World business quick take

■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