New Venezuelan spy boss takes over

Venezuela named a new chief of its state intelligence agency after the death of a politician in custody that was officially ruled a suicide but critics called a murder. Army Gen Manuel Cristopher takes over the agency, known as Sebin, just weeks after the government announced that municipal legislator Fernando Alban had committed suicide by jumping from the 10th floor of the agency’s headquarters in Caracas. Opposition leaders said the government provided inconsistent accounts of the incident. They said Alban, who was arrested on October 5, had been tortured and killed by security forces. The incident drew global condemnation, and the White House accused President Nicolas Maduro’s government of involvement in Alban’s death.