Messaging service WhatsApp went down for several hours today, just a few days after Facebook announced it would acquire the company in a $19 billion deal.

WhatsApp has more than 450 million users, but it’s likely many more have signed on since Facebook’s big announcement. The app has already skyrocketed to number five in Apple’s App Store.

The company caught the issue early on and tweeted that it was working on getting things running again.

  Two visiting U.S. senators condemned a double suicide bombing that ripped through a Shiite stronghold of the Lebanese capital Wednesday, saying they were concerned about the spillover effects of Syria’s civil war. Two bombers blew up their cars near an Iranian cultural center in Beirut, killing at least four people and wounding more than 100. […]

   The rise of endemic Christian persecution in the Middle East was noted in November when Roman Catholic Pope Francis declared "We will not resign ourselves to imagining a Middle East without Christians" and stressed the importance of "the universal right to lead a dignified life and freely practice one’s own faith" after meeting with […]

  BEIRUT: Newspaperman, dramatist, translator, poet and icon of Beirut’s avant-garde, Ounsi El Hage died Tuesday at the age of 76. The Lebanese daily An-Nahar reported he had been in frail health for the past two months. Born in 1937, Hage was the son of journalist and translator Louis El Hage and Marie Akl, from the […]

  Beirut, Lebanon – The Lebanese have long been known for their resilience – their ability to pick up the pieces and carry on with their lives after yet another traumatic event.    This sentiment rings true for Marwan Akil, a coffee shop owner in Lebanon’s capital. Akil was making coffee for a group of […]

 khazen.org prays for the victims of the bombings.        Lebanese emergency personnel and civilians inspect the site of a bomb explosion in a southern suburb of Beirut, on February 19, 2014 (AFP Photo/)   Lebanese Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq (L), Acting Director General of the Internal Security Forces Major General Ibrahim Basbous (2nd […]

  This is a recent picture of the St. Anthony Catholic Maronite Church in Ajami Neighborhood in Yafa (Occupied Palestine).

   BEIRUT: As most of the country’s economic sectors struggle to survive the harsh economic conditions, Lebanon’s franchise industry is bucking the trend. Lebanese franchisers not only have achieved remarkable growth over the past two years but have succeeded in branching out to many countries around the world. “The franchising industry is usually less affected than […]

  The Associated Press removed a government-produced picture of Lebanese officials posing with members of the new cabinet after learning of the photograph’s manipulation.   After learning of the photograph’s manipulation on Sunday, the AP removed the image from its archives and issued an advisory to customers not to use it. "Adding elements to a photograph […]

    Khazen.org thanks Lebanese President General Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Tammam Salam for forming new government & their leadership to keep Lebanon safe.  Lebanon’s Prime Minister Tammam Salam has formed a national unity government, more than 10 months after he became prime minister. Salam’s 24-member national unity Cabinet was announced at the presidential […]