BRITISH banking giant Barclays announced on Thursday that it is axing a further 1000 jobs, this time from its international staff and mainly in Africa, as it reported a sharp fall in first-half pre-tax profits. Pre-tax profit fell more than 24% to 970-million although operating profit advanced by 6%. Barclays said that following its decision in May to cut 6000 jobs owing to technological changes in the financial services sector, it would now shed another 1000 jobs in its international operations, most of them in Africa. The job-cutting programme would cost the company 345-million, the bank said, but would yield annual savings of more than 200-million.