Moreover, the polyglot Mr Strauss-Kahn, fluent in German, English and Spanish, and with a (third) wife, Anne Sinclair, who until 1997 had her own political chat-show on television, was the perfect man to smooth-talk journalists and placate suspicious foreigners.

ECONOMIST: A sad adieu to Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Among other things, Habibie spent the morning e-mailing his 36-year-old son Ilham Akbar, who was born in Germany, a message in fluent German, urging him not to worry about the day's events and to go to bed.

CNN: INTELLIGENCE

By the time she left Japan four years later he was fluent in English and was picking up French and German as well.

ECONOMIST: Elizabeth Vining

Pansieri, a fluent speaker of English, German, French, Spanish and Chinese, in addition to her native Italian, holds doctorate degrees in philosophy from Milan University and in Chinese language and literature from Venice University.

UN: Secretary-General