Int'l artists meet in Bandung

BANDUNG: At least 20 young artists from 20 countries will be in Bandung for Art Camp 2005, starting Aug. 4 to Aug. 12.

The event's publication and documentation officer, Tarlen Handayani, said on Thursday that Indonesia was the third country to host the camp, which was staged in Paris, France (2003), and Tokyo, Japan, in 2004.

Sponsored by the Asia-Europe Foundation and organized by the Bandung Center for New Media Arts, the camp is themed Artist Initiatives Space and New Media Arts.

She said the camp was developed as a media to exchange information, practical context of art and a forum to share experiences while allowing artist in hosting countries to network with other artists.

The participants are final-year art students aged between 20 and 25 coming from Austria, China, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Thailand, the Netherlands. Indonesia is represented by Erik Pauhrizi, a design and fine arts student at the Bandung Institute of Technology. -- JP

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Policemen suffer respiratory ailments

SURABAYA: The incidence of acute respiratory infection among police officers in East Java increases 5 percent each year, a police official said on Tuesday.

East Java traffic police director Sr. Comr. Adjar Triadi revealed the alarming trend on Thursday after receiving 3,000 face masks from PT Kalbe Farma.

Last year, from the 35,397 policemen in the province, 5,628 of them had respiratory problems. Of that number, 2,335 of them have acute respiratory infections.

"The increasing number of policemen suffering from acute respiratory infections is due to the rapid increase in the number of motorized vehicles, at 15 percent per year," Adjar said.

In order to protect police officers from infection, he said the police would transfer traffic police officers to administrative work after working on the street for a year. -- JP