WASHINGTON - PRESIDENT Barack Obama has made Americans more vulnerable to attack, former vice-president Dick Cheney said on Sunday in a trenchant defence of his own controversial stance in the 'war on terror'.

Asked by CNN if Mr Obama had made the nation less safe through his reversal of key anti-terror policies, Mr Cheney said bluntly: 'I do.'

GENEVA - SWITZERLAND'S biggest bank UBS plans to cut up to 5,000 senior and management jobs in the next few weeks, Swiss weekly SonntagsZeitung said on Sunday.

SonntagsZeitung said that according to its own research up to 2,500 management positions could go in UBS's dominant and profitable wealth management division, which accounts for 50,000 of the bank's total 77,000 staff.

LAHORE (Pakistan) - PAKISTAN'S main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif defied house arrest on Sunday, ramping up his challenge to the government, as riot police clashed with stone-throwing mobs in street battles.

The former premier, now the most popular political leader in the country, led about 10,000 supporters in a banned protest in Lahore, from where he has urged thousands of activists to march on the capital Islamabad by Monday.

AS MANY as 1,200 jobs will be up for grabs this year in an emerging sector that's still hotting up despite the recession: clean technology.

The Economic Development Board (EDB) said the jobs will come from foreign firms which have invested locally and are now hiring.