Benghazi, by now firmly in the control of rebels, becomes the temporary headquarters of Libya's newly formed National Transitional Council

King Mohammed VI of Morocco announces in a televised address that he is taking steps to introduce constitutional reforms

Muammar Gaddafi makes a rousing speech on Libyan TV saying that his people will seek out traitors and infidels in Benghazi 'alley by alley' to deal with them

The United Nations Security Council passes Resolution 1973, authorizing the international community to use force to protect civilians in Libya

Muammar Gaddafi's tanks are on the verge of reaching Benghazi to enter the city and carry out his promised cleansing of the city of rebel traitors

The first air strikes by NATO, authorized by the UN, destroy sufficient of Gaddafi's armour just in time to save Benghazi from a proclaimed massacre of rebel civilians

A court in Cairo finds Hosni Mubarak guilty of damaging the national economy by severing internet connections on January 26 and fines him about US $34 million

Following the referendum result earlier in the year, South Sudan secedes from the Sudan to become the independent Republic of South Sudan

The commander of the rebel forces in Libya, Abdel Fattah Younes, is assassinated in mysterious circumstances while in rebel hands

Hosni Mubarak appears in court on a hospital bed on the first day of his trial on the capital charge of premeditated killing of peaceful protesters

The Libyan leader Muammad Gaddafi is captured and killed in Sirte

Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam is captured when attempting to flee to Niger and is held for trial

About 80 people are killed and more than 1000 injured in a clash between fans at a football match in the Egyptian city of Port Said

An Egyptian court sentences former president Hosni Mubarak to life imprisonment

Mohamed Morsi, a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, becomes Egypt's first democratically elected president

In Libya's first democratic election the National Forces Alliance, led by Mahmoud Jibril, wins the largest number of seats

Mohamed Morsi issues a declaration giving himself virtually unlimited powers, leading to violent protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square

Violent protests against the film Innocence of Muslims break out in Egypt and soon spread to other Muslim countries

The Burj Qatar in Doha, by the French architect Jean Nouvel, is named by the Council on Tall Buildings the best of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa

Radical Islamists take more than 800 people hostage at the Amenas Gas Project in Algeria

About forty foreign hostages and twenty-nine militants die when Algerian forces raid the Amenas gas site

Violent protests erupt in Egypt against President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood

Violent clashes erupt again throughout Egypt between Muslim Brotherhood supporters of President Morsi and those objecting to his Islamist policies

After increasng chaos in Egypt the army arrests President Morsi, legitimately elected, and takes control

Egyptian troops begin using live ammunition against Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators