MUSCAT - ISRAEL'S air strikes on Gaza will not derail Gulf Arab leaders' plans to sign monetary union pacts at a summit next week but the issue will share the spotlight at their discussions, Omani hosts said on Sunday.

'The issue (Gaza) will impose itself on the agenda. The events of yesterday will have their deserved place in the discussions,' Information Minister Hamad Al-Rashdi told Reuters.

GENEVA - CLIENTS of Switzerland's second biggest bank Credit Suisse have lost up to a billion Swiss francs in the alleged pyramid scheme of Wall Street titan Bernard Madoff, according to a Sunday media report.

Citing the bank's 'internal estimates,' Swiss Sunday newspaper Sonntag said customers had lost 'between 900 and 1,000 million francs (S$1.3 billion).' Credit Suisse spokesman Jan Vonder Muehll was reported confirming that clients had lost money, but he did not specify the amount.

TOKYO - PANASONIC Electric Works , the building materials unit of consumer electronics maker Panasonic Corp, said it will close three additional plants in Japan and cut 800 workers as a slowing economy hits demand.

The company, which sells lighting equipment, built-in kitchen systems and other building products, will carry out the plant closures and job cuts by the year ending March 2011, a Panasonic Electric spokesman said on Sunday.