WORLD

WORLD
GM workers in Germanyend six-day walkout
BOCHUM, Germany -- A General Motors Corp. plant in Germany resumed production Wednesday after workers voted to end a six-day walkout aimed at stopping thousands of threatened job cuts.
The move, greeted as a "wise decision" by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, opened the way for work to start again at three other plants in Germany, Belgium and Britain that were shut down for lack of parts from the Bochum plant of GM subsidiary Adam Opel AG.
The chief employee representative at the Bochum plant, Dieter Hahn, said more than two-thirds of the employees voted earlier Wednesday to go back to work.
Bochum employees stopped work last Thursday, hours after GM announced plans to slash 12,000 jobs in Europe by the end of 2006, mostly in Germany. Fearing that their aging plant would be the worst hit, the workers demanded assurances that no one will be fired.
REGION
Home Savings parentsees earnings drop
YOUNGSTOWN -- The earnings of United Community Financial Corp. fell in the third quarter. The parent company of Home Savings and Loan Co. and Butler Wick Corp., both based in Youngstown, earned $3 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with $5.8 million, or 17 cents a share, in the same quarter last year.
For the first nine months of this year, UCFC has earned $13.5 million, or 45 cents a share, compared with $17.8 million, or 55 cents a share, during the first three quarters of last year.
Douglas McKay, company chairman and chief executive, said gains from loan sales have been lower this year and the company's provision for loan losses has been higher. The allowance for loan losses varies, depending on items such as trends in delinquencies and perceived risk in the loan portfolio.
F.N.B. Corp earns$14.7 million in quarter
HERMITAGE -- F.N.B. Corp., the parent of First National Bank of Pennsylvania, earned $14.7 million, or 31 cents a share, in the third quarter. In the same quarter last year, the company posted earnings of $500,000, or 1 cent a share. Last year's third quarter included restructuring expenses of $20 million, or 43 cents a share, related to the company's spin-off of its Florida operations.
The company said net interest income and noninterest income were both higher last quarter.
From Vindicator staff and wire reports