Egyptian revolution enters on Tuesday its fifteenth day, with the demonstrators have pressed for more mass protests on this day.
Egyptian revolution enters on Tuesday its fifteenth day, with the demonstrators, seeking the immediate ousting of the President Hosni Mubarak, are holding mass demonstrations.
Protesters, still camping in Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square, seem to be unappeased by talks held two days earlier between the government and opposition groups, while life was slowly getting back to normal in other parts of the Egyptian capital following a fortnight of turmoil which claimed the lives of 300 people, UN reported.
A day earlier, activists held a symbolic funeral procession in the square for a journalist killed by a sniper during the unrest, while about 2,000 pro-democracy protesters marched in the port city of Alexandria.
GOVERNMENT CONVENES
Also on Monday, and in a bid to buy time, Mubarak pledged to raise public sector wages by 15 percent and ordered a probe into recent deadly violence.
The 82-year-old leader met his new-look cabinet for the first time on Monday as the regime battled to get the economy moving despite protests.
According to the official MENA news agency, the cabinet approved a plan to increase state sector salaries by 15 percent from April and to spend another 6.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($940 million) boosting pensions.
Mubarak also pledged to launch an "independent" investigation into deadly violence between his supporters and demonstrators Wednesday at Tahrir Square that left 11 dead and nearly 1,000 injured, according to official estimates.
The president "has given instructions for the creation of a... transparent, independent and impartial investigatory commission," MENA reported.
The commission will investigate "the terrible and unacceptable violations that made some protesters innocent victims", it said.
In other government moves to revive economic life, the curfew in major Egyptian cities, which has largely been ignored by protesters, has now been shortened to run from 8pm to 6am local time, and the Egyptian stock market is set to reopen for trading on Sunday.
The bourse has been closed since January 27, when it plummeted 17 per cent over two days.
The Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority, the national financial regulator, will announce new measures affecting trading, according to a statement.
DETAINED CYBER ACTIVIST FREED
Meanwhile, new wave of optimism has reached the pro-democracy camp following the release of the detained cyber activist, Wael Ghonim, after being detained for 11 days.
Ghonim is a Google marketing executive who was behind a Facebook page credited with sparking the demonstrations. He said he had not been ill-treated in custody but was shocked to be branded a traitor.
"Anyone with good intentions is the traitor because being evil is the norm," he told a TV channel.
"If I was a traitor, I would have stayed in my villa in the Emirates and made good money and said, like others, 'Let this country go to hell'. But we are not traitors."
