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.”

The shutdown leaves Japan without nuclear power for the first time since 1970 and has put electricity producers on the defensive. Public opposition to nuclear power could become more deeply entrenched if non-nuclear power generation proves enough to meet Japan's needs in the peak-demand summer months. "Can it be the end of nuclear power? It could be," said Andrew DeWit, a professor at Rikkyo University in Tokyo who studies energy policy. "That's one reason why people are fighting it to the death."

Japan managed to get through the summer last year without any blackouts by imposing curbs on use in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami. Factories operated at night and during weekends to avoid putting too much stress on the country's power grids. A similar success this year would weaken the argument of proponents of nuclear power.

In Japan, a delay in setting up a new, more independent Nuclear Regulatory Agency due to deadlock in a divided parliament is further clouding the outlook. Some analysts say the government is not going to turn public opinion unless it admits that nuclear power is never going to be absolutely safe. "The debate needs to be recast," said Bob Geller, a professor of geophysics at Tokyo University. "They have to come clean, and say, in effect - look we know they're not perfectly safe but we've made a careful evaluation of the risks, which we'll make public."

Wages and benefits have been slashed, unemployment has rocketed and thousands of businesses have collapsed. Furious Greeks have been turning to small, anti-bailout parties to punish traditional politicians they blame for the crisis. A record 8-10 parties are expected to enter parliament, and public outrage with the main parties could turn at least four small groups into potential power-brokers.

The last polls published before the election showed the conservative New Democracy and socialist PASOK parties - which between them dominated Greece for decades and now rule jointly - would scrape just enough votes to renew their uneasy coalition. They are the only parties to support the bailout. No new surveys have been allowed to be published for two weeks and pollsters warn the result may be a surprise.

"We voted for them since the 1980s and we feel cheated," municipal worker Christina Theodorakou, 50, said of the two big parties. She has seen her monthly salary cut by €500 since the crisis began. "We built a life over the years and they destroyed it overnight. Their campaigns are addressing idiots. I'll vote for a small party," she said. Her daughter Alexandra, 18, a nursing student who was joining her for lunch in the western port city of Patras, is old enough to vote for the first time but said she probably wouldn't bother: "Why go? Nobody can promise us a better future."

He told the Daily Telegraph the banks "had to lend to someone". His comments came after Bank of England boss Sir Mervyn King admitted he should have flagged up the looming crisis. Mr Hammond, who helped formulate David Cameron's economic strategy in opposition, told the newspaper lifestyle expectations had "run away with us".

"We started living a lifestyle both in private consumption and in public consumption that we could not afford," he told the newspaper. "We borrowed to top it up... now the day of reckoning has come and we are adjusting. Households were spending more than they earned. That's why household debt rose." At the annual Today Programme Lecture on Wednesday, Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King said he should have "shouted from the rooftops" that a system had been built in which "banks were too important to fail".

But Mr Hammond said: "People say to me, 'It was the banks'. I say, 'hang on, the banks had to lend to someone'. People feel in a sense that someone else is responsible for the decisions they made. Of course, if banks don't offer credit, people can't take it. But there were two consenting adults in all these transactions, a borrower and a lender, and they may both have made wrong calls. Some people are unwilling to accept responsibility for the consequences of their own choices."

As a result, the labor force is now at its smallest size since the 1980s when compared to the broader working age population. "We've been getting some job growth and it's been significant, but it hasn't yet been strong enough that you start to get people re-engaging in the labor market," said Keith Hall, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center and former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A person is counted as part of the labor force if they have a job or have looked for one in the last four weeks. Only about 64% of Americans over the age of 16 currently fall into that category, according to the Labor Department. That's the lowest labor force participation rate since 1984. It's a worrisome sign for the economy and partly explains why the unemployment rate has been falling recently. Only people looking for work are considered officially unemployed.

The Chicago Fed expects the labor force participation rate will keep falling, hitting 62.4% by 2020. That poses a problem for a variety of reasons. It hits tax revenue and makes it harder to fund social safety nets like Social Security. Not to mention, it's likely to increase income inequality. Most importantly though, it makes the US economy less productive and weighs on growth.

But Martin Weiss noted last month: Four of the world’s largest central banks have gone absolutely berserk, running the money printing presses like never before in history:

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) had already been printing money like crazy ever since their bubble economy burst in the early 1990s. So when the debt crisis struck in 2008, the size of their balance sheet assets, which measure the cumulative total of a central bank’s money printing operations, was already the biggest in the world: About 20% of their economy. Then, when the shock waves of the Lehman Brothers collapse struck Japan, what did they do? They stepped up their money printing operations EVEN further — to about 30% of GDP.

At the US Federal Reserve, no Fed Chairman in history — not even notorious easy-money advocates like Arthur Burns or Allen Greenspan — had EVER run the money printing presses for any extended period of time. But Fed Chairman Bernanke changed all that. Soon after the debt crisis hit in 2008, he nearly TRIPLED the size of the Fed’s balance sheet from about 6% of GDP to almost 17% of GDP. And in the years since, he has pumped it up even further to about 20% of GDP! Last month, the International Monetary Fund released its annual review of US economic policy… The IMF has effectively pronounced the US bankrupt.

The Bank of England (BOE) has mostly been expanding its balance sheet in lock step with the Fed.

But in the global race to print money, it’s the European Central Bank (ECB) which has been leading the pack in the past year or so, suddenly expanding their balance sheet from about 20% of GDP to close to 30% GDP (blue line). This is absolutely massive!

The European Investment Bank, for example, recently required Greek borrowers to agree to a mechanism for repaying loans if Greece abandons the euro. No one knows, of course, precisely when a fatal euro-zone crisis will occur or exactly what might trigger it. And although the ultimate failure of the euro would cause immense economic and financial shocks worldwide, in the short run the US economy might actually benefit. International investors are already pulling their money out of the most troubled European countries and moving it to safer havens.

If the euro zone itself breaks up, lots of that hot money could pour into US markets. Over the longer term, though, the specific impact will depend on how the euro zone unravels. Basically, there are four scenarios, listed here from most to least likely in the short run:

1. France and other countries persuade Germany to agree to pro-growth policies.

2. Austerity policies force most of Europe into recession.

3. The weakest countries get pushed out of the euro zone one by one.

4. The euro zone splits into two separate currency areas.

There may, in fact, be no ideal solution. In all four scenarios, there is major financial disruption ahead. They differ only in the severity of the eventual crisis and its timing. The worst policies are the most extreme ones: doing nothing, or being purely harsh and punitive. The best would be to try to maintain some measure of economic growth while preventing countries that are already overindebted from adding too much to their borrowing. The most realistic goal at this point may simply be to avoid making matters worse and to try to minimize the damage.

(Full article - http://business.time.com/2012/05/02/four-ways-the-euro-could-fail/?hpt=hp_t3)

Adding their voices to the already noisy 2012 apocalypse brigade, Growing in Grace International are led by the charismatic Jose de Luis de Jesus, who openly calls himself the antichrist and makes his followers tattoo 666 onto their bodies. The Puerto Rican national states that calling himself the antichrist is appropriate because it is wrong to worship the 'Jewish teachings' of Jesus, but rather to study the teachings of the Apostle Paul, who de Jesus claims to be in direct contact with.

Antichrist according to de Jesus means 'no longer following Jesus of Nazareth as he lived in the days of his flesh.' Spreading the word about June 30th has seen the Miami based-group invest in billboards featuring a smiling de Jesus and his 666 symbols prominently displayed imploring people to phone up his group and repent.

'That day, the body of Jose de Luis de Jesus, who is a human like you and me, his flesh is going to be immortal,' said Alex Poessy, the bishop of Growing in Grace International in Canada. 'He's going to be living forever. And that will happen to him, but also his followers. All those that are not believers are going to be destroyed.' With followers in 35 different nations, 287 radio stations and a 24-hour Spanish language television network, Growing in Grace International is not the first group to pick a date this year as the end of the world,

Religious and sociological experts have expressed concern about this latest prediction of armageddon. University of Waterloo sociologist Dr Lorne Dawson explained that a deadline is a sign that the 'movement is starting to run into trouble'. 'It's a strong indicator that their authority is slipping, they're losing followers, not acquiring followers at a level that they used to. And nothing galvanises a group and galvanises attention like a new mention of an apocalypse.'

Yesterday's figures from the Bank of England show how banks have been steadily increasing overdraft rates. In March 2009 when the Bank cut the base rate to 0.5 per cent the average authorised overdraft rate was 18.62 per cent. It has been climbing steadily, reaching a high in February and going up again in March – the latest available figure – to 19.52 per cent.

That is the highest level since the data was first recorded in 1995. In a toxic combination, research published this week said millions of savers are being hit by the worst returns in history. As a result, families are seeing interest charges on their overdrafts at record highs while rates paid to savers are close to rock-bottom. The financial information firm Defaqto said the worst-hit are those who have left money to languish in the lowest-paying instant access accounts offering rates of only 0.01 per cent.

A saver who put £1,000 into such an account three years ago and left it there would by now have received interest of just 24p after basic rate tax. Simon Rose, from the campaign group Save our Savers, said: 'Rock bottom rates are causing misery to people who thought they had sensibly made provision for themselves.'

Earlier this year Britain's big five banks – HSBC, Santander, Barclays, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland – revealed they made profits of £10.7 billion between them from their high-street banking operations last year, excluding the cost of compensation to their payment protection insurance victims.

Since the banking collapse in 2008, net lending in the form of loans to firms has been negative almost every single month. Net lending is the difference between the amount of loans handed out by banks to businesses and the total amount which they pay back. On a bleak day for small firms, the shocking Bank of England figures showed the amount banks have raked in but then refused to lend reached £96.5 billion between November 2008 and March 2012.

Lord Oakeshott, a Lib Dem peer who resigned in February last year over Project Merlin – the Government's failed attempt to get banks to lend – said the consequences of the ruthless behaviour were dire. He said: 'There is no way our economy can grow when the banks keep sucking the lifeblood out of business. Around £11 billion of negative net business lending over the past three months makes it a £100 billion bank attack on business, jobs and growth over the past three-and-a-half years.'

The figures emerged just days after the Prime Minister insisted solving the small business lending crisis was one of the most urgent problems the Government needed to address.

He also said it should have done more to convince the Government to recapitalise banks sooner and said a decision to take away the power of regulation from the Bank in 1997 returned "to haunt us". Sir Mervyn said he sympathised with people who felt angry about the banking crisis, which sparked a deep recession that caused one million job losses.

He added: "To many of you, this will seem deeply unfair, and it is. I can understand why so many people are angry." The root of the last crisis was that banks over-extended their activities in the run-up to the financial crisis, with their balance sheets increasing from around a half of national income to more than five times in a generation.

"Whether they think it will come to an end through the hands of God, or a natural disaster or a political event, whatever the reason, one in seven thinks the end of the world is coming," said Keren Gottfried, research manager at Ipsos Global Public Affairs which conducted the poll for Reuters. "Perhaps it is because of the media attention coming from one interpretation of the Mayan prophecy that states the world 'ends' in our calendar year 2012," Gottfried said, adding that some Mayan scholars have disputed the interpretation.

Responses to the international poll of 16,262 people in more than 20 countries varied widely with only six percent of French residents believing in an impending Armageddon in their lifetime, compared to 22 percent in Turkey and the United States and slightly less in South Africa and Argentina. But only seven percent in Belgium and eight percent in Great Britain feared an end to the world during their lives.

But by December 2011, the number had jumped more than 14 times to more than 10,024, a Freedom of Information request shows. The Met is expected to comment later on Thursday. Baton rounds have never been used to quell disorder on the mainland of the UK. But an ex-Metropolitan Police Commander told the BBC the huge rise suggested a change of policy on the weapons and an increased willingness to use them. And the BBC has tracked down several victims of the rounds in Northern Ireland - all of whom responded with horror to the idea of rubber bullets being used in England.

Stephen McConomy was killed by a rubber bullet after being shot in the head by a soldier at a demonstration in 1982 at the age of 11. The man who pulled the trigger claimed to have fired by accident and was never prosecuted. Stephen's brother Emmett said: "I am shocked that they seem to be stockpiling these things. The injuries they can cause are absolutely horrific. They should never have been used in Northern Ireland and it would be absolutely wrong to use them in the UK - they are indiscriminate."

Meanwhile, hundreds of cases of people accused of being involved in last summer's London riots are still being prepared for trial, the BBC has learned. Figures from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) show that it has 450 cases still to deal with and that 200 are at trial stage.

The IDF has issued emergency call up orders to six reserve battalions in light of new dangers on the Egyptian and Syrian borders. And the Knesset has given the IDF permission to summon a further 16 reserve battalions if necessary, Israeli media reported on Wednesday. An IDF spokesperson said intelligence assessments called for the deployment of more soldiers.

According to 2008's Reserve Duty Law, combat soldiers can be called for active reserve duty once every three years, and for short training sessions during the other two. Rising tensions between Israel and Egypt and the ongoing unrest in Syria caused the army to ask the Knesset for special permission to call up more soldiers, more often.

The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee approved the request recently, enabling the IDF to summon up to 22 battalions for active duty for the second time in three years. Already, the army has called up six of them. “This signifies that the IDF regards the Egyptian and Syrian borders as the potential source of a greater threat than in the past,” the former deputy chief of staff, Dan Harel, said on Wednesday night.

Thousands took to the streets of American cities from coast to coast to mark May Day and call for a nationwide strike. Between 50 and 100 people joined them in London by moving into Paternoster Square with tents and supplies on Tuesday night. However they were forced to leave by City of London officers just hours later. The renewed activism comes more than six months after members of Occupy London were prevented from occupying the square in heart of the City of London. Many thought the movement appears to be on its last legs.

Jamie Kelsey-Fry from the Occupy London convinces RT otherwise: “This country last year bought large water cannons to dispense with demonstrators or activists. And I think that’s kind of a scare story – I know that it’s true that the military in the States may have bought this weapon that can use soundwaves to kind of disempower people that may be in the streets but I think that’s a symptom of something far worse that is coming. Occupy is the canary in the mine as we can see. But eventually the rest of this world will realize that they have been robbed and they have been put into subjugation by completely unjust undemocratic unsustainable financial systems. And they will all as one become furious eventually.”

“So I think those kind of weapons may well be something to take much more seriously in say six months’ time or eight months’ time. In this country the austerity measures haven’t really hit as hard as they are going to. It’s easy for people to just stay within their own “little pub” if you don’t mind the world. But when the austerity measures cut into their actual lives, come right on to their doorstep and enter their front door, and cut them away from a lot of what they are used to, there will be enormous growth in people who are trying to find this kind of economic justice that Occupy represent.”