Business News Digest

Friday, August 25, 2006 REGION 16-cent dividend declared NILES — First Niles Financial declared a dividend of 16 cents a share, payable Sept. 22 to shareholders of record Sept. 8. First Niles is the parent company of Home Federal Savings and Loan Association of Niles. NATION GM to offer turbo-diesel with 25% more efficiency MILFORD, Mich. — General Motors Corp. said Thursday that after 2009 it will introduce a new V-8 turbo-diesel that improves engine fuel efficiency by 25 percent for North American light-duty trucks. The premium V-8 diesel is expected to maintain improved fuel efficiency compared with gasoline engines that produce similar power. The new engine will take up the same space as a small-block V-8 gas engine. GM said the engine will produce 13 percent less carbon dioxide than traditional gasoline engines. Detroit-based GM said it currently sells more than 1 million diesel engines a year. No criminal charges for mortgage lender WASHINGTON — Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored mortgage lending giant, won't face criminal charges over its multibillion-dollar accounting irregularities, the U.S. attorney's office said Thursday after two years of investigation. In May, the company was fined a record $400 million in a civil settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight over accounting problems and what regulators said was earnings manipulation by the company. Associated Press