国际英语新闻：Egypt approves 15-percent pay raise for gov't employees

CAIRO, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's new cabinet approved a 15- percent increase in monthly salaries and pensions for government employees, in an attempt to alleviate people's outrage over the two weeks of protests, the state TV reported on Monday.

The Minister of Finance Samir Radwan said the pay raise, which was approved by the legislative committee of the cabinet to go in effect in April, will cost the public treasury 6.5 billion Egyptian pounds (about 1.1 billion U.S. dollars). The legislative committee agreed upon establishing a fund with 5 billion Egyptian pounds (about 840 million U.S. dollars) to compensate the victims of looting and violence during the protests.

The new cabinet held its first full meeting on Monday under Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq to coordinate the ministries' efforts in restoring order in Egypt, while President Hosni Mubarak had another meeting earlier with senior officials to discuss the political and economic reforms after the protests.

As the anti-regime protests have raged in Egypt for two weeks, Mubarak and his new cabinet are focusing on restoring normal life for the people, in an effort to ease the political crisis.