BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Feb 22 (Birbeo Bulletin/ANN): A government clerk was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment by the Intermediate Court on Saturday (Feb 20), for forging Department of Electrical Services’ (DES) documents.

Despite Haji Alias bin Haji Md Ali’s instant guilty pleas, Judge Pengiran Hajah Norismayanti binti Pengiran Haji Ismail noticed his lack of remorse and took a deterrent stance on deciding the sentence.

SINGAPORE - For close to 15 years, an architect and his wife unlawfully occupied 144.2 sq m of state land next to their three-storey house in Jalan Tari Zapin in Seletar, which was built in 2005 but had been left vacant since.

Ten cases of land disputes that lasted for over 15 years have been solved by the Banteay Srei district administration by understanding and peaceful mean on January 19.

Banteay Srei governor Khim Finan said on 20 January that a land dispute that had gone on for 15 years now had become an impediment to the citizens of the province on both sides of the dispute’s ability to live in safety and harmony in addition to having prevented either party from making productive use of the land.

It is hard to miss the two little houses sitting defiantly in the middle of the Singapore building site.

It's instantly reminiscent of the award-winning cartoon Up, the Pixar film which tells the tale of an old man who refuses to move from his home as towering blocks of flats rise around him.

Indeed, the owners of these two homes are just as determined to stay put, refusing offers reportedly worth millions to move elsewhere.

• A report by Global Witness has found that more than 100 Indonesian palm oil mills supplying agribusiness giants ADM and Bunge have been accused of land and human rights violations and environmental destruction.
• Global Witness found that neither company is addressing the majority of these allegations through their formal grievance processes, and effectively passing on this “conflict” palm oil to major consumer brands such as Nestlé, Unilever and PepsiCo.
• ADM and Bunge have denied any failure to police their suppliers, but have also pledged to look

Main photo: Koh Kong province, Cambodia. Prum Khoem, 45, says he used to have 10 hectares of land before it was taken. Photograph: Enric Català/The Guardian

Tate & Lyle has been accused of betraying 200 families in Cambodia who have fought for years to secure compensation for land they say was taken from them to make way for a sugar plantation.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 1 — A group representing Musang King durian farmers in Raub, Pahang today decried the district land office’s attempt to evict them ahead of their court appeal.

The people of the village of Aasikulam, Vavuniya stressed the hardships caused by the Sri Lankan Forest Department seizing their land earlier this month, with around 50 families stating they had been affected.  

One of the villagers said, “We depend on the agriculture to maintain our livelihoods and we make our living through the means of Chena cultivation.”

Lawyer extols value of traditional knowledge and tenure systems