Washington - Leaders from the Group of 20 nations were heading to the United States Friday for an historic summit to address a financial crisis threatening to derail the global economy.

US President George W Bush will welcome the leaders of 21 countries to the White House for a working dinner Friday evening and the group will hold an intensive day of talks Saturday aimed at overhauling the world's financial system.

San Francisco - Citing a "new economic reality," Sun MicroSystems said Friday that it would restructure and shed up to 6,000 jobs or 18 per cent of its worldwide staff.

The maker of high powered server computers has been struggling for years as its enterprise clients switch to cheaper alternatives based on Microsoft Windows and open-source Linux systems.

Lima - Peruvian Police colonel Oswaldo Alfaro, who was to be in charge of security at the 16th summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, was removed from the job a week before the gathering that is set to be held in Lima, Peruvian media reported Friday.

New Interior Minister Remigio Hernani was said to have removed Alfaro along with all other officials with ties to former head of police Octavio Salazar, a personal rival whom he has already dismissed.

Amsterdam - Dutch integration minister Ella Vogelaar's resignation on Thursday highlights a shift to the right on the topic of migrant policy by the Dutch Labour Party.

Undoubtedly, Vogelaar's poor communication skills, painfully exposed by the Dutch media since her tenure began in February 2007, contributed to the fact her own party ousted her. But in the end it was a difference on migrant issues that sparked her departure.

Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Friday said it would not participate in a government of national unity with President Robert Mugabe unless he met the party's conditions for sharing power.

Addressing journalists in Harare after a key party meeting, MDC vice president Thokozani Khupe said the MDC would not govern together with Mugabe unless the constitution was first amended to enshrine party leader Morgan Tsvangirai's powers as prime minister.

Nice, France - A row over US and Russian plans to site missiles in Europe, the global financial crisis and European Union diplomacy in Georgia topped the agenda Friday when EU and Russian leaders met in the French resort of Nice.

"There should be no (missile) deployment in any enclave until we have discussed the new geo-political terms for pan-European security ... until then, please let's not talk about the deployment of missile shields," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a double-barrelled blast at Russia and the US.

Sarkozy currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU.