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Yahoo ended Scott Thompson’s four-month stint as its CEO without giving him a severance package, according to documents filed Monday.

Thompson, 54, left Sunday in a management shake-up triggered by inaccurate information in his official biography. He would have been entitled to a severance package if Yahoo had terminated him “without cause,” according to the contract he signed in January.

When Yahoo fired Carol Bartz as CEO eight months ago, the company paid her $3 million in severance. Bartz stands to make even more money from the nearly 386,000 shares of restricted stock and nearly 416,000 stock options that vested upon her ouster.

Thompson kept a $1.5 million bonus and restricted stock valued at $5.5 million that Yahoo paid him when he joined. Those sums were intended to compensate him for benefits he gave up by leaving his job running PayPal, the online payment service owned by eBay Inc.

But Yahoo Inc free credit score online. is requiring Thompson to surrender unvested stock awards valued at $16 million.

Thompson was getting an annual salary of $1 million at Yahoo and could have gotten a bonus of up to $2 million this year.

Yahoo parted ways with Thompson because of the recent revelation that his bio included a college degree in computer science that he never received. Thompson received an accounting degree from Stonehill College, a small school near Boston, in 1979.

Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported that Thompson had recently told Yahoo’s board that he has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. The disease contributed to Thompson’s decision to leave Yahoo, according to the Journal.

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Iraqi officials say a car bomb has killed a policeman in the western city of Ramadi.

Security officials say the parked car exploded around 7:30 a.m. Sunday near a police patrol in a main street in the center of the city.

An official in the nearby Ramadi hospital said five other policemen were seriously wounded. Two passers-by were also wounded, he said.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province and used to be a stronghold of al-Qaida. Recently, local militias have managed to bring a measure of calm to the city and province, part of a general drop in violence seen across the country.

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U.S. service companies, which employ roughly 90 percent of the work force, expanded more slowly in April. Companies saw less growth in new orders and hired at a weaker pace.

The Institute for Supply Management says its index of non-manufacturing activity dropped to 53.5 last month from 56 in March. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.

The ISM’s survey covers all sectors outside of manufacturing. That includes retail, construction, financial services, health care, and hotels.

The slowdown in services comes as consumers have reined in their spending a bit. Consumer spending rose in March, but by much less than in the two previous months.

Americans are spending more on goods, such as cars and appliances, but are holding back when it comes to services. A government report Monday showed that spending on services was flat in March.

The ISM’s services index reached the highest point in a year in February, when it was 57.3. Consumers stepped up their spending that month at the fastest pace in seven months.

And in the first quarter, Americans increased their spending at the fastest pace in a year. But most of those gains were in January and February. And Americans spent more while saving less, a trend that economists worry isn’t sustainable guaranteed online personal loans.

The job market is improving, but incomes are barely growing. That could weigh on consumer spending in the coming months, dragging on the services sector.

Manufacturing has been the driving force behind the economic recovery. Economists would like to see services firms contribute more. On Tuesday, the ISM said that the manufacturing sector expanded at its fastest pace in 10 months. Measures of new orders, production and employment all rose. But manufacturing accounts for only about 12 percent of U.S. output.

Services firms need to step up hiring to accelerate job gains and rapidly push down the unemployment rate. The service sector includes low-paying positions in retail and restaurants. But it also has higher-paying jobs in professions such as information technology, accounting and financial services.

The government will release the April employment jobs report on Friday. Economists are predicting that employers added 163,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate will remain 8.2 percent.

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McKendree University has acquired the 18-hole Locust Hills Golf Course in Lebanon for $1.4 million, nearly doubling the size of the school’s campus. 

McKendree bought the public golf course for its future development needs but plans to keep the course open for now, the school said in a statement. The golf course is located at 1015 Belleville St. and is adjacent to the school’s McKendree West student apartment complex on College Road.

The purchase increases the size of the school’s campus from 125 acres to 234 acres.

“Our immediate plans are to operate it as a public golf course and to make any necessary improvements or enhancements as we are able,” the university’s president, Dr. James Dennis, said in the statement.

Long-term, the school will evaluate potential educational uses for the property. “Owning the golf course allows us to offer our students a variety of educational opportunities in the future,” Dennis said in the statement. “Locust Hills has natural water features that our biology department could potentially use as an outdoor laboratory to study aquatic organisms and plant habitats. Our sport management majors could learn about golf course and recreational facilities management. It’s exciting to imagine the possibilities.”

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Zimbabwe has taken majority ownership of all foreign-owned mining companies, Zimbabwe’s black empowerment minister said Thursday, a move the prime minister told companies to ignore, saying it could create “anarchy in the industry” in the already ruptured economy.

Minister Saviour Kasukuwere said in a statement that all companies that did not meet a late 2011 deadline to submit proposals to cede a controlling stake to blacks have forfeited 51 percent of their shareholdings and are now “deemed to be owned by the state.”

Zimbabwe has large Australian, Canadian and South African mining interests _ including giants Rio Tinto, Canadile and Anglo American _ and with scores of small white-owned gold mines.

The empowerment drive has split the shaky three-year-old coalition government. Critics says it has scared off much-needed investment and is being used as a political ploy ahead of elections President Robert Mugabe wants this year.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader, immediately urged the nation to ignore Kasukuwere and said the empowerment laws did not allow him to “unilaterally nationalize private entities.”

“There is no reason to create panic among investors by projecting the image of a voracious government keen to grab compulsorily people’s companies without compensation,” he said. “It is not the policy of this government to nationalize the mining businesses or any other business.”

Tsvangirai said he took a serious view of attempts to incite the public to act unlawfully against mining businesses.

Kasukuwere’s statement “poses a real risk of creating anarchy in the industry” and his party in the power sharing coalition will take “corrective measures,” he said.

In his Thursday announcement, Kasukuwere said profits since Sept. 25 from the government’s new controlling shareholdings were also regarded as “property of the state.” But he said companies that made a loss since then would have to cover losses from their side, and not draw from the “indigenized portion” held by the state to pay debt.

There was no immediate reaction from mining companies on the eve of the Easter holiday. Many Zimbabwean businesses shut down early for the four-day break.

Mining firms depend on foreign investment to maintain and replace aging equipment not financed by revenues from mineral exports already subject to royalties and tax.

Tsvangirai said Zimbabwe needed policies that created jobs for the millions of unemployed in the country.

“They want massive investment in the country and not a political campaign platform that will only benefit the elite at the expense of the majority,” he said.

Economist John Robertson said Kasukuwere’s announcement is likely to be difficult to enforce no checking account payday advance.

“It may be bullying to scare companies into handing over shares,” he said.

He said many firms let the Sept. 25 deadline pass because the government _ reeling under debt after a decade of economic turmoil _ didn’t offer payment for shares as required under the empowerment laws.

“The money isn’t here to pay or to develop the mines if they are nationalized in the same way commercial farms were deemed state land. Only foreigners have the money and they won’t bring it to have half of it taken from them,” he said.

The agriculture-based economy went into meltdown after Mugabe ordered seizures of thousands of white-owned farms in 2000. Many seizures turned violent.

Robertson described the empowerment drive in its present form as “dishonest” and said it will likely lead to mines being left to stagnate, with worsening poverty for all but an elite minority gaining foreign assets.

“Tens of thousands of our young people will be disempowered by being denied skills training and jobs,” he said.

Last month, Zimbabwe’s biggest platinum producer said it had reached an “acceptable” agreement with the government to yield 51 percent ownership to blacks.

South Africa’s Implats, owner of 87 percent of the Zimbabwe producer Zimplats, said a joint technical team of experts from both sides was working out methods of transferring a majority stake worth at least $500 million.

But Implats chief executive David Brown has said the transfer won’t take place if Zimbabwe doesn’t pay up, adding international legal steps could be taken if Zimplats is forcibly nationalized without payment.

Zimbabwe and South Africa are the world’s largest suppliers of platinum, a corrosion-resistant metal with a wide range of industrial uses that is priced in the same range as gold.

Zimplats employs 8,000 workers in Zimbabwe.

Foreign cash inflows have dwindled in recent months amid uncertainty over the security of possible investments.

Tourism, now the second-biggest hard currency earner after mining since agricultural exports collapsed, has been affected by political and economic uncertainty and security concerns ahead of the elections proposed by Mugabe. Tensions and intimidation have heightened this year, rights groups say.

Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi said Wednesday that Westerners were being discouraged by their governments from visiting Zimbabwe.

“We all know what happens when a tourism destination is plagued by insecurity,” he said.

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Federal Reserve policymakers are worried that recent strong gains in hiring could fizzle if U.S. economic growth doesn’t pick up.

Minutes of the Fed’s March 13 meeting show that members expressed those concerns before sticking with a plan to keep interest rates at record lows until at least late 2014.

A couple of members said they want to take further steps to boost the economy if conditions worsen or inflation remains tame, according to the minutes, which were released Tuesday.

Stocks fell further after the minutes were released. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 105 points to 13,159.

The Fed sketched a slightly sunnier view of the economy after its last meeting, largely because of the best three months of hiring in two years. But members noted that there have been similar bursts of hiring in the past two years that ended up fading.

The readout from the Fed’s last meeting largely echoed a speech Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered last week to a gathering of economists.

The Fed is concerned that the recovery could falter, as it did last year. Americans aren’t receiving meaningful pay increases. Gas prices are high. And Europe’s debt crisis could weigh on the U.S. economy.

As long as inflation remains tame, analysts think the Fed will likely hold interest rates down to give the economy more support. Most economists don’t think Fed officials will change their interest-rate policy at their next meeting on April 24-25 and will ease credit only if the economy slows further.

Still, the outlook for the economy is improving.

Employers added an average of 245,000 jobs a month from December through February pay day loans. The unemployment rate has fallen nearly a full percentage point since summer, to 8.3 percent.

The government will report Friday on the job market in March. Many economists believe that report will show another strong month of job creation with a net gain of 210,000 jobs. They expect the unemployment rate will hold steady at 8.3 percent.

U.S. consumers boosted their spending in February by the most in seven months, raising expectations for stronger growth at the start of the year.

Americans spent more even as their income barely grew. To make up the difference, many saved less.

Many people are more confident in the economy, despite stagnant wages and higher gas prices. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey index rose last month to its highest level since February 2011.

The economy grew at an annual pace of 3 percent in the October-December quarter. Most economists expect slightly slower growth in the current January-March quarter.

Bernanke said the combination of modest economic growth and rapid declines in unemployment is something of a puzzle. Normally, it takes growth of roughly 4 percent annual growth to lower the rate by 1 percentage point over a year.

Bernanke cautioned that he doesn’t expect the unemployment rate to keep falling at its current pace without much stronger growth and more robust hiring.

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A downtown building left vacant by businessmen brothers Mike and Steve Roberts is getting new life from a developer who is refurbishing the building as apartments.

Developer Brian Hayden said Tuesday he plans to open the $6.5 million project, at 400 Washington Avenue, on April 13 to coincide with the Cardinals’ home opener.

But Hayden said a more basic reason for undertaking the project is to profit from St. Louis University’s decision to relocate its law school to downtown from the main campus in midtown. Hayden, who has a SLU degree in aerospace administration, already has two apartment projects near the university’s main or medical school campuses.

About five years ago, the Roberts brothers had a plan to develop 400 Washington as a hotel. Their Roberts Downtown Development Co. bought the former WS Hotel with an eye toward redoing it as extended-stay lodging. They later abandoned that plan and put the building up for sale last year.

Hayden said he is refurbishing the former WS Hotel rooms as 78 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments. The WS Hotel suites, developed for extended stays, have full kitchens, Hayden noted. He said work on his project, called Gallery 400, began as soon as he completed the building’s purchase on Feb. 7.

The structure, across Washington Avenue from the Missouri Athletic Club, was built as the headquarters of Edison Brothers Stores.

Hayden is an anomaly among St. Louis developers because he uses no tax incentives or tax credits in his projects. Like his Gallery 3450 project on Russell Boulevard and his Gallery on Washington, near SLU, the new downtown project is financed without public incentives, he said.

“If the project can’t support itself financially, then it shouldn’t be done,” Hayden said. “Every project should stand on its own merit.”

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Asian stock markets were mostly lower Thursday, hindered by falling commodity prices and worries about the extent of China’s economic slowdown.

But Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose for a third straight day, basking in the ongoing retreat of the yen from record highs against the U.S. dollar. The Nikkei was 0.4 percent higher to 10,091.19.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.1 percent to 21,288.23 and South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.2 percent to 2,040.86. Benchmarks in mainland China fell while Indonesia and New Zealand rose.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.4 percent at 4,270.80. Mining and resource-related shares that depend on Chinese demand were hurt after Premier Wen Jiabao said Wednesday that controls to cool surging housing prices would remain in place.

BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, fell 1.7 percent. Newcrest Mining Ltd. plummeted 3.8 percent.

“Investors’ focus shifted to China growth concerns, after Premier Wen made some fairly negative comments about the property market,” said Stan Shamu, market analyst at IG Markets in Melbourne, Australia. “This is likely to see recent government curbs on property speculation stay in place payday loans for bad credit.”

In the U.S., markets are expecting a “very subdued number” when industrial production figures for February are released later in the week, analysts at DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore wrote in an email. Production is “growing but not rapidly and it’s not accelerating.”

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.1 percent to 13,194.10. The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.1 percent to 1,394.28. The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.03 percent to 3,040.73.

Benchmark oil for April delivery was up 32 cents to $105.75 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.28 to settle at $105.43 per barrel in New York on Wednesday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3027 from $1.3024 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar rose to 84.05 from 83.72 yen. The Japanese currency has been weakening against the dollar ever since the Bank of Japan increased its economic stimulus program in February.

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Greece faces further hurdles and delays before it can receive a second, euro130 billion ($171 billion) bailout in spite of its lawmakers voting through more austerity measures in the face of violent protests.

The European Union’s Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn on Monday called the Greek parliament’s approval of a further round of budget cuts a “crucial step forward,” but Germany insisted it would still take some time before the second bailout is delivered.

Germany, which as Europe’s biggest economy pays the largest part in bailout deals, said it wouldn’t give its final approval for the new aid payments until early March _ after it becomes clear how many banks and investment funds are willing to take losses on their Greek bonds and the parliament in Berlin votes on the new measures.

Pushing the new bailout back for several weeks underlines the amount of distrust that has built up against Greece over the past two years, when many promised cuts and reforms were passed in its Parliament but never actually implemented.

But it also means that Greece, its citizens, and the rest of the world economy won’t know for several weeks whether the country can avoid a potentially disastrous default. A bankruptcy could force Greece out of Europe’s euro currency union, drag down other troubled eurozone countries and further roil global markets.

“Germany is trying to get the best deal it can by putting pressure on Greece now,” said Ben May, European economist at Capital Economics in London. The idea is to “give Greece a bit more of an incentive over the next few weeks to speed things up and get things moving.”

But delaying the final approval of the bailout is not without risk. Uncertainty over the new rescue money could dissuade some of Greece’s private investors from participating in a separate bond swap deal, May warned. A hitch in getting the bailout package through national parliaments in the eurozone could also push Greece perilously close to missing a euro14.5 billion bond redemption on March 20, he added.

Greece’s political leaders scrambled over the weekend to get new far-reaching austerity measures through Parliament ahead of a meeting of the finance ministers from the 17 euro countries on Wednesday. The drastic cuts debated on Sunday included axing one in five civil service jobs over the next three years and slashing the minimum wage by more than a fifth.

As Greek lawmakers voted on the new cuts, the streets of Athens and other cities were rocked by violent protests. In Athens, at least 45 buildings were burned while dozens of stores and cafes were smashed and looted. Police arrested at least 74 people and detained a further 92, while in several cases they had to escort fire crews to burning buildings after protesters prevented access.

However, the Greek Parliament’s vote hasn’t brought an end to the uncertainty. Apart from some technical decisions, several key issues remain:

_It is unclear whether the new spending cuts, the debt relief deal and the new bailout will be enough to bring Greece’s debt load down to 120 percent of economic output by 2020 _ the maximum its international creditors perceive as sustainable.

Several weeks ago, the EU estimated that there was still a financing gap of around euro15 billion ($20 billion) and an EU official on Monday could not say whether the gap has since decreased instant payday loan lenders. There is hope that the European Central Bank, which also holds a significant amount of Greek debt can help close that gap by forgoing profits on those bonds.

_Greece’s debt sustainability depends on whether enough private investors participate in a bond swap designed to slice some euro100 billion ($132 billion) off Greece’s euro350 billion ($464 billion) debt pile. Athens wants banks and other investment funds to exchange their old Greek bonds for new ones with half the face value, lower interest rates and longer repayment deadlines. But the deal will only work if almost all private bond holders take part. If not enough of them sign up, Greece could still pass new legislation that could force holdouts to participate.

_Athens still needs to spell out how exactly it plans to cut an extra euro325 million in spending this year. The sum was included in the austerity package that passed through parliament, but Greece hasn’t said where the money will come from. An EU official said Monday that much of the euro325 million could come from further cuts to Greece’s defense budget.

_The other 16 countries that use the euro are still waiting for the leaders of Greece’s two main political parties to commit in writing to implementing the new austerity measures even after elections expected for April. Both the Socialists and the center-right New Democracy party backed the package in the parliamentary vote, but New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras has said that he disagrees with some of the measures.

_National parliaments in Germany, Finland and the Netherlands will have to vote on the second bailout package. Since those countries are traditionally most critical of bailouts, the votes are unlikely to happen before there is clarity on whether the bailout deal will actually make Greece’s debt sustainable again. Germany said its parliament will vote on Feb. 27.

Germany’s insistence on taking more time to decide whether it is willing to send more bailout money to Greece means the final decision on the rescue loans will have to be split from the bond swap deal.

The swap offer for private investors has to be launched this week so that it can be completed ahead of March 20, when Greece has to redeem some euro14.5 billion in bonds.

The finance ministers from the other 16 countries that use the euro as their currency could give Greece the green light to make the swap offer to investors at their meeting Wednesday, which would give investors several weeks to decide whether to participate.

However, the finance ministers “will have to provide the private sector with some assurances on the second bailout in order to for them (the private bondholders) to look at the deal and make a real judgment,” said Capital Economics’ May.

“Everything takes place or nothing takes place and that by definition makes it a more complicated and time consuming process,” May warned. “Assuming a deal is put in place, it’s likely to come right down to the wire.”

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Juergen Baetz in Berlin and Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed to this story.

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