Thousands of tourists flock to this temple every year.

Normally, a Davos audience would rally to the support of the central bankers.

This should not, of course, be taken to mean that the patriots gushing over Lugovoi s achievement concede the justice of the British allegations.

We saw the people, assembled in Wenceslas Square, hundreds of thousands of them, jingling their keys and ringing hand bells in their good humored farewell to communism Your time is up.

Likewise, though Europe s populists use their opposition to Brussels as a rallying flag, their ideology retains the atavism that motivated their forebears.

Many repudiate his corruption but, in challenging the post coup status quo , have no recourse except to use him as a rallying symbol.

The well of the House supposedly sacrosanct becomes a stage for opposition MPs to crowd and jostle, waving placards and chanting slogans until the speaker, after several futile attempts to restore order, adjourns in despair.

As the world's population reaches 7 billion at the end of October, one sign that Lilongwe, Malawi's capital, is growing rapidly are the numbers of people that flock to the city's markets.

Yet another damaging myth, perpetuated by shocking images of refugees swarming through border fences or attempting to climb onto trains in Calais, is that Fortress Europe is under assault by waves of barbarians. This is wrong on two levels.

Putin may not have ordered the hit on Nemtsov or any of the others. But, like Stalin, he has nurtured a climate of fear and lawlessness, in which those who rally behind the Kremlin feel a duty to eliminate the leader's opponents however they can, and in anticipation of his will.