Latest: Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak on turned down a chance to address the court on Feb. 22 in the last session before the verdict in the seven-month trial in which he faces the death penalty. Mubarak, who ran Egypt for 30 years, is accused of complicity in the killing of protesters during the 18-day popular uprising that pushed him from power in February of last year.

Police in Cairo set off salvos of tear gas and fired birdshot at protesters, and three people were killed Feb. 3 as demonstrators demanded to know why police had failed to step in and stop a soccer riot two days earlier.

74 Egyptians were killed Feb. 1 following a soccer match in Port Said, when fans flooded the field seconds after a match against a rival team was over, Egypt's Health ministry said. Egyptian activists have accused the police and military of failing to intervene to stop the mayhem. Fans at a different match set parts of Cairo Stadium on fire when that game was called off in mourning for the Port Said deaths.

Some 10,000 Egyptian protesters converged on Cairo's downtown Tahrir Square on Jan. 27 to mark the first anniversary of the "Friday of Rage," a key day in the popular uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square Jan. 25 to mark the first anniversary of the start of the popular uprising that toppled longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.

Tahrir Square was packed with different groups of people, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood and those who had lost family members in clashes with security forces, the CBC's Margaret Evans reported from Cairo. "People tell me this is both a celebration and a continuation of the protest against the governing military regime. They want justice for the victims of violence over the past year," she said.

Many citizens are expressing frustration with the slow pace of change and anger over the military government's continued strict rule. On Jan. 24, hundreds gathered at Cairo's Tahrir Square and began assembling tents at the site of last year's focal point of anti-Mubarak demonstrations. There were reports on Twitter of a heavy riot police presence around the square and that police were blocking some off streets leading to the site.

Egyptians still get arrested for criticizing the country's leadership, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which is run by Mubarak's old friend Hussein Tantawi. Egypt's reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei said Jan. 21 that he is pulling out of the country's presidential race to protest the military's failure to put the country on the path to democracy.

Final lower-house election results on Jan. 21 showed that Islamist parties won nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliament in Egypt's first elections since the ouster of authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak, according to election officials and political groups.

The unrest in Egypt has been taking a toll on tourism, the country's third-largest economic sector, reducing revenue by 33 per cent in 2011. The number of tourist visits last year was 9.8 million, down from 14.7 million in 2010.

Election Process

Lower House: Final results on Jan. 21 showed that Islamist parties won nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliament, according to election officials and political groups. In the vote for the lower house of parliament, a coalition led by the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, won 47 per cent, or 235 seats in the 498-seat parliament. The ultra-conservative Al-Nour Party was second with 25 per cent, or 125 seats.

The parliament has severe limitations on it, imposed by the military, which took power after Mubarak's Feb. 11 fall. It's not clear how long the parliament will sit. The new constitution is supposed to be drafted and approved by late June, and that may require a whole new election.

Upper House: Elections to the upper house, the 270-seat Shura Council, are to be held between Jan. 29 and March 11.

After the Shura elections, the constituent assembly will be chosen.

President: A new president is also to be elected by mid-2012. The military originally floated late 2012 or early 2013 as the likely date for the vote, the last step in the process of transferring power to a civilian government.Egypt's military ruler, but after widespreqad protests Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi promised to speed up the presidential election.

Egypt's reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei said Jan. 21 that he is pulling out of the country's presidential race to protest the military's failure to put the country on the path to democracy. The 69-year-old Nobel laureate, who has been seen as a driving force behind the movement that forced former President Hosni Mubarak to step down, said in a statement that the conditions for a fair presidential election are not in place.

How the lower-house race unfolded:

The election for the 498-seat People's Assembly, parliament's lower chamber, had three stages, with different parts of the country taking turns to vote each time.

The voting started Nov. 28, 2011, with long lines at voting stations. The two leading Islamist blocs of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists took an overwhelming majority of the first-round vote for parties with 60 per cent, a huge blow to the liberal and youthful activists who drove the uprising.

Egyptians turned out in large numbers for the second round of parliamentary elections in mid December, with Islamists looking to boost their already overwhelming lead and liberal voters concerned the outcome will push the country in a more religious direction.

Egyptians lined up in front of polling centres in nine provinces to cast their ballots starting Jan. 3, 2012, in the third and final round of the country's first parliamentary elections following the ouster of Hosni Mubarak.

Recent violence

More than 100 protesters have been killed in street demonstrations and sectarian violence since the military took power.

Protesters walk past a placard depicting Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, at Tahrir Square on Sept. 30, 2011. The banner reads 'Unite before the military tanks step on you.' (Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)

Meanwhile, activists have accused the country's military leaders of repressive tactics. Critics said in January that the nearly 12,000 civilians who have faced military trials since Mubarak's ouster have not been afforded proper due process.

Egypt's military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi decreed on national television Jan. 24 that the nation's hated emergency laws were being partially lifted, but said the strict measures will remain applicable to crimes committed by "thugs" — a term the military has repeatedly used when referring to protesters.

Amnesty International criticized the military rulers in a report on Nov. 21, 2011, saying it has fallen short of increasing human rights and, in some cases, has made matters worse than under Mubarak. The report called for repeal of the Mubarak-era "emergency laws," and said the army has placed arbitrary restrictions on media and other outlets. Egyptian security forces have continued to use torture against demonstrators, the report said, and some 12,000 civilians have been tried in military trials, which it called "unfair."

Post-Mubarak tension

The protests in Tahrir Square in January 2012 are part of an ongoing series of demonstrations since Hosni Mubarak's fall. It follows rounds of demonstrations in November and December 2011.

Protesters run from tear gas fired by riot police during clashes along a road which leads to the interior ministry, near Tahrir Square in Cairo. (Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)

Thousands took the streets in Egypt on May 27 in what they called a "second revolution," calling for Egypt's military rulers to speed up the pace of democratic reforms.

On Aug. 1 2011, the army forcibly cleared hundreds of protesters from Cairo's Tahrir Square. The demonstrators had been camping there since July 8 in protest against the ruling military council's slow implementation of democratic reforms. They were also frustrated with the slow prosecution of security officers believed to be responsible for the deaths of nearly 900 demonstrators and the injury of thousands more.

In a concession to activists, on July 14 the country's security chief fired nearly 700 police officers in a move to cleanse the force of Mubarak loyalists.

Fate of Mubarak

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak seen during a meeting with Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov at the presidential palace in Cairo on Feb. 9, 2011. (Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak went on trial Aug. 3, 2011, in Cairo on charges of corruption and conspiring in the deadly shootings of protesters during the uprising that ousted him. The prosecution of the former Egyptian president is unprecedented in the Arab world, the first time a modern Mideast leader has been put on trial fully by his own people.

Mubarak is facing charges that he conspired with his former security chief and other senior police officers, "to commit premeditated murder, along with attempted murder of those who participated in the peaceful protests around Egypt." He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The prosecution is asking for the death sentence for Mubarak, usually carried out by hanging in Egypt. Mubarak's defence team argues that he is still president, and thus can only be tried for treason or in a special court.

Six other ranking security officers are being tried in the same case. Mubarak, his sons Gamal and Alaa and a close associate are being tried in a separate case on corruption charges.

On Jan. 9, 2012, lawyers for victims in the trial of Hosni Mubarak accused the head of Egypt's ruling military council and the ex-vice president of lying to the court by testifying that they did not know if the ousted leader ordered the killing of protesters.

Critics of the military's handling of the transition to democracy say the trial's pace reflects a wider lack of justice for those killed in the uprising. Egyptian courts have so far not punished any police officers for the protester deaths. Others have criticized the prosecution's handling of the case, saying it has failed to present strong enough evidence to support a murder charge.

Officials: Also on trial in Cairo are Mubarak's sons Alaa and Gamal, and Egyptian businessman Hussein Salem, and some of Mubarak's top former security officials.

On May 5, 2011, former interior minister Habib el-Adly — Egypt's top security official who was in charge of the 500,000-strong security force blamed for some of the worst human rights abuses committed under Mubarak's regime — was convicted of corruption and money laundering and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Origin of the uprising

How the protests started: Demonstrators were gathered peacefully in central Cairo on Jan. 25 to demand an end to Mubarak's nearly 30 years in power and protest economic woes in the North African nation. The protests came days after Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced into exile by demonstrations in his home country.

Protesters clash with police in downtown Cairo on Jan. 25, 2011, in unprecedented protests inspired by the revolt that brought down Tunisia's president. (Mohamed Abd El-Ghany/Reuters)

As crowds filled Cairo's Tahrir Square — waving Egyptian and Tunisian flags and adopting the same protest chants that had rung out in the streets of Tunis — security personnel changed tactics and the protest turned violent. Police blasted crowds with water cannons and set upon them with batons and tear gas in an attempt to clear demonstrators who were shouting "Down with Mubarak."

Demonstrations in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez resulted in dozens deaths, but an especially brutal intensification of violence on Jan. 28 and 29 brought the death toll up sharply. A fact-finding commission set up by Egypt's interim government says at least 846 people were killed during the two-week popular uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak's longstanding rule, and more than 6,400 were injured.

What fuelled the protests:

Anti-government protesters fill Cairo's Tahrir Square on Jan. 25, 2011. (Submitted photo)

In Egypt, discontent with life in the autocratic, police state has simmered under the surface for years. But there has also been growing discontent over economic woes, poverty, unemployment, corruption and police abuses.

It appears the Tunisian experience was enough to push many young Egyptians into the streets. "This is the first time I am protesting, but we have been a cowardly nation. We have to finally say no," said 24-year-old Ismail Syed, a hotel worker who struggles to live on a salary of roughly $50 a month, during the protests in January 2011.

End of Mubarak's rule: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned Feb. 11 and handed over power to the military, ousted by a historic 18-day wave of anti-government demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of Egyptians. The terse announcement was made live on state TV by Vice-President Omar Suleiman. Since then, Egypt has been under the leadership of the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces. The Egyptian military, which numbers around half a million, is also the acting police force.

On April 10, 2011, in his first public speech since his resignation, Mubarak denied that he abused his authority to amass wealth and property. He was arrested April 13, and on May 24, Egypt's prosecutor general ordered Mubarak be put on trial.

World reaction: World leaders were quick to say that Hosni Mubarak did the right thing in stepping down and they appealed for a swift and calm transition of power. The departure of Mubarak has given rise to a number of political factions — including the Muslim Brotherhood, an entrenched Islamist group that is largely seen as the best-organized political bloc in Egypt —each hoping to mobilize support for victory in democratic elections.

With files from The Associated Press