San Francisco - Hewlett Packard, the world's largest computer maker, is to cut 24,600 jobs over three years as part of its plan to integrate enterprise technology firm Electronic Data Systems Corp, the company announced Monday.

The cuts represent about 7.5 per cent of HP's workforce and will force HP to take a 1.7-billion-dollar charge.

HP bought EDS in March for 13.2 billion dollars. The combined company had a workforce of 320,000 employees.

Washington - Cuba has rejected 5 million dollars in humanitarian aid in the wake of hurricanes that ravaged the Caribbean island in recent weeks, the US State Department said Monday.

"We regret that Cuban authorities have not accepted this offer of humanitarian assistance for the Cuban people," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

He said the United States made the offer, including delivery by air of relief supplies, on Saturday and was informed by the Cubans on Sunday that the offer was not accepted.

The Cubans have asked the United States to suspend a decades-old embargo so Havana could purchase reconstruction goods from US companies, but McCormack said the US policy was unchanged.

Washington - Former secretary of state Colin Powell has not decided whether he'll vote for Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain in the presidential election November 4.

Powell, a Republican, told a foreign policy forum Monday that he intends to see the campaign unfold before reaching a decision.

"I'm anxious to see what the debates are going to be like," said Powell, who served as President George W Bush's top diplomat from 2001 to 2005.

Hyderabad-based Ranklin Solutions has acquired US-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) firm Cigniti for an undisclosed amount.

Cigniti has around six major ERP installations across the world, and is also an implementation partner for other technologies including Java (Sun Microsystems). The company has presence in the UK, Australia and New Zealand and has over 250 employees on its payroll.

However, the officials of Ranklin Soluitions, neither disclosed the value of the deal nor the turnover of the acquired company, referring a non-disclosure agreement.

Islamabad - Pakistani security forces and armed tribesmen on Monday foiled an attempt by US troops to enter Pakistani territory by firing shots at them, security officials said.

The attacks came as Pakistani forces killed up to 20 Taliban militants in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Two US military helicopters crossed into Pakistan and tried to land near Angor Adda area of South Waziristan tribal district along the Afghan border before dawn, a local security official said.

Washington - US President George W Bush and his Ghanian counterpart John Kufuor cited the progress that has been made in fighting AIDS and other diseases in Africa during a meeting at the White House on Monday.

Bush launched a 15-billion-dollar initiative five years ago to fight HIV/AIDS on Africa, the largest programme ever for combatting a single disease. He hope to double that amount in US spending in the next five years.

"I'm very comfortable in telling the American people that this will be money well spent," Bush said.

Bush has also spent millions of dollars to fight malaria, which kills an estimated 1 million Africans annually, most of them children.