Politicians and ratings agencies have long warned that Japan needs to lower its debt pile. Japan's debt burden is by far the worst among industrial economies, but does it face a crisis similar to what is plaguing Europe's smaller economies? By some measures Japan is in a worse mess than Greece and Ireland, both of which sought bailouts due to their high debt.

Japan is also worse off than countries that investors speculate will need bailouts in the future, such as Spain, Portugal and Belgium. Japan's outstanding long-term government debt is set to reach 869 trillion yen (6.64 trillion pounds) at the end of March this year, or 181 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the Ministry of Finance says. If short-term debt is added, Japan's liabilities will hit 204 percent of GDP this calendar year, larger than 137 percent for Greece and 113 percent for Ireland, according to the OECD.

They call it Sponsored Stories. Advertisers call it a godsend. "If you can get your advertising into the activity feed, that's the best time to touch people -- and the launch of sponsored stories is doing just that," Vijay Pullur, CEO of social media marketing company SocialTwist, told FoxNews.com.

He pointed out that the move was completely expected in the advertising world -- inevitable even. But it may come as a shock to Facebook's 500 million users, who have unwittingly been clicking "Like" buttons across the Internet, unaware that they may be helping market and promote brands at the same time.

GOP lawmakers introduced such a measure Wednesday in the Idaho House, and Alabama, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming are also talking about the idea. The efforts are completely unconstitutional in the eyes of most legal scholars because the U.S. Constitution deems federal laws "the supreme law of the land." The Idaho attorney general has weighed in as well, branding nullification unconstitutional.

"There is no right to pick and choose which federal laws a state will follow," wrote Assistant Chief Deputy Attorney General Brian Kane. Regardless of the very dubious constitutional nature of the efforts, the nullification push has become a rallying cry in conservative states at a time when anti-government angst is running high and "state's rights" are a popular belief among the tea party crowd.

Nullification has been invoked several times over the years - to no avail. South Carolina wielded it in the 1830s to fight federal tariffs - and nearly provoked armed conflict. Historians see that state's "Nullification Crisis" in 1832 as a prelude to the Civil War.

Only female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes spread dengue fever, which killed 134 people in Malaysia last year. However, the plan has sparked criticism by some Malaysian environmentalists, who fear it might have unforeseen consequences, such as the inadvertent creation of uncontrollable mutated mosquitoes.

Critics also say such plans could leave a vacuum in the ecosystem that is then filled by another insect species, potentially introducing new diseases. A similar trial in the Cayman Islands last year - the first time genetically modified mosquitoes have been set loose in the wild after years of laboratory experiments and hypothetical calculations - resulted in a dramatic drop in the mosquito population in a small area studied by researchers.

Government authorities have tried to allay the concerns by saying they are conducting small-scale research and will not rush into any widespread release of mosquitoes. The Malaysian government-run Institute for Medical Research said it released about 6,000 non-biting sterile male lab mosquitoes in an uninhabited forest area in eastern Malaysia on December 21.

In the Cayman Islands, genetically altered sterile male mosquitoes were also set loose by scientists in a 40-acre region between May and October last year. By August, mosquito numbers in that area dropped by 80 per cent compared with a neighbouring area where no sterile mosquitoes were released.

According to a recent article in Women's Wear Daily, the formulas are designed for young skin and have natural ingredients like white willow bark to exfoliate, chamomile, lavender and calendula to calm and antioxidants. There's a cleanser, mineral blush, liquid2power shadow, feather-lash mascara, face shimmer and body mist, among the offerings. The line, which will replace the space vacated by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen cosmetics in Walmart, is set to debut next month in stores and at geogirl.com.

The unrest began on Tuesday in what anti-government activists called a "day of revolt", inspired by the uprising in Tunisia which ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. On Wednesday, they staged fresh demonstrations in central Cairo, despite official warnings that anyone taking to the streets would be prosecuted. "We've started and we won't stop," one demonstrator told the AFP news agency.

The Egyptian government, ruled by President Hosni Mubarak since 1981, tolerates little dissent and opposition demonstrations are routinely outlawed. But on Wednesday, Mrs Clinton said it was facing "an important opportunity to implement political, economic and social reforms that respond to legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people".

"We support the universal right of the Egyptian people, including the right to freedom of expression, association and assembly," she told reporters at the state department, calling on all parties to show restraint. Egypt is a key political and military ally of the US in the Middle East, so Washington has been cautious in its response, but it has urged the authorities "not to prevent peaceful protests nor block communications, including on social media sites".

The BBC's Paul Adams in Washington says the US is clearly watching events on the streets of its most populous Arab ally with growing concern, fearing the potential of violent unrest at the heart of the Arab world. Washington has been reliant on Mr Mubarak's autocratic regime for decades, but the unrest could now mean the US has to tread very carefully as it seeks to influence events in the region, says our correspondent.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said the 21 billion pounds cost of public sector fraud could pay for 800 secondary schools or 615,000 nurses. He said: "Contrary to what many people think, fraud and error is not just confined to benefits and revenue. It affects every government department and impacts on the government's ability to deliver better public services, while stripping the civil service of vital resources. We can't and won't allow this to happen any more."

The cost to the private sector was 12 billion pounds and charities lost 1.3 billion pounds, the NFA reported, while individuals' losses were estimated at 4 billion pounds. Frauds included marketing scams, bogus operators, fake lotteries and online ticketing and rental crimes.

Public gatherings would no longer be tolerated, the interior ministry said. Anyone taking to the streets against the government would be prosecuted, it added. The BBC's John Leyne in Cairo says the authorities are responding in familiar fashion, treating a political crisis as a security threat.

Protesters have been inspired by the recent uprising in Tunisia, vowing to stay on the streets until the government falls. Tuesday's protests were co-ordinated through a Facebook page, where organisers say they are taking a stand against torture, poverty, corruption and unemployment.

One page called for protesters all over Egypt to gather after prayers on Friday. Twitter also played a key part, with supporters inside and outside Egypt using the search term #jan25 to post news on Tuesday, but it was blocked later in the day. Technically minded protesters have found ways of evading the restrictions by routing their messages through proxy servers - web facilities based in other countries.

Egypt has many of the same social and political problems that brought about the unrest in Tunisia - rising food prices, high unemployment and anger at official corruption. However, the population of Egypt has a much lower level of education than Tunisia. Illiteracy is high and internet penetration is low. There are deep frustrations in Egyptian society, our Cairo correspondent says, adding that Egypt is widely seen to have lost power, status and prestige in the three decades of President Mubarak's rule.

Mr King issued the warning in a speech in Newcastle upon Tyne after official figures showed that gross domestic product fell by 0.5 per cent during the final three months last year. The Government blamed the unexpected reduction - the first since the third quarter of 2009 - on the freezing weather that paralysed much of the country last month. But there were fears that the country was poised to slip back into recession, defined as two successive quarters of negative growth. Economists said the situation was "an absolute disaster".

Mr King said he was unable to offer any imminent hope of a rise in interest rates in coming months because of the poor economic outlook. Savers and "those who behaved prudently" would be among the biggest losers in the squeeze, he admitted. Disposable household income has been hit by sharp increases in the cost of food, fuel and tax, coupled with restricted wage rises for most workers. Last year, take-home pay fell by about 12 per cent, official figures showed, and the trend was expected to continue in 2011.

The governor warned that the Bank "neither can, nor should try to, prevent the squeeze in living standards". He said that the economic figures were a reminder that the recovery will be "choppy". However, he said the biggest threat facing the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee, which sets interest rates, was rising inflation.

Savvas Savouri, partner and chief economist at Toscafund, has called for tighter scrutiny despite a wave of recent regulation tackling bank capital requirements and bonuses as lawmakers try to avert a repeat of the credit crisis. "Finance is almost lawless. The nature of regulation is so light touch that it may as well not be there at all," Savouri said at the London School of Economics' Alternative Investments Conference.

"It (the financial services sector) is like medicine in the 18th century - it's full of frauds... and is very poorly regulated... You need to be that much better (than your rivals) if you don't perform underhand or insider trades." Savouri's comments make Toscafund one of the few hedge fund firms to argue the case for more regulation following the European Union's Alternative Investment Fund Managers directive which seeks closer supervision of hedge funds even though many regulators say they were not directly responsible for the crisis.

The UK was the first country in the G7 to release economic growth figures for the last quarter of last year and the 0.5 percent GDP contraction, instead of an expected 0.5 percent expansion, sent the pound 1 percent lower against the dollar and the euro and knocked down European stocks.

David Blanchflower, a former Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member known for his dovish stance and currently a professor of economics at Dartmouth College, said the figure was "awful, dreadful." Britain's government, formed of a coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, has implemented tough austerity measures to cut state spending and increase revenues in order to persuade markets it is still worthy of its triple-A investment grade.

The Bank of England's hands are tied when it comes to fighting inflation, as it will probably have to take more quantitative easing steps, according to Blanchflower. "I think people have underestimated the sheer size of this shock," he said.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, there were 846,181 abortions in the US in 2006, the latest year for which government records are available.

The pro-abortion rights Alan Guttmacher Institute reports that there have been nearly 50 million abortions performed since 1973, the year the Supreme Court issued the Roe vs Wade decision ushering in legal abortion nationwide. In 2008, Guttmacher says, there were 1.2 million "legally terminated pregnancies" in the United States, based on reports complied from state and local health agencies -- down from 1.3 million the year previous.

According to Guttmacher, 35 percent of all US women will have had an abortion by age 45. Guttmacher also reports that 93 percent of all abortions occur for "social reasons" such as a mother's decision that the child is unwanted or "inconvenient."

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned that formation of a government dominated by Hezbollah would mean changes in US relations with Lebanon. The militant group and its allies ousted the government backed by Washington two weeks ago when they walked out of the Cabinet.

"A Hezbollah-controlled government would clearly have an impact on our bilateral relationship with Lebanon," Clinton said. The United States deems Hezbollah a terrorist organization and has imposed sanctions against the group and its members. The ascendancy of Hezbollah is a setback to the United States, which has provided Lebanon with $720 million in military aid since 2006 and has tried in vain to move the country firmly into a Western sphere and end the influence of Iran and Syria. Hezbollah's opponents maintain having an Iranian proxy in control of Lebanon's government would be disastrous and lead to international isolation. The militant group has its own arsenal and is the country's most powerful military force.

A telecoms tycoon and former prime minister, Mikati, a 55-year-old Sunni, is seen as a neutral figure in Lebanese politics. He is a friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad and also enjoys close ties with US ally Saudi Arabia. His nomination does not alter Lebanon's power-sharing system, in which the prime minister must be a Sunni, the parliament speaker a Shiite and the president must be a Christian Maronite. Each faith makes up about a third of Lebanon's population of 4 million. But the very fact that Hezbollah, a group known as much for its ties to Shiite Iran as for its hostility to Israel, chose him and secured enough lawmakers' votes to make him prime minister is enormously significant. It underscores Iran's growing influence in the region at a time when Washington's is waning.

Five big themes are dominating the Davos agenda:

1. How will the rise of India and China alter the global balance of power?

2. How can Western economies cope with debt, austerity, joblessness and potentially years of low growth?

3. Will rapid economic growth in emerging economies trigger run-away inflation, and could it lead to dangerous bubbles? Economists at IHS Global Insight already compare China's property market to that in Japan before the big crash of the early 1990s.

4. How are digital media and technology changing not just whole industries, but human society?

5. And as the enemies of the World Economic Forum (WEF) seem to have disappeared, the capitalists in Davos have to be their own best critics, with a series of sessions examining the failings of the global economic system - from poverty to inequality, resource problems and green issues.

A popular topic at Davos is whether the event "will get it wrong again" - as in 2007 and even 2008, when many business leaders failed to sport the imminent financial and economic meltdown. That may be true, but the organisers can console themselves with the fact that the rest of the world tends to get it even more wrong than the Davos consensus.

Thousands of demonstrators remained in the city centre around Tahrir Square late into the night, vowing to camp out overnight. Activists had called for a "day of revolt" in a web message. Protests are uncommon in Egypt, which President Hosni Mubarak has ruled since 1981, tolerating little dissent.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her administration supported "the fundamental right of expression and assembly" and urged all parties "to exercise restraint". She added that Washington believed the Egyptian government was "stable" and "looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people".

The events in Cairo were co-ordinated on a Facebook page - tens of thousands of supporters clicked on the page to say they would take part. The microblogging website, Twitter, has confirmed that its website has been blocked in Egypt. Twitter said it believed the open exchange of information and views was a benefit to societies and helped government better connect with their people.

Protests also broke out in other areas, including the eastern city of Ismailiya and the northern port city of Alexandria. In Alexandria, witnesses said thousands joined the protests, some chanting: "Revolution, revolution, like a volcano, against Mubarak the coward." Cairo resident Abd-Allah told the BBC that by Tuesday night some protesters were saying they wouldn't give up until President Mubarak had gone. "People are behaving as if they are ready to die," he said.

"The atmosphere is very tense, it feels like a revolution. I see people who are determined, people who have nothing to lose, people who want a better future." Reports said protesters had earlier gathered outside the Supreme Court holding large signs that read: "Tunisia is the solution." The organisers rallied support saying the protest would focus on torture, poverty, corruption and unemployment, calling it "the beginning of the end".