MIDDLE EAST CHANGES BY: HANNAH HIMMELMANN

Tunisia has been known as an European country of North Africa for many years. However, a revolution of Arab culture swept the nation. The uprising began in December 2010, when a fruit vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire in the impoverished town of Sidi Bouzid to protest his lack of opportunity and the disrespect of the police. In December 2011, Moncef Marzouki, a doctor and politician, was elected as interim president of Tunisia. He appointed Hamadi Jebali, secretary general of the Ennahda party, as prime minister. They are currently working on peoples’ opinion in the government. TUNISIA

In January 2013, Algeria was drawn into the conflict in Mali, its neighbor to the south, when militants seized dozens of hostages from an internationally managed gas field in Algeria, saying the act was in retaliation for a French military assault on the Islamist extremists who had taken control of northern Mali. The next day, Algerian forces launched a raid that led to days of fighting in the maze-like complex. The following week, the prime minister said that 37 hostages had been killed, including three Americans, and that 29 of the kidnappers had been killed and three had been captured. The kidnapping was said by officials to be the work of Al Mulathameen, a group that broke away in 2012 from the Al Qaeda branch, and which is led by a militant and smuggler named Mokthar Belmokthar who has been active in politics, moneymaking and fighting for decades in the Sahel. ALGERIA

In late 2012 Egypt descended into a deep political crisis, pitting the Islamist supporters of President Mohammed Morsi against the secular opposition and the Coptic Christian minority. An attempt by Morsi to assume special presidential powers until the passing of the new constitution triggered a wave of violent protest, as the opposition accused Morsi of working to install an Islamist dictatorship. The Islamist-secular tension escalated when an Islamist-dominated panel approved a controversial draft on the country's new constitution, which stipulated that Muslims clerics should have a say in the legislative process. The draft was submitted to a referendum on December 15, after three weeks of political violence. EGYPT

On Sept. 11, 2012, heavily armed Islamist militants stormed and burned the American Consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, killing the United States ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, and three others: Sean Smith, a Foreign Service officer, and Tyrone S. Woods and Glen A. Doherty, both former members of the Navy SEALs who helped protect diplomatic personnel. It was the first time since 1979 that an American ambassador had died in a violent assault. The attack has raised questions about the radicalization of countries swept up in the Arab Spring and has become a significant issue in the presidential campaign. Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate, offered harsh criticism of the Obama administration for being slow to label the assault terrorism and faulted its overall handling of the attack. Republicans in Congress also charged that the White House had covered up important facts and had turned down repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi before the fatal attack. LIBYA

Saudi Arabia is a destination country for men and women subjected to forced labor and to a much lesser extent, forced prostitution; men and women from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and many other countries voluntarily travel to Saudi Arabia as domestic servants or other low-skilled laborers, but some subsequently face conditions indicative of involuntary servitude; women, primarily from Asian and African countries, were believed to have been forced into prostitution in Saudi Arabia; others were reportedly kidnapped and forced into prostitution after running away from abusive employers; Yemeni, Nigerian, Pakistani, Afghan, Chadian, and Sudanese children were subjected to forced labor as beggars and street vendors in Saudi Arabia, facilitated by criminal gangs; some Saudi nationals travel to destinations including Morocco, Egypt, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh to solicit prostitution. SAUDI ARABIA

On Feb. 1, the king dismissed his cabinet and prime minister in a surprise effort to calm street protests that had also been fueled by the country’s worst economic crisis in years. In June, he announced that the government would in the future be elected, not appointed, responding to a demand of protesters calling for democratic change. That fall, the king fired his government yet again. For most of 2011, demonstrations subsided. The increasingly violent rebellion in neighboring Syria and the brutal suppression by the government of the Syrian president, Bashar al- Assad, appeared to have dampened the enthusiasm of some activists in Jordan, who fear the prospect of a slide into chaos. King Abdullah in November 2011 had become the first of Syria’s Arab neighbors to call for a change in government there. JORDAN

Yemen is a poor, deeply divided country that has been in turmoil since January 2011, when protesters inspired by the Arab Spring took to the streets in a violent uprising against the autocratic rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh — at a cost of hundreds of deaths and rising chaos. In February 2012, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the country’s former vice president, was elected president. But the reality is that Mr. Saleh still wields considerable influence in Yemen. His relatives control most of the military and government security agencies. Mr. Hadi has been slowly shedding his government of officials from the old administration who are either members of the Saleh family or staunch Saleh loyalists. But this has not always gone smoothly, and the extent of Mr. Hadi’s authority to remake Yemen remains in doubt. YEMEN

Syrian uprising began in March 2011 with anti-government protests in provincial areas. The government of President Bashar al-Assad responded with a bloody crackdown on initially peaceful gatherings, along with piecemeal concessions that stopped short of genuine political reform. After almost a year and a half of unrest, the conflict between the regime and the opposition has escalated to a full-scale civil war. Army defectors formed armed groups that wage a guerrilla war on government forces. By mid-2012 the fighting has reached capital Damascus and commercial hub Aleppo, with growing numbers of senior army officers deserting Assad. SYRIA

LIBYA Since Americans were killed, this country may look at this as our fault. They were killing an American because they didn’t like America, yet it started a revolution in this country. Our involvement may be too much. Libya may think that we have already done too much.