1. Police probe ISIS ties to U.S. massacre

    A day after a gunman shot dead 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, police investigated the attacker’s ties to ISIS and Americans grieved over the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

    Omar Mateen, 29, of Fort Pierce, Florida, carried an assault rifle* and a pistol* into the packed Pulse club at about 2 a.m. on Sunday and started shooting. In addition to the people killed, he wounded at least 53 others, police said.

    ISIS-linked news agency Amaq said on Sunday that the Islamist militant group was responsible for the shooting. ISIS group hailed the gunman as a “soldier of the caliphate*,” according to a bulletin over the group’s Al-Bayan radio on Monday.

    2. Iraq: Thousands flee Falluja

    The Iraqi army said on Sunday it had secured the first safe exit route for civilians to leave Islamic State’s besieged* stronghold* Falluja, and a Norwegian aid group said thousands of people had already used it to flee in the first day it was open.

    While it pressed on with its offensive in Falluja, the army also launched a fresh advance in the direction of the northern city of Mosul, Islamic State’s de facto* Iraqi capital.

    In Iraq, the government launched a major operation last month to recapture the Islamic State bastion of Falluja, an hour’s drive from Baghdad.

    3. Eritrea accuses Ethiopia of attack

    Eritrea on Monday accused arch-rival* Ethiopia of attacking its heavily militarized* border, but officials in Addis Ababa said they had no knowledge of the reported fighting.

    Ethiopia on Sunday “unleashed* an attack against Eritrea on the Tsorona Central Front,” Eritrea’s ministry of information said. Ethiopian Government spokesman Getachew Redda said there were “no clashes that we know of.”

    4. People-smuggling suspect ‘is the wrong man’

    British and Italian police are investigating claims they caught the wrong person in an international operation to capture one of the world’s most wanted people smugglers.

    Mered Medhanie, known as “The General,” is believed to be the mastermind* behind a major criminal organization responsible for smuggling thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa to Europe.

    The 35-year-old Eritrean is accused of being partly responsible for the 2013 Lampedusa tragedy in which at least 359 migrants lost their lives when their boat capsized off the Italian coast.

    5. Drone forces closure of Dubai airport

    A Rogue drone disrupted air traffic at Dubai International Airport for more than an hour on Saturday, said the operator of one of the world’s busiest aviation hubs.

    “DXB airspace was closed due to unauthorized UAV (unmanned aerial* vehicle) activity for 69 minutes resulting in a number of diversions,” Dubai Airports said in a statement on its Twitter account, using its code.

    As a result, some flights were delayed for four hours and four flights were diverted, the 7Days newspaper reported. It was the second such incident in 18 months, according to media reports in the United Arab Emirates.

    6. 2 dead in Thailand tour boat collision

    Two speedboats* packed with 62 tourists crashed on June 8 off the coast of southern Thailand, leaving at least two dead and more than 20 injured. The fatalities were identified as Chinese.

    The crash was the latest incident to mar the country’s image as a tourist paradise, and the third crash in two weeks involving boats that shuttle* vacationers to Thailand’s resort islands — often at high speed.

    The collision involved two boats that were “filled to capacity” with mostly Chinese and South Korean tourists on a morning trip from the popular island of Phuket to smaller islands nearby, the Phuket City Hall said in a statement. (SD-Agencies)