BREAKING NEWS: Barclays axes 7,000 investment bankers as it cuts 19,000 jobs in massive shake-up

Barclays today took the axe to its controversial investment banking division, saying it would sack thousands of highly-paid bankers.

A total of 7,000 jobs will go in its investment division, which has most of its staff in London and New York.

Some of those who are sacked are likely to already be multi-millionaires.

It will axe a total of 19,000 staff around the world by 2016 in a radical shake-up which comes after its profits fell earlier this year. In a statement to the stock market, Barclays said its business ‘will be repositioned, simplified and rebalanced’.

Its chief executive Antony Jenkins said: ‘We will be a focused international bank, operating only in areas where we have capability, scale and competitive advantage.

‘In the future, Barclays will be leaner, stronger, much better balanced and well positioned to deliver lower volatility, higher returns, and growth.

‘My goal is unchanged: to create a Barclays that does business in the right way, with the right values, and delivers the returns that our shareholders deserve.’

The move is a major change for the company which became notorious for its so-called ‘casino banking’ under its former chief executive Bob Diamond.

In 2008 it was forced to seek a bailout from the Middle East as its investments division threatened to drag the whole bank down in the same way as the Royal Bank of Scotland and other British banks.

Investment banking has been heavily criticised for its large bonuses and appearance of irresponsibility.

It was the investment banking sector which produced the financial devices which underpinned a boom in the American ‘sub-prime’ property market and which then threatened the whole global financial system with crash in 2008 when the US housing market started to fall.

The bank has already announced job losses across the group of 12,000 for this year, but this has been increased to 14,000 as a result of the investment bank changes announced today. It brings the total cuts by 2016 to 19,000.

It comes two days after Barclays announced that first quarter earnings from the division fell by half, meaning profits at the group slid by 5 per cent.

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Nigeria abducted schoolgirls: Malala Yousafzai urges action

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a shooting by Taliban insurgents, has said the world must not stay silent over the abduction of more than 200 girls in Nigeria.

She told the BBC that "if we remain silent then this will spread, this will happen more and more and more".

The girls were kidnapped more than three weeks ago by Islamist Boko Haram militants in north-east Borno state.

Malala was shot in the head in 2012 for campaigning for girls' education.

The 16-year-old survived after months of surgery and rehabilitation in the UK, and is now a vocal campaigner for girls' access to education worldwide.

Former UN chief Kofi Annan, also appealed for action. He criticised both the Nigerian government and other African nations for not reacting faster to the kidnapping, and called on them to use whatever was at their disposal to help free the girls.

The abduction of the girls has overshadowed the World Economic Forum which opened in the Nigerian city of Abuja on Wednesday evening.

The US, UK and France have despatched teams of experts to Nigeria to help recover the girls.

Boko Haram has been accused of carrying out another attack in Borno state on Monday, in which some 300 people are reported to have died.

Residents said that gunmen went on the rampage in Gamboru Ngala after spreading a rumour that the abducted girls had been spotted elsewhere, prompting security forces to leave the town.

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Ukraine crisis: Russia rules out new Geneva talks

Russia's foreign minister has ruled out holding a new round of talks in Geneva in a bid to defuse the Ukraine crisis.

Sergei Lavrov said there was no point as last month's accord between the US, EU and Russia had not been implemented.

He spoke after a Council of Europe meeting, where ministers were expected to support the Ukrainian authorities' plans for a presidential election.

Mr Lavrov said it would be "unusual" for it to take place when the army was being used against the population.

In recent days, security forces have launched a crackdown on pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country, triggering clashes outside the town of Sloviansk.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Tuesday that four soldiers and an estimated 30 separatists had been killed in the "anti-terrorism operation". 

He said that up to 800 well-trained militants armed with large-calibre weapons and mortars were hiding among civilians in the town, where government buildings have been seized and checkpoints set up.

A Russia Today reporter in Sloviansk said residents were stockpiling food and there were barricades on almost every road.

Meanwhile, many flights in and out of Donetsk were suspended. The Ukrainian aviation authorities gave no reason for the move.

New checkpoints were earlier set up around Kiev. The interior ministry said it wanted to prevent the movement of weapons and explosives.

The authorities also attempted to re-establish control over Odessa, with Interim President Olexander Turchynov dismissing the acting head of the regional administration, Volodymyr Nemyrovskyy.

Forty-six people died in the Black Sea city on Friday in a fire at an official building and fighting between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian protesters.

'Added value'

At a news conference in Vienna on Tuesday, Mr Lavrov said holding further international talks on Ukraine as some have suggested would be like "going round in circles".

Instead, he explained, the government in Kiev and their Western backers needed to implement the series of steps to resolve the crisis that they had agreed in Geneva on 17 April.

Under the agreement, all parties, including the separatists in eastern Ukraine, were to "refrain from violence, intimidation and provocative acts". It also said those occupying buildings would have to leave them and be disarmed in return for an amnesty.

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Outsider Juan Carlos Varela wins Panama election

Opposition leader Juan Carlos Varela has won the presidential election in Panama with almost 40% of the votes.

Mr Varela, who is currently the vice president, had distanced himself from President Ricardo Martinelli.

Correspondents say Mr Varela has taken credit for Mr Martinelli's economic success, but has promised a cleaner, more transparent government.

The president's preferred candidate, the governing party contender Jose Domingo Arias, came second.

President Martinelli had been an outspoken supporter of Mr Arias, 50, and his wife Marta Linares was the candidate's running mate.

In addition to picking a new president, the country's 2.5 million eligible voters were electing dozens of mayors and members of Congress.

Mr Varela, 50, had a falling-out with President Martinelli after he was dismissed from his post as foreign minister in 2011.

He is from one of Panama's richest families and will inherit an economy that has seen the fastest growth in Latin America in the last few years.

He will also be given oversight of a major expansion of the Panama Canal, which accounts for 8% of gross domestic product in the country.

Mr Martinelli, a supermarket magnate, has backed the canal expansion and other infrastructure projects that helped spur economic growth.

But his reputation was tarred by allegations that his government gave contracts and other favours to friends and business interests.

Mr Varela, who will be sworn into power on 1 July, alluded to the claims of corruption during his campaign, saying he would "not buy political backing".

He faces the challenge of maintaining buoyant growth while dealing with economic inequality, with a quarter of the population living in poverty.

Recent discontent has led to a nationwide construction strike over pay, which halted work on the canal and thousands of other projects.

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Ukraine crisis: Fears grow over Sloviansk offensive

Fears of an impending offensive by Ukrainian forces are growing in the pro-Russian stronghold of Sloviansk, sources inside the city say.

Ukraine's army cut off the main road into the city on Sunday, squeezing its hold on rebel fighters.

A reporter inside Sloviansk told the BBC that residents expect the city to be stormed.

Last week, rebels shot down two Ukrainian helicopters on the outskirts of Sloviansk.

Harriet Salem, a freelance journalist in Sloviansk, said there is strong support for the pro-Russian fighters in the city.

But she added that residents are increasingly anxious that troops sent by Kiev will try to retake the city centre.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on Sunday that the armed forces were continuing their "anti-terror" operation in the east of the country.

Speaking two days after dozens were killed in violence in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, Mr Yatsenyuk accused Russia of executing a plan "to destroy Ukraine and its statehood."

Several thousand supporters of a united Ukraine, some of them masked and carrying sticks, rallied in Odessa late on Sunday before marching to the regional police headquarters.

They sang the national anthem as they marched to the trade union building to re-deploy the Ukrainian flag that had been burned by pro-Russians on Saturday.

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Ukraine crisis: Odessa detainees freed as police HQ attacked

Pro-Russian activists have attacked the police headquarters in Ukraine's southern city of Odessa, forcing the release of several people held over deadly violence two days ago.

Friday's clashes led to more than 40 deaths. Most victims were pro-Russian separatists killed when the building they were in caught fire.

Ukraine's interim PM has accused police of failing to prevent the violence.

He was speaking as Ukrainian troops encircled Sloviansk in the east.

The army operation is trying to wrest control from separatists who have taken over a government buildings in a number of towns.                                                                                                         Hundreds of people descended on the police headquarters on Sunday afternoon in an initially peaceful protest calling for the released of those detained.

"We've gathered here in a protest against the illegal government and to get our guys released, citizens of Odessa", said one woman.

"They call us separatists and pro-Russians, but we're just ordinary Russian Odessa citizens, we've actually always been more Russian."

The gathering turned violent as protesters - some wearing masks and carrying improvised weapons - broke windows and forced the gates.

There were chants of "Russia, Russia" and "Russians won't abandon their own".

A number of detainees were then released by the police, apparently in an attempt to pacify the crowds. Reuters, quoting police sources, put the number freed at 30. The interior ministry, in a statement quoted by the Associated Press, said 67 people were released.

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Tory candidate quits over homophobic and anti-Islamic tweets

A Tory council candidate has resigned from the party with immediate effect after posting anti-Islamic and homophobic comments on Twitter.

David Bishop, a candidate in Brentwood South, Essex, apologised after retweeting messages, including one that claimed Islam was the religion of rape.

"I have let myself and my party down," Mr Bishop said in a statement.

It comes after a UKIP council candidate, who tweeted that Islam was "evil", was suspended from the party.

Mr Bishop, who is also a DJ in the Brentwood area, retweeted one message on 13 April that read: "How CAN a gay guy keep a straight face?"

In another message, retweeted on April 27 - two days after Mr Bishop was named as a Conservative council candidate - it cited the arrest of four Muslim men over the rape of a 14-year-old girl and added: "#Islam 'the religion of peace' & rape."

David Bishop, a candidate in Brentwood South, Essex, apologised after retweeting messages, including one that claimed Islam was the religion of rape.

"I have let myself and my party down," Mr Bishop said in a statement.

It comes after a UKIP council candidate, who tweeted that Islam was "evil", was suspended from the party.

Mr Bishop, who is also a DJ in the Brentwood area, retweeted one message on 13 April that read: "How CAN a gay guy keep a straight face?"

In another message, retweeted on April 27 - two days after Mr Bishop was named as a Conservative council candidate - it cited the arrest of four Muslim men over the rape of a 14-year-old girl and added: "#Islam 'the religion of peace' & rape."

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