YNOT ? The internet went dark in Egypt at about 30 minutes after midnight Friday as the government attempted to quell violent protests demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
According to early reports from Al Arabiya, Syria quickly followed suit, completing a partial shutdown government officials engineered Wednesday after a coup allegedly backed by Al-Jazeera overthrew Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Some Middle Eastern media reported Ben Ali?s ouster resulted from his close ties to the West, but government-controlled Syrian media on Friday laid the blame on unrest over prices, unemployment and state repression.
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