In brief: Egypt leader names Cabinet appointees
Cairo – Egypt’s incoming Cabinet will have few Islamists and some holdovers from the outgoing military-backed team in key positions, according to a partial list released by state media Wednesday, a day before the first government under the country’s new Islamist president is sworn in.
The choices by President Mohammed Morsi’s prime minister, Hesham Kandil, are seen as a test of the intentions of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Egypt’s official news media listed more than 20 ministers in the new Cabinet, so far including only two members from the Brotherhood – an apparent attempt to calm concerns over the group’s intention to dominate the government.
The Brotherhood appointees will hold the higher education and the housing ministries.
Highlighting the difficulties of forming a government with broad appeal, Kandil took more than a week to nominate his ministers.
Official: Toys in kids meals violate law
Santiago, Chile – McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC and other fast-food companies are being accused in Chile of violating the country’s new law against including toys with children’s meals.
Sen. Guido Gerardi filed a formal complaint Wednesday with the health authority accusing those and other companies of knowingly endangering the health of children by marketing kids’ meals with toys more than a month after the law took effect June 7.
Gerardi said he’s also targeting the makers of cereal, ice cream and other products that include toys, crayons and stickers with their products as well as markets where the food is sold. If his allegations are upheld by Chile’s health ministry, the companies could be forced to remove the products or face fines.
Premier Charest to seek fourth term
Gatineau, Quebec – Saying it is time for Quebec’s “silent majority” to express itself in a year marked by massive and sometimes violent student protests, Premier Jean Charest announced Wednesday his province would head to the polls in early September.
Charest will be seeking a fourth mandate as premier of the French-speaking province in the Sept. 4 election. Polls have shown his party closely trailing the opposition, separatist Parti Quebecois.
Charest said Quebec’s people don’t recognize themselves in the violent acts perpetrated by the demonstrators, which he said caused economic and social turbulence. More than 2,500 people have been arrested since protests began over rising tuition fees in February in what became Canada’s most sustained protests ever. Charest also criticized the PQ’s embrace of the protest movement.
Students also have protested an emergency law put in place to limit the demonstrations. The conflict caused considerable upheaval in the province known for having more contentious protests than elsewhere in Canada.