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Non-disclosure of HIV serostatus to sex partners among both HIV - infected female sex workers (FSWs) and HIV - infected clients of FSWs is exceedingly common in India, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in partnership with Indian researchers and HIV positive networks groups, have found.

Vietnam`s Communist government is considering whether to allow same-sex couples to marry or legally register and receive rights — positioning the country to be the first in Asia to do so. Even longtime gay-rights activists are stunned by the Justice Ministry`s proposal to include same-sex couples in its overhaul of the country`s marriage law. No one knows what form it will take or whether it will survive long enough to be debated before the National Assembly next year, but supporters say the fact that it`s even being considered is a victory in a region where simply being gay can result in jail sentences or whippings with a rattan cane.

The debate over the distribution of free condoms has deviated to an extent that groups opposing the government’s policy are missing the whole point, experts say. Ihsan`s comments follow on the heels of a debate over whether the government should be allowed to distribute free condoms to those in need as a preventive measure in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi, said that in Indonesia, unprotected sex, or sex that could cause sexually-transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies, affected people from almost all age groups, including children and adolescents.

A newly published edition of an authoritative Chinese dictionary has come under fire for leaving out the homosexual definition of a word commonly used to refer to gay men and lesbians. The word ‘tongzhi’ traditionally means ‘comrade’ and has been widely used by the Communist Party. But in recent decades the word has evolved to refer to homosexuals. The committee charged with revising and updating the dictionary said they chose to leave out the definition because they didn`t want to encourage its use, the director of the committee Jiang Langsheng told Chengdu Business Daily.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has gone on record to say that it is right to discriminate against homosexuals, In reply to a question from lawyer Firoz Hussein if Malaysia should ‘discriminate against homosexuals,’ Anwar said: ‘Yes’. ‘We do not give space to homosexuals’.

Activists have raised alarm over Indonesia’s anti-abortion laws, saying that criminalized abortion encourages women to turn to illegal practices that can be fatal. Inna Hudaya, the founder of SAMSARA, an NGO that provides assistance to women with unplanned pregnancies, said that criminalized abortion is a threat to public health in general, and to women in particular.