July 14 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

Headlines

• Volkswagen chief confirms plan to cut 50,000 more jobs

• De Beers halts output at South African diamond mine as weak prices weigh on sale

• Nippon Paint offers €7.5 billion for Akzo unit in attempt to gatecrash rival deal

• Mastercard examines sale of UK payments subsidiary Vocalink

Overview

• Volkswagen VOWG.DE Chief Executive Oliver Blume confirmed in an internal memo plans to axe 50,000 jobs, underlining his determination to cut costs despite opposition from the carmaker's supervisory board.

• De Beers is halting production at South Africa's biggest diamond mine, as consistently depressed conditions in the market for the precious stones weigh on the company that mining major Anglo American AAL.L is trying to sell.

• Japan's Nippon Paint 4612.T has offered €7.5 billion ($8.54 billion) to acquire Dutch rival AkzoNobel's AKZO.AS decorative coatings business, which includes the Dulux brand, in a renewed effort to gatecrash an industry mega-merger.

• Mastercard MA.N is exploring the sale of a majority stake in Vocalink, that runs much of the UK retail payments system back to British banks, as it responds to concerns about a strategically critical asset being under US ownership.

($1 = 0.8782 euros)