UK names diplomat Richard Moore as new MI6 spy chief

Britain on Wednesday named diplomat Richard Moore as the new chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, the foreign spy service known as MI6. Moore, director general of political affairs at the Foreign Office, will take up his role in the autumn, replacing current chief Alex Younger.

MI6, depicted by novelists as the employer of some of the most memorable fictional spies from John le Carré's George Smiley to Ian Fleming's James Bond, operates overseas and is tasked with defending Britain and its interests.