Elly Burhaini Faizal, Nusa Dua – Although some may consider abortion to be an uncontroversial issue, participants at the three-day Global Youth Forum (GYF) in Bali are still debating it

Ainur Rohmah and Kusumasari Ayuningtyas, Semarang/Surakarta – Commemorating World AIDS Day, which fell on Saturday, Dec.

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – At daylight, the street outside Tanah Abang railway station is an illegal parking lot.

Amir Tejo & Vento Saudale, Surabaya/Bogor – The groups with the highest risk of contracting HIV in Indonesia has shifted from commercial sex workers to housewives and children.

Havana – East Timor's Education minister Bendito dos Santos Freitas underscored Cuba's cooperation with his country in the fields of education and healthcare.

Shopping malls, office buildings and other public places in Jakarta will have to provide new mothers with a "breast-feeding corner" under a proposed bylaw aimed at reversing Indonesia's

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – A new report published by the United Nations (UN) shows that Indonesia has suffered a setback in its campaign against HIV/AIDS.

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – Experts have said that a human rights-based approach was the key to ensuring the success of the family planning program.

Dessy Sagita – Indonesia's infant mortality rate matches that of significantly poorer Bangladesh, and blame for the alarmingly high rate lies with the government, an activist says.

Made Arya Kencana, Denpasar – Indonesia's vaccine industry has requested to be exempt from a controversial halal bill that would require the raw ingredients of food, medicine and cosmet

Lauren Turner – Intestinal worms affect up to half of East Timor's children and former president Jose Ramos-Horta is calling on Australians to help eradicate the "scourge" within five y

Karangasem, Bali – Between rice fields and coconut trees on Indonesia's "paradise" island of Bali, a man lies chained by the ankles to a rotting wooden bed in a garden, staring at roost

Dessy Sagita – Hundreds of people rallied near the Jakarta Convention Center on Wednesday to protest the opening of the World Tobacco Asia 2012 exhibition.

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – Six Indonesian women groups under the Women's Network for Tobacco Products Control (JP3T) voiced their rejection of the upcoming World Tobacco Asia (WTA)

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – The nation's objective of meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 could remain unfulfilled due to the large number of people still withou

Made Arya Kencana, Nusa Dua, Bali – The gap between urban and rural areas has left nearly half of Indonesia's 240 million people without proper access to sanitation and clean water, Hea

Made Arya Kencana, Nusa Dua, Bali – The government has finalized the legislation designed to combat the influence of tobacco, and has asked the cigarette industry to halt its opposition

Made Arya Kencana, Denpasar – Around 500 pregnant women are infected with HIV in Bali each year, the Bali branch of AIDS Prevention Commission has learned.

Soekarno-Hatta airport operator Angkasa Pura II was recently reprimanded by government officials after State-Owned Enterprise Minister Dahlan Iskan showed up to the airport and shamed t

Michael Bachelard and Jill Stark – Many people have seen the smoking baby on YouTube – the chubby, cheerful two-year-old from Sumatra with a pack-a-day habit.

Elly Burhaini Faizal – Indonesia is one of the top 15 countries in the world in terms of progress in dealing with child malnutrition, a report says.

Jakarta – A coalition of civil society groups under the collective banner MATA has called on the government to withdraw its support for the World Tobacco Asia (WTA) conference, slated f

A worrying decline in exclusive breast-feeding by new mothers underlines the need for the government to move quickly and enact a regulation that is meant to encourage and make breast-fe

The Tourism Ministry has announced plans to award Indonesian parks for their clean public toilets, which officials hope will make Indonesia a more attractive tourist destination, and wi

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – The growing numbers of HIV infections and the maternal mortality rate pose serious threats to the nation's efforts to achieve the Millennium Development

Novia D. Rulistia, Jakarta – More married women in the city were infected with HIV and AIDS in 2011, Jakarta AIDS Prevention Commission (KPAP) says.

Dessy Sagita & Ismira Lutfia – Activists have raised alarm over Indonesia's anti-abortion laws, saying that criminalized abortion encourages women to turn to illegal practices that

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – A cabinet minister said on Monday that the government had factored in the views of all stakeholders, especially tobacco farmers, in its proposed tobacco impac

Pekanbaru – Indonesia has the worst drinking water in Southeast Asia, a freshwater researcher at the Indonesian Research Institute (LIPI) said on Wednesday.

Jakarta – After previously insisting that vasectomies were banned under Islamic law, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has softened its stance on the matter, saying vasectomies are all

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – Despite its stated commitment to supporting the UN Population Fund's (UNFPA) reproductive health programs, the government is making little effort to prom

The spread of HIV infections in Papua is alarming, with those in remote regions being deprived of transportation facilities reported to have contracted the disease.

Jakarta – Woman politicians from the United Development Party (PPP) strongly opposed the plan by the Health Ministry to distribute free condoms to people with high risk of contracting s

Elly Burhaini Faizal and Arya Dipa, Jakarta – The debate over the distribution of free condoms as a preventative measure in the fight against HIV/AIDS has become political, with the new

In East Timor, the politics of language can be a complex and fiercely debated topic.

Camelia Pasandaran – Indonesia's new Health Minister has been summoned to appear before the House of Representatives on Monday to discuss the ministry's controversial youth condom campa

Margareth S.

Antara & Dessy Sagita – Newly-appointed Health Minister Nafsiah Mboy posted a video to YouTube on Tuesday explaining the ministry's plan to promote condom use among teenagers and ot

Indonesia has been able to cut by more than half the annual mortality among women and children in just over two decades, but too many of them continue to die, Unicef said on Thursday.

Jakarta – The head of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) says the council has always held that vasectomies and tubectomies were not allowed under Islamic law.

Dessy Sagita – Indonesia's weak regulations on cigarette sales and advertising make it the last remaining haven for the international tobacco industry, says a consumer protection activi

Indonesia is getting older. Life expectancy has climbed to nearly 70 years for Indonesian women and 65 for men, and continues to rise.

Indonesia's Child Protection Commission (KPAI) urged the government to limit condom sales to approved stores, a move that would effectively pull the contraception out of convenience sto

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – As the number of HIV/AIDS infections contracted through sexual contact grow higher in the country, the efforts to combat the condition should primarily f

Made Arya Kencana, Denpasar – The country's leading children's rights group is threatening to sue the government unless it issues a regulation banning all tobacco advertising, which it

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – Indonesia's family planning program remains stagnant due to poor access to reproductive and sexual health services, which could further affect the countr

Jakarta – Deputy Health Minister Ali Ghufron Mukti warned on Tuesday that maternal and infant deaths in Indonesia remained high despite improvements over the last few years.

Dessy Sagita – Child health in Indonesia remains a major challenge largely because of malnutrition, although maternal health is improving, a key international report says.

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – With three years remaining ahead of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) deadline in 2015, the number of infant and maternal deaths in 20 provinces th

Dessy Sagita – Blackened lungs. Gangrenous feet. Yellowed teeth. Indonesia's cigarette warning labels are about to get a lot nastier.