Woman elected to Swiss cabinet

BERN (AP) - Swiss MPs elected a woman to the all-male cabinet yesterday, a week after the defeat of a more controversial contender sparked a political crisis.

Ruth Dreifuss, 53, an economist and labour official from the Social Democratic Party, defeated last week's unsuccessful candidate, Christiane Brunner, in a secret ballot by the Federal Assembly after a male party colleague refused the nomination. She is the second female government minister in Switzerland, where women got the vote only in 1971.