* G7 nations pledge to fight crisis Finance ministers from leading industrialised nations have pledged action to tackle the financial crisis.

* Berlusconi Says Leaders May Close World’s Markets Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said political leaders are discussing the idea of closing the world’s financial markets.

* Haider death stuns friends and foes The last time I saw Joerg Haider, just under two weeks ago, he was being serenaded to Queen’s hit ‘We are the Champions’.

* Haniyeh: American Empire is collapsing America’s opponents in the Middle East are gloating at the financial meltdown in the United States.

* IAF jets scrambled to northern border Thirty-five years after the Yom Kippur War erupted, the Israel Air Force scrambled fighter jets to the border with Lebanon after a suspicious aircraft was detected approaching Israeli airspace.

* N Korea taken off US terror list Washington has removed North Korea from its list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

* Iraqi PM discusses US pact with Muqtada al-Sadr Iraq’s prime minister met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Friday and indicated the country’s most influential Shi’ite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, would not try to block a long-term US security deal.

* PM set for crisis talks in Paris Gordon Brown is to go to Paris on Sunday for talks with Nicolas Sarkozy on the global financial crisis.

* Official: 500 Christian families flee Iraq’s Mosul An upswing in insurgent attacks against Christians in Mosul has forced 500 families to flee in the last week and seek shelter at churches.

* OPEC to hold emergency meeting on oil prices OPEC said Thursday it will hold an extraordinary meeting Nov. 18 to discuss how the widening global financial crisis is affecting oil prices.