There has been no official response to Dr Afridi's allegations, but the Pakistani authorities have always insisted that they treated him the way any country would someone found working for a foreign spy agency.

BBC: Bin Laden raid doctor Shakil Afridi speaks out

Japan's secret service, perhaps influenced by stories of Mata Hari, a dancer who became a spy in the first world war, asked Miss Nakamura to spy on a foreign client.

ECONOMIST: Kiharu Nakamura, a geisha, died on January 5th, aged 90

Some of those convinced that Ms Zatuliveter is indeed a spy think the Russian foreign intelligence service, the SVR, recruited her only after she started working in London.

ECONOMIST: Russian espionage

For a film by a foreign director, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is an incredibly British film.

WSJ: Tomas Alfredson: The Director Who Came In From the Cold

U.S. spy agencies and diplomats routinely prepare classified assessments of foreign leaders to guide U.S. decision making.

WSJ: Kim Jong Eun: Portrait of New Leader Takes Shape

Earlier this year Mr Belhadj alleged that British ex-foreign minister Jack Straw and the UK government's various spy agencies were complicit in his rendition to Libya, where he says he and his wife were tortured.

BBC: Libya's Belhadj quits military post for politics

This was a claim by another unrelated former foreign minister, Jaswant Singh, that he knew of an American spy in the office of a former Congress prime minister who had spilled some of India's nuclear secrets.

ECONOMIST: India

In a report, he highlights how the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendment Act (FISAAA) allows US authorities to spy on cloud data.

BBC: Experts warn on wire-tapping of the cloud

Mr de Villepin, Mr Sarkozy's chief rival on the right, has not denied that, as foreign minister, he ordered a covert inquiry into the allegations by General Philippe Rondot, a top spy then working for the defence ministry.

ECONOMIST: French politics: Beyond saving? | The