As airline losses from the volcanic ash cloud spiraled over $1 billion on Monday, the industry demanded EU compensation and criticized European governments for not using scientific measures to evaluate the ash and open up their airspace.

Shares of some European airlines fell as flight disruptions from the volcanic cloud moved into a fifth day, and the International Air Transport Association complained of "no leadership" from government leaders — one of whom admitted to EU dissension about how to respond.

"It's embarrassing, and a European mess," IATA CEO Giovanni Bisignani told The Associated Press. "It took five days to organize a conference call with the ministers of transport and we are losing $200 million per day (and) 750,000 passengers are stranded all over. Does it make sense?"

European civil aviation authorities held a conference call Monday about what steps could be taken toward opening airspace, and transport ministers from all 27 EU member states were to hold another later in the day.

Dominique Bussereau, France's transport minister, told reporters Monday that he had urged EU president Spain ever since Saturday to call the ministerial meeting immediately — but Madrid declined.

Making good on threats made more than two months ago, Google began shifting its Chinese-based search functions to Hong Kong, a Chinese territory where companies are not legally required to censor Internet search results.

TOM Online, a mainland Chinese Internet firm controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, said Tuesday it was stopping use of Google's search services after "the expiry of agreement."

"TOM reiterated that as a Chinese company, we adhere to rules and regulations in China where we operate our businesses," the company's parent, Hong Kong-based TOM Group, said in a statement Tuesday.

TOM Online, which runs online and mobile Internet services in mainland China, did not say when it stopped using Google or provide any details of its agreement with the company.

TOM likely used Google's search box feature, allowing visitors to its Web site to search the Internet with the U.S. company's technology.

It's still unclear whether other Chinese companies that partner with Google will follow suit. Representatives for heavyweight Internet portal operator Sina Corp. did not answer calls seeking comment Tuesday.

Melbourne Federal Court Judge Christopher Jessup's decision opens the door for claims from 600 other litigants in a lawsuit against U.S. pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co. over its since-recalled drug Vioxx. The painkiller was taken off the global market in 2004 after research showed it raised the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Graeme Peterson, 59, of Melbourne, sued Merck and its Australian subsidiary, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, arguing the painkiller caused him to have a heart attack in 2003, leaving him unable to work.

The judge found that Merck Sharpe & Dohme failed in its duty of care by not warning Peterson's doctor about the drug's potential cardiovascular risk, and by its sales representatives emphasizing the drug's safety.

Nortel, a maker of telecom equipment in bankruptcy, said Ciena prevailed in an auction and will pay $530 million in cash and $239 million in convertible notes due June 2017.

Ciena's purchase includes all products, contracts, patent and intellectual property, including the rights to technology that boosts the speed and capacity of fiber optic networks by as much as10-fold.

Nortel's optical networking business includes some of Nortel's most sought-after businesses units, intellectual properties and employees.

The deal is targeted to close in the first quarter, pending court approvals in the U.S., Canada, France and Israel. It has received regulatory approval in the U.S. and Canada.

Ciena is expected to hire at least 2,000 Nortel employees — or more than 85 percent of the workers in the businesses being sold. It would nearly double Ciena's workforce.

OPEC appeared poised to hold oil production quotas unchanged Wednesday, with its ministers voicing satisfaction with current global crude prices.

Instead, the focus at the organization's meeting in Vienna was to be on persuading members not to sell more oil than their quotas permit.

Kuwait's oil minister, Sheik Ahmed Al Abullah Al Sabah, said OPEC's markets monitoring committee would suggest to the 12-country group that oil output targets be held steady at the organization's meeting Wednesday in Vienna. The gathering is being held in the evening since it falls during the holy month of Ramadan when Muslims must fast from dawn to dusk.

The recommendation offers further indication that ministers from the bloc — supplier of roughly 35 percent of the world's crude — are turning their aim toward encouraging member discipline. Compliance with the output limits, which are designed to support prices, has been waning.

Prices are now roughly double their levels from December, when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced its record 4.2 million barrel per day cuts from September 2008 levels. The price rally has been welcome news for cash-hungry member governments, but also a temptation to sell more oil.

U.S. benchmark light sweet crude for October delivery was hovering at around $71 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The level is well within the range that OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, and others, have said it would like to see.

A South Korean court ruled US software giant Microsoft breached fair competition rules but dismissed suits seeking compensation.

Two local software firms -- Digito.Com and Sanview Technology Inc -- filed suits requesting 30 billion won (24 million dollars) and 10 billion won respectively.

They insisted Microsoft had caused them financial damage by packaging its instant messenger programme and Windows Media Service with the main operating system.

The Seoul District Court decided that the US firm violated anti-trust regulations by abusing its market dominance but rejected the demands for compensation.

It said the plaintiffs lost market share either by lack of price competitiveness or overseas business failure.

"It has not been proven that the damages are linked to Microsoft," it said.

Microsoft in a statement welcomed the court's ruling that its actions did not cause any damage to the plaintiffs.

The company has in recent years been locked in a string of costly disputes with industry rivals in the United States, South Korea and Europe.

South Korea's Fair Trade Commission ruled in 2006 that Microsoft had breached anti-trust laws and ordered it to pay a 32.49-billion-won fine.

In 2007 a European court backed the European Commission's ruling that Microsoft abused its dominant position for personal computer operating systems.