chinese Admiral Zheng He. Originally inscribed in the Treasure Boat Shipyard Park in Nanjingin, it was brought to Sri Lanka during his third voyage. The text mentions offerings made to a sacred mountain shrine. This is the only trilingual inscription having texts in Chinese, Tamil and Persian which represent three different regions and cultures.

Documents Connected with the Pānadurā Vādaya (The Great Debate of Panadura) in 1873
Submitter: Sri Lanka.

The four documents, kept at the Rankot Viharaya Buddhist temple in Panadura, hold immense historical, cultural, spiritual, and intellectual value. Created against the backdrop of religious discord between Buddhists and Christians in mid-19th century, they consist of correspondence between the Christian and Buddhist leaders advocating for an open dialogue on doctrinal issues, as well as a transcription of the entire dialogue. This transcription spans 27 and a half page of handwritten text on paper using ink. The event fostered reconciliation and mutual respect between the two religious communities. The English translations, later made available in Europe and the US, had a significant impact on religious activists and scholars in those countries, contributing to the recognition Buddhism as an advanced religion.

A high-level delegation of Sri Lankan officials will leave for the United States next week to discuss recent tariffs levelled against Sri Lankan goods by the US, Export Development Board Chairman/CEO Mangala Wijesinghe told reporters on Wednesday.

He said that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake had appointed a committee on dealing with the US tariffs on April 3 and that the committee had submitted a report to the President on possible measures Sri Lanka could take to offset the negative impact of the increased US tariffs.

Although the tariffs were to be introduced from April 9, US President Donald Trump later announced a 90-day pause, except for a 10 percent across the board tariff on all countries.

“The report comprises a number of short-, medium- and long-term solutions,” Wijesinghe said.

He added that they had met US Embassy trade officials twice in Colombo. “We requested relief from the US officials because we are in the middle of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. Sri Lanka needs to start repaying its loans from 2028, and for that we need to make rapid economic progress,” he said.

The committee on dealing with the US tariffs also decided that Sri Lanka needs to send a delegation to the United States to discuss the increased tariffs levelled against Sri Lankan goods, he said. “We have decided that the delegation will leave next week, but we have not decided on who is in the committee. The Government will decide who will be in the delegation,” he said.

One of the highest tariff rates – 44 percent was imposed on Sri Lanka, which sends 25 percent of its exports to the US. Only a few other countries such as Cambodia and Lesotho have a higher tariff rate.

Since then Sri Lanka has been engaged in efforts to assess the impact of US tariff revisions and initiate discussions with US in a bid to lower the tariffs imposed on the country’s exports. If the US President does not grant another reprieve, the increased tariffs will come into effect in July.

dailynews.lk

(This story, originally published by dailynews.lk has not been edited by SLM staff)

A US judge has ruled tech giant Google has a monopoly in online advertising technology.

The US Department of Justice, along with 17 US states, sued Google, arguing the tech giant was illegally dominating the technology which determines which adverts should be placed online and where.

This is the second antitrust case Google has lost in a year, after it was ruled the company also had a monopoly on online search.

Google said it would appeal against the decision.

“Publishers have many options and they choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable and effective,” the firm’s head of regulatory affairs Lee-Ann Mulholland said.

US district judge Leonie Brinkema said in the ruling Google had “wilfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts” which enabled it to “acquire and maintain monopoly power” in the market.

“This exclusionary conduct substantially harmed Google’s publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web,” she said.

Google lost on two counts, while a third was dismissed.

“We won half of this case and we will appeal the other half,” Ms Mulholland said.

“The court found that our advertiser tools and our acquisitions, such as DoubleClick, don’t harm competition.”

The ruling is a significant win for US antitrust enforcers, according to Laura Phillips-Sawyer, a professor at the University of Georgia School of Law.

“It signals that not only are agencies willing to prosecute but also that judges are willing to enforce the law against big tech firms,” she said.

She said the verdict sets an important legal precedent and is likely to affect decision-making in corporate America.

Google’s lawyers had argued the case focused too much on its past activities, and prosecutors ignored other large ad tech providers such as Amazon.

“Google has repeatedly used its market power to self-preference its own products, stifling innovation and depriving premium publishers worldwide of critical revenue needed to sustain high-quality journalism and entertainment,” said Jason Kint, head of Digital Content Next, a trade association representing online publishers.

(BBC News)