Malaysian activists hail "landmark" court ruling on minority.

Text of report published by Singapore newspaper The Straits Times website on 25 December

TEMERLOH (Pahang) - Malaysia's indigenous minority community, the Orang Asli, has won a landmark court battle affirming its rights over ancestral land, in a case hailed as a big victory for the marginalised group of about 100,000 people, or just 0.5 per cent of the population.

The High Court last week ordered some 2,036ha of land, which the government previously declared as reserved for Malays, be reclassified within a year as ancestral land for the Semelai, one of the Orang Asli tribes living in Peninsular Malaysia's forests.

Many of the Orang Asli still live in …