Others suggest that she may retreat to an inner circle in which Hugo Moyano, a thuggish union leader, is an increasingly prominent figure.

ECONOMIST: Argentina after Kirchner

As the idea has gained ground that the euro zone might form an EU inner circle, so Europe itself has come to seem more important to Poland.

ECONOMIST: The euro crisis is a threat to non-members too

The foreign minister is regarded as an eloquent messenger but not a member of his inner circle.

ECONOMIST: Who really runs Pakistan?

When it became clear she'd been ripped off, she organized an investor revolt, allied with disgruntled castoffs from the men's inner circle and gathered evidence to prod law enforcement to act.

FORBES: The Avengers

Stephen Hess, Senior Fellow Emeritus, Governance Studies at the The Brookings Institution, suggested in 2001 that as a rule of thumb an incoming president need have their White House appointments -- their immediate inner circle -- in place by Thanksgiving (November 27) and Cabinet staff by Christmas (December 25).

CNN: How will Obama build his administration?

His inner circle remains packed with old friends and Downing Street is still an alarmingly slack operation.

ECONOMIST: The Conservatives and Tony Blair

In 1987, Rudolf Hess, the last member of Adolf Hitler's inner circle, died at a hospital near Spandau Prison at age 93, an apparent suicide.

CNN: Saturday,

With music by Gluck, her favourite composer, in the background, the softly lit room is lined with portraits of the queen's inner circle (including handsome Count Axel Fersen, with whom she may have had an affair).

ECONOMIST: Marie-Antoinette