Indonesia, hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic, became the first country to approve the new vaccine for COVID-19 created by United States (US)-based Novavax, the company announced Monday.The approval will give Indonesia, which has strained to obtain adequate supplies of coronavirus vaccine for its 270 million people, first access to the vaccine, which will be manufactured in India under the brand Covovax.The vaccine uses a different technology than those which already have gained general app

Church leaders in Indonesia's conflict-wracked Papua region called for calm Sunday as thousands fled to shelters after a two-year-old boy was killed in a firefight between government troops and independence-seeking rebels.The restive region at the easternmost edge of the Southeast Asian archipelago has been the scene of intermittent clashes for decades in one of the world's longest-running insurgencies. This week, a two-year-old boy was killed in an exchange of gunfire whil

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has urged richer countries to share their vaccines with poorer ones, in an exclusive interview with the BBC.Mr Widodo said it "shouldn't be just a few countries that get all the vaccines, and some other countries get only a little".He was speaking ahead of a visit to the G20 and COP26 meetings, where he will be meeting other world leaders.Indonesia was one of the countries hardest hit by the COVID pandemic.President Jokowi - as he is popul

Bad news travels. Good news doesn’t. When Afghanistan’s government collapsed recently, the whole world watched. But when Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority country, produces the world’s most effective democratically elected leader today – President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi – almost no one outside the archipelago knows the story. That story is all the more remarkable because Jokowi has succeeded in one of the world’s most difficult countries to govern.

After months of lockdown, parts of Southeast Asia are leaving behind their "zero-COVID" policy and charting a path toward living with the virus - despite experts' warnings that it may be too early to do so.COVID-19 swept across the region this summer, fuelled by the highly infectious Delta variant, with cases climbing steeply in July and peaking in most countries by August.Now, governments including Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are looking to revive their economies - particu

Official data in Indonesia shows a Delta-driven second wave of COVID-19 that saw the Southeast Asian nation become the global epicentre of the pandemic in July and August has run its course.But some of the country’s top epidemiologists say poor testing and tracing capacity, inaccurate estimates on the death toll and the deliberate falsification of data, means there is still no clear picture of the pandemic in Indonesia and a third wave could be brewing.At the peak of Indonesia’s second wave i

In a landmark victory for Indonesian environment campaigners, a court on Thursday ordered President Joko Widodo to clean up Jakarta's notorious air pollution, ruling that the leader and other top officials had been negligent in protecting citizens.The capital and its surroundings form a megacity of about 30 million people, which routinely ranks among the most polluted cities in the world.Experts have warned for years about the threat posed by Jakarta's smog to the health of resident

Japan’s success story in implementing the carbon tax and emission trading scheme (ETS) all together can be the best lesson for Indonesia, which its carbon pricing is still up in the air.The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report illustrates that without immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5 degree Celsius (°C) or even 2°C will be beyond reach.

A fire tore through an overcrowded Indonesian prison in the early hours of Wednesday when most inmates were asleep, killing 41 people and injuring dozens of others, an official said.Firefighters extinguished the blaze – which was mostly contained within one block that housed prisoners jailed on drug charges – at around 3 am (2000 GMT Tuesday) and evacuated the victims.A video released by the Justice Ministry office showed the ceiling collapsing as the fire tore through the block."40 died

Indonesians expressed concerns over the security of their personal medical data Saturday after the president's coronavirus vaccine certificate was leaked and a large test app also appeared compromised.Indonesia has a weak cyber security record, with poor online literacy and frequent leaks previously.Joko Widodo's vaccine certificate – which circulated online, showing his censored ID number and vaccination times – was leaked by users who found his data on official vaccine-monitoring