Word: cabinet
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When Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's new cabinet members took their oath of office before King Juan Carlos on Monday, one of them, the recently-appointed Defense Minister, stood out from the rest. Literally. Carme Chacón, 37, is not only the first woman to head Spain's armed forces. She is also seven months pregnant...
...should be surprised by Zapatero's commitment to gender equality. In his first term, he passed a sweeping law against domestic violence, legalized gay marriage, eased divorce laws, and required political parties to practice gender parity. He also appointed equal numbers of men and women to cabinet positions, and named María Teresa Fernández de la Vega as his deputy prime minister...
...This time around, the prime minister, who was re-elected on March 9, appointed more women than men to his cabinet. He also created a new Equality Ministry, charged with ensuring fairness in the workplace and continuing the fight against domestic violence. "For the Socialists, gender equality has become a sign of identity," says Maribel Montaño, secretary for equality during the previous administration...
...case, the expensive new Cabinet must get to work quickly to heal a country shattered after the December 27 vote. The ministers who join the new government will face daunting tasks. Economic growth is expected to be as low as 4% this year, down from nearly 7% last year. The 300,000 displaced have not returned to their homes, and resentments over ethnicity, land and resources still linger. Tension in the slums remains high. Kenya's population has exploded to more than 40 million, and the country is quickly running out of enough land for all its people...
...spite of the hoopla over the formation of the new government, many observers remain skeptical about its prospects. A senior Western diplomat in Nairobi was blunt: "Kenyans welcomed the apparent agreement, though their media ridiculed the prospect of a Cabinet of 40 thieves. We're still keen to work with a genuine power-sharing government, but we'll watch closely how efficiently and transparently it uses resources." Kenyans will be watching whether or not Odinga and Kibaki will actually share power. They remember 2005, when Kibaki dismissed many members of his Cabinet - including Odinga - because it was riven by internal...