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.

Washington - US President George W Bush on Monday warned that a "painful" series of short-term adjustments were needed in the financial sector but insisted the fundamentals remained strong despite the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings.

Bush said he appreciated the work of the US Treasury and Wall Street firms in helping foster stability in financial markets, which have been hit hard by the ongoing credit crisis.

New York - Bank of America Corp chief executive Kenneth Lewis on Monday said the acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co left the banking giant best positioned to weather the financial storm that has engulfed Wall Street and is unlikely to end before 2010.

Lewis said the 50-billion-dollar takeover, which first came under discussion Saturday morning, had been the "strategic opportunity of a lifetime" despite one of the most difficult financial environments in US history.

London - Staff employed at the British subsidiary of US bank Lehman Brothers face the prospect of not being paid this week, administrators PriceWaterhouseCooper 
(PWC) warned Monday.

The US bank's main operation in Britain, where 4,500 people work, was placed into administration shortly after its US parent filed for bankruptcy protection.

PWC partner Tony Lomas said at a news conference in London that picking over the firm's business in Britain was an "extraordinarily complex" task and would take a "significant" amount of time. Staff numbers would be downsized.

Lomas indicated that the forthcoming wage bill was 42 million pounds (75 million dollars).