August 13, 1991

The Eastman Kodak Company yesterday announced its third work-force reduction in the last five years, citing plans to focus more closely on its core photography business. Kodak said that it would eliminate 3,000 employees from its domestic work force of 80,000, some by layoffs if the total could not be reached by an early-retirement program.

F.D.I.C. Nominee Set President Bush has decided to name William Taylor to head the agency that oversees the nation's banks, Administration officials said. Page D1.

As a video camera that they set up recorded the scene, two college students repeatedly raped and beat a 19-year-old woman for several hours in a Danbury, Conn., apartment over the weekend, the police said yesterday. They then tried to blackmail the Bethel woman by showing her the tape and telling her that they would release it if she went to the authorities, the police said.

Wall Street loves bank mergers because it hopes competition will vanish, or at least get a lot less vigorous. "Scale gives you market heft," said one investment banker yesterday, speaking on condition he not be named. "All of a sudden you have an 800-pound gorilla in some of these markets."

On a fast-paced day of diplomatic overtures and new demands from Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon, Israel found itself today in the unwanted position of emerging as the key to a comprehensive settlement of the Middle East hostage crisis. There were several unconfirmed news reports from Lebanon that secret deals had been struck as well as signs that delicate diplomatic maneuvering over Israel's role was under way.