■Employment
Kodak to cut 6,000 jobs
Eastman Kodak Co, the world's largest photography company, said it will eliminate as many as 6,000 jobs as profit for the rest of the year tumbles because consumers are abandoning traditional film for digital cameras. Second-quarter net income fell to US$0.39 a share, higher than Kodak's forecast last month of US$0.05 to US$0.25. The company said it had a lower tax rate and better performance from health imaging and joint ventures. The stock rose as much as 11 percent. Consumer-film sales fell 8 percent last quarter as people took more digital photos, chief executive Daniel Carp said in a TV interview with Bloomberg News. Carp has tried to keep the Rochester, New York-based Kodak profitable by using fewer workers to run factories and reducing manufacturing costs.
■ Biotechnology
EC against GM-free zones
The European Commission said Wednesday that it will challenge attempts by any EU member countries to establish zones free of genetically modified (GM) crops. Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler said, "We want to ensure that farmers are able to cultivate the types of agricultural crops they choose be it GM crops, conventional or organic crops." Fischler told journalists that once a GM product had been determined to be safe, there was no question of a country banning it on all or part of its territory. He said he did not rule out that the commission would take a member country to the European Court of Justice if it attempted to set up exclusion zones. The European parliament on July 2 adopted a law on the labeling of GM foodstuffs, a key step towards lifting a de facto EU ban on GM products that has sparked fierce US criticism.
Agencies
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)