EU PLOT TO SCRAP BRITAIN

By Macer Hall

SENIOR Eurocrats are secretly plotting to create a super-powerful EU president to realise their dream of abolishing ­Britain, we can reveal.

A covert group of EU foreign ministers has drawn up plans for merging the jobs currently done by Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission.

The new bureaucrat, who would not be directly elected by voters, is set to get sweeping control over the entire EU and force member countries into ever-greater political and economic union.

Tellingly, the UK has been excluded from the confidential discussions within the shady “Berlin Group” of Europhile politicians, spearheaded by German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle.

Opponents fear the plan could create a modern-day equivalent of the European emperor envisaged by Napoleon Bonaparte or a return to the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne that dominated Europe in the Dark Ages.

They are concerned that David Cameron’s coalition Government is doing nothing to prevent the sinister plot. The secret talks were uncovered by Independent Labour peer Lord Stoddart of Swindon.

“This is a plot by people who want to abolish nation states and create a United States of Europe,” he said.

“The whole thing is barmy. These people are determined to achieve their final objective.

“The only hope for Britain is to leave the EU and become an independent nation.”

The move will give further momentum to the Daily Express’s hugely popular crusade for Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.

Tory backbench MP Douglas Carswell said: “It doesn’t matter how you arrange the offices of these technocrats, they are useless at arranging our lives for us and they are not elected so they have no legitimacy.

“My worry is that the president will end up having the charisma of Van Rompuy and the economic management skills of Barroso.”

Euro-MP Paul Nuttall, of the UK Independence Party, said: “This is a truly ridiculous idea that must never be allowed to happen. It sounds as if they are trying to go back to the days of the Holy Roman Emperor.”

At present, the two senior EU bureaucrats, Mr Barroso and Mr Van Rompuy, are locked in a bitter power struggle to determine who is the true big cheese or “grand fromage” in Europe. Former Portuguese premier Mr Barroso, who heads the EU’s executive arm and was elected to his post by members of the European Union, is understood to resent the rival fiefdom of Belgian Mr Van Rompuy, who was chosen by the heads of ­government of EU member states to represent them.

Under the plan, a single figure would be elected by Euro-MPs to perform both roles.

Supporters of the move believe that the rival presidencies are undermining the EU’s ability to speak with a single voice. They argue that merging the two jobs will create a powerful European leader who is capable of pursuing the federalist dream of a united Europe which has been severely shaken by the eurozone crisis.

Lord Stoddart confirmed the existence of the plot thanks to a parliamentary written answer in the House of Lords. He asked Foreign Office ministers to reveal what they knew about the merger talks.

In response to his inquiry, Tory Foreign Office minister Lord Howell of Guildford said: “We are aware of one group of EU foreign ministers meeting on an informal basis to discuss a variety of issues related to the future governance of the EU.

“While the UK is not part of that group, we understand that one idea under discussion is a merger of the positions of president of the European Council and president of the European Commission.”

Lord Howell added: “A merger of the two presidencies would create a potential conflict of interest, undermine the quality of the EU’s decision-making processes and upset the institutional balance within the EU.” Lord Stoddart said: “These sorts of informal discussions within the EU have a habit of rapidly being transferred into formal proposals.

“Since the Government is not party to these discussions, its reservations are academic.

“Such a merger would represent a massive shift of power into the hands of a single, unelected bureaucrat. The Government should be taking this far more seriously and voicing its objections very strongly.”

He added: “The holder of this new office would be both Europe’s political and administrative leader, giving them far more powers than those given to the US president.

“It really is a great disappointment that we have a Conservative-led Government that is supposed to be Eurosceptic yet ministers just go along with this.”

Samsung Galaxy S III Tracks Your Eyes, Knows When You’re Ready to Call

By Nathan Olivarez-Giles

After months of speculation, Samsung’s Galaxy S III smartphone is here, and just as rumored, it has a massive touchscreen and a speedy quad-core processor. It’s also the official smartphone of the 2012 Olympic Games.

As Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S III in London Thursday, it focused less on spec details and more on the concept that the phone can actually predict your next move — a talent you won’t find in rival phones like the HTC One X and Apple’s iPhone 4S.

One new feature, Smart Stay, uses eye-tracking technology to put the phone to sleep (and wake it up again) as needed. Specifically, the S III’s front-facing camera registers when you’re looking at the device. If the phone recognizes your mug, its screen will turn on and remain active as long as you’re using it.

The upshot: No more screen dimming in the middle of reading a long email. Just as nifty, when you look away, the phone will go to sleep, Samsung says.

Another feature, Direct Call, automatically places a phone call based on whom you’re text messaging. Specifically, if you’re in the middle of writing a text and lift the phone to your ear, the phone’s proximity and motion sensors will alert the S III to place a call for you.

The S III also features a Siri-like program, S Voice, that uses voice recognition to check the weather, place a phone call, search the web, and add appointments to the phone’s calendar app. S Voice can also launch the camera app, something Siri can’t do on the iPhone.

And there’s more still: Facial recognition technology built into the S III identifies people in photos, and links to your friends’ pages on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, making it easy to e-mail or text a photo to the identified people.

The S III also introduces a clever multitasking trick called Pop Up Play that’s reminiscent of the picture-in-picture feature found on many TV sets. In a nutshell, you can switch full-screen video to a smaller pop-up window in order to continue watching the movie while texting, browsing or using other apps.

It sounds dubious on the surface, but do keep in mind that the S III boasts a massive 4.8-inch screen.

The latest Galaxy handset will run on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) skinned in Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface. However, water droplet sound effects will be added throughout the phone’s audio interface, and unlocking the phone involves a swipe that kicks in a water-ripple animation. All this liquidy fanfare is special to the S III.

Samsung says these aesthetic touches, as well as the phone’s curved plastic body, are “inspired by nature.” And the nature theme is carried over to hardware color choices as well — you can choose between “Pebble Blue” and “Marble White.” Curiously, regular old black wasn’t announced as a color option Thursday.

Among the other hardware highlights, the S III will include a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display with a 1280×720 resolution, a 1.4GHz quad-core processor, and a built-in NFC chip for mobile payments and sharing files with other S III handsets using an “S Beam” feature.

For snapping photos, Samsung is including an 8MP rear camera with an LED flash, and a 1.9MP front-facing camera — the same setup found on the previous S II.

Samsung hasn’t yet offered details on U.S. pricing or carriers, but last year’s Galaxy S II was available across all four major U.S. carriers in varying screen sizes and even differing materials and body designs.

A 3G version of the Galaxy S III will launch in Europe in May and later across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, but the U.S. will have wait until later this summer to get its variant of the new handset. When the S III does hit the U.S., Samsung said the handsets will run on 4G LTE networks.

You really are one ugly pig! The hideous hogs discovered living deep in Chinese mountain range

By Daily Mail Reporter

Could these be the world's ugliest pigs?

Farmer Lan Yi, from Luocheng in southern China's Guangxi Province decided to raise a pair of the hideous hogs after he discovered them living deep in the mountains.

He captured the two ferocious-looking porkers last year when they were just piglets during a trip to the Jiuwan mountain range.

The two animals have large hooves, fearsome snouts and thick black hair covering their body. Yan now hopes to breed the pair and cultivate the species on his farm.

Bionic eye’ returns sight to two men after over 20 years of blindness

By STEPHEN MCGINTY

TWO blind men have regained partial sight for the first time in more than 20 years after becoming the first in Britain to be fitted with a “bionic eye”.

Scientists said the first clinical trials of the microchip eye implant, which measures just 3mm across and is fitted behind the eyeball, have proved successful and “exceeded expectations”.

Eye experts developing the pioneering new technology said the first group of British patients to receive the implants were regaining “useful vision” just weeks after undergoing surgery, with one of them describing dreaming “in vivid colour” for the first time in 25 years.

The news will offer fresh hope for people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa (RP) – a genetic eye condition that leads to incurable blindness.

Retina Implant AG, a leading developer of subretinal implants, fitted two RP sufferers with the wireless device in mid-April as part of its UK trial. The patients were able to detect light immediately after the microchip was activated, while further testing revealed that they were also able to locate white objects on a dark background.

The digital chip operates when light falls on a sensor which is then converted into an electrical signal which is then picked up by nerves and transmitted to the area of the brain that processes images and where it converts the light into grainy black and white images.

The patients have been able to see the rough outline of shapes with doctors hoping that, in the future, once their brains have adjusted they will be able to recognise faces.

The patients will undergo further testing as they adjust to the 3mm by 3mm device in the coming months. Robin Millar, 60, from London, is one of the patients who has been fitted with the chip along with 1,500 electrodes, which are implanted below the retina.

Mr Millar, a music producer, said: “Since switching on the device I am able to detect light and distinguish the outlines of certain objects which is an encouraging sign.

“I have even dreamt in very vivid colour for the first time in 25 years so a part of my brain which had gone to sleep has woken up.”

The technology has been in clinical trials for more than six years with testing also taking place in Germany. Developers are now planning to seek commercial approval.

The other Briton to have the implant was Chris James, 54, of Wroughton, Wiltshire.

It has given him rudimentary vision which allows him to see the outline of shapes, but he is having to “learn” to see again after two decades without vision. He is counting the days until he can finally see his wife Janet, 64, who he married seven years ago.

He said: “This is not a cure, but it may put the world into some perspective. It’ll give me some imagery rather than just a black world.”

Ten more British sufferers will be fitted with the devices as part of the trial, which is being led by Tim Jackson, a consultant retinal surgeon at King’s College Hospital and Robert MacLaren, a professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford.

The pair said: “The visual results of these patients exceeded our expectations.”

Pomegranate juice increases sex drive, study finds

POMEGRANATE juice increases sex drive, a Scottish study has found.

Regular glasses of the fruit juice raised levels of the sex hormone testosterone in men and women.

The study by researchers from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh saw 58 volunteers drinking daily glasses of pomegranate juice for two weeks, after which testosterone levels in both men and women had “significantly increased”.

For men this led to more facial hair, a deep voice and greater sexual urges. Women, who produce testosterone in ovaries and adrenal glands, had stronger bone and muscle and a heightened sex drive.