President Nicolas Maduro named a ruling party lawmaker as Venezuela's charge d'affaires in Washington Tuesday, taking "positive note" of a US statement denying it was considering sanctions against Caracas. "I have decided to name deputy Calixto Ortega as the charge d'affaires in the embassy in Washington to increase the dialogue with US society," Maduro said. Ortega would replace Angelo Rivera, who currently holds the post. The two countries, which have long had strained relations, have not been represented by ambassadors since 2010.

President Nicolas Maduro named a ruling party lawmaker as Venezuela's charge d'affaires in Washington Tuesday, taking "positive note" of a US statement denying it was considering sanctions against Caracas. "I have decided to name deputy Calixto Ortega as the charge d'affaires in the embassy in Washington to increase the dialogue with US society," Maduro said. Ortega would replace Angelo Rivera, who currently holds the post. The two countries, which have long had strained relations, have not been represented by ambassadors since 2010.

Venezuela's new President Nicolas Maduro was roughly pushed aside Friday by a youth in a red shirt who ran on stage during his inaugural address in the National Assembly and grabbed the microphone. The incident caused momentary confusion as national television coverage of the event briefly went off the air, returning after Maduro had regained his composure and the youth had been moved off stage. "Incident overcome," said Maduro, saying he would speak to the man after the address and then continuing with his speech. jm/sst

CARACAS (Reuters) - A man in a red jacket ran onto the stage during Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's inauguration speech on Friday and grabbed the microphone, but was quickly tackled by his bodyguards. "The security has failed totally. They could have shot me easily," Maduro said after resuming his speech to an audience that included the leaders of Brazil, Iran and Argentina. (Reporting by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Sandra Maler)