Global business

A landmark criminal cartel trial collapsed in Britain. Four former and current executives at British Airways were accused by the Office of Fair Trading of colluding on fuel surcharges with Virgin Atlantic, which was granted immunity for cooperating with the prosecution. But the case was thrown out when undisclosed e-mail evidence held by Virgin came to light. The fair trading office said it was "reviewing the role played by Virgin Atlantic" and its obligations to the prosecution. Toyota surprised analysts by reporting net income of $1.2 billion for the first three months of the year. The automaker made a profit despite the launch of several investigations into its safety record and the recall of millions of its vehicles. For its current fiscal year, which ends in March 2011, Toyota says that it is expecting profit to increase by 48 percent.

Germany's SAP agreed to pay $5.8 billion for Sybase, an American software company that specializes in software for businesspeople to run applications on wireless devices.

Nokia undertook a big management shake-up in an effort to refocus on the high-end smart-phone market, where it trails the iPhone, the BlackBerry and devices that operate on Google's Android platform. Meanwhile, Google's ambitions in the market for smart-phone handsets were dealt another blow when Sprint Nextel became the second American operator to drop Google's Nexus One phone.

Harrods got a new owner, its fifth since it began trading in the 1840s. The luxury department store in London was sold to Qatar's sovereign-wealth fund for $2.2 billion by Mohamed al Fayed, who bought the business in 1985. The Qatari fund has invested heavily in British assets. It is the biggest shareholder in Barclays and J. Sainsbury and holds the second-biggest stake in the London Stock Exchange.

Political economy Member nations of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development voted unanimously to invite Israel (over Palestinian objections), Estonia and Slovenia to join the body, leading to hopes that those nations could see more foreign investment. The Israeli deputy prime minister recalled his country's economic turnaround since "we looked worse than Greece today."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a blow in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, where her party's ruling coalition lost badly in a regional election. The defeat means that Merkel will also lose her majority in the Bundesrat, Germany's upper house.

The French National Assembly unanimously passed a non-binding resolution condemning Islamic veils that cover the entire face. Legislation outlawing the garment is likely to follow later this month.