by Pamela Engel, Business Insider

The terrorist group ISIS has claimed responsibility for another massacre - an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando that killed at least 50 people. The shooting was the deadliest in US history. The suspected gunman, 29-year-old Omar Saddiqui Mateen, reportedly pledged allegiance to ISIS (also known as the Islamic State, ISIL, or Daesh) in a 911 call.

After news outlets reported this, the ISIS-affiliated Amaq agency released a statement on its online propaganda channels claiming the attack. But the statement differed from those released after other ISIS-claimed attacks in Paris and Brussels. In the Amaq statement released Sunday, the ISIS link to the Orlando attack was attributed to a "source." The brief statement also did not describe or provide any details about the attack.

While the Paris and Brussels attackers had direct ties to ISIS leaders, it's unclear how closely Mateen is connected to the group. Michael Horowitz, a geopolitical and security analyst at the Levantine Group, a Middle-East based risk consultancy, told Business Insider that so far, there's nothing "that even remotely proves the attacker was in contact with ISIS."

By Zainab Calcuttawala

Last month, the Israeli company that was authorized to drill in the $320 million Hatrurium oil reservoir in the Dead Sea confirmed that the find sat completely within the Israeli maritime zone. Some estimates say that when drilling starts, the crude oil and gas recovered from the well could make the net energy-importer Israel completely energy independent, especially since the country authorized Houston-based Noble Energy and Israeli partner Delek to develop the massive Leviathan gas field—an offshore play located in the increasingly prolific Levant basin of the Mediterranean Sea. Israel shares access to the basin—estimated by the 2010 United States Geological Survey to hold 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil—with Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus.

Earlier this year, Cyprus offered licensing tenders for 12 blocks of maritime space in the basin.The Syrian Civil War and the infiltration of the Islamic State and other terrorist groups have kept Syria too occupied to think about pricey new offshore drilling ventures. But what has been keeping Lebanon from reaping the benefits of the “underexplored” oil in the sea right in its backyard?

Stephanie d'Arc Taylor

Nabatieh, Lebanon - Nabatieh, the sleepy city in southern Lebanon with a small-town feel, is going through a cinema renaissance.

Once a local cultural capital, Nabatieh has been without a theatre since Stars Cinema closed in 1990 amid the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. By the end of this year, however, the city will boast two cinemas. One will be new: Empire Cinema, part of a multinational chain, is set to showcase big-budget Hollywood films. The other will be old: Stars Cinema, now derelict, is being renovated by a team of volunteers led by actor and theatre manager Kassem Istanbouli.

The theatre will hold its grand reopening in August, and plans to feature classic Arabic films alongside free theatre and photography training workshops. Istanbouli and his team of volunteers say they hope the reopening of Stars Cinema will revitalise the cultural life of the city, which has stagnated in recent years.

MOSCOW, June 10. /TASS/. Lebanon wants to export its wines to Russia and is interested in expanding fruit exports, the press service of the Russian ministry of agriculture said on Friday after talks between Russian Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev and his Lebanese counterpart Akram Shuhayib.

We plan to look at a possibility of exporting Lebanese wines to the Russian market. We are also interested in expanding exports of fruits, in particular apples and grapes," the press service quoted the Lebanese minister as saying.

Tkachev, in turn, said that Russia is interested in expanding its exports of plant products to Lebanon and plans to begin supplies of beef and poultry. The Russian minister noted that the potential of Russia-Lebanon trade is not used to the full. "We should maintain the tendency of qualitative and quantitative growth in trade volumes," Tkachev said.