Key developments

2012:

JUNE 30: Morsi was elected president with 51.7 percent of the vote, becoming Egypt's first civilian and Islamist ruler.

AUG 12: Morsi scrapped a constitutional document which handed sweeping powers to the military and ousted Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who was head of state after Hosni Mubarak's fall in February 2011.

NOV 22: Morsi decreed sweeping new powers for himself.

DEC 15 and 22: Sixty-four percent of voters in a two-round referendum backed the new constitution.

2013:

JAN 24: Violence erupted between demonstrators and police before the second anniversary of the uprising that overthrew Mubarak. Nearly 60 people died in a week.

APRIL 5: Sectarian violence in northern Cairo killed four Christians and a Muslim.

MAY 7: Morsi carried out a cabinet reshuffle which fell short of opposition demands.

JUNE 2: Egypt's highest court invalidated the Islamist-dominated Senate, which assumed a legislative role when parliament was dissolved, and a panel that drafted the constitution. The presidency said the senate will maintain its powers until a new lower house is elected.

4: 43 Egyptian and foreign NGO employees were given jail sentences ranging from one to five years for working illegally, causing international outrage.

15: Morsi announced a "definitive" severing of relations with war-torn Syria.

21: Tens of thousands of Islamists gathered ahead of planned opposition protests.

23: Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned the army will intervene if violence erupts.

AFP

(China Daily 07/02/2013 page11)