Britain's first female MI5 spy chief dies at 90

Dame Stella Rimington, the UK's first publicly named director-general of MI5 and the first known female leader of any national intelligence agency, died on Sunday aged 90.

She joined MI5 in 1969 and worked her way up to become Director General in 1992.

Paying tribute, the current MI5 Director General said, "Her leadership ushered in a new era of openness and transparency about the work MI5 does."

After retiring, Rimington was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1996 and went on to write bestselling spy novels featuring fictional MI5 and CIA agents.