French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday he hoped that tensions with Algeria would ease following his critical comments about the country's leaders and a row about visas.

"My wish is for a calming down because I think it's better to talk and to make progress," Macron told the France Inter broadcaster, adding that his relations with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune were "truly cordial".

Investigators commissioned by the United Nations' top human rights body to examine possible abuses in Libya said Monday they have turned up evidence of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the restive North African country.

The first findings from a "fact-finding mission" commissioned by the Human Rights Council, which were released on Monday, chronicle accounts of crimes like murder, torture, enslavement, extrajudicial killings and rape. The findings could send a potent signal to key international and regional powers amid violence and mistreatment that has wracked Libya since the fall of former autocrat Moammar Gadhafi a decade ago.

Jordan's royal court Monday rejected as "distorted" claims made in the "Pandora Papers" that King Abdullah II created a network of offshore companies to build a $100 million overseas property empire.

It said that the reports "included inaccuracies and distorted and exaggerated the facts", and that revealing the properties' addresses was "a flagrant security breach and a threat to His Majesty's and his family's safety".

The Palestinian president hosted two Israeli Cabinet ministers for a late-night meeting Sunday, in a new sign of slowly improving ties between the sides.

Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Freij were the second group of Cabinet members to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas since the new Israeli government took office in June. Defense Minister Benny Gantz also met with Abbas at his West Bank headquarters in August.

Libya's coast guard Sunday intercepted two boats carrying more than 550 Europe-bound migrants off the country's shore, the U.N. refugee agency said.

It marked the latest sea interceptions amid a surge of crossings and attempted crossings from the North African nation to European shores in recent months. It took place two days after a massive crackdown on migrants in a western Libyan town that resulted in the roundup of at least 4,000 migrants.

Egypt's national carrier Sunday made its first official direct flight to Israel since the two countries signed an historic 1979 peace treaty as an EgyptAir jet landed at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport.

The airline's affiliate, AirSinai, has for decades operated flights to Israel without the company logo, out of fear of public backlash. The national carrier will now run three weekly flights between Cairo and Tel Aviv with the EgyptAir markings.

The death toll from Cyclone Shaheen rose to five Monday while other fishermen from Iran remained missing as the storm moved further inland into Oman and weakened.

Authorities in Oman said they found the body of a man who disappeared when floodwaters swept him away from his vehicle. On Sunday as the storm made landfall, they said a child similarly drowned and two foreigners from Asia died in a landslide.

Iran wants you to put politics aside and marvel over its ornate carpets. Syria wants you to forget about its brutal war and learn about the world's first alphabet. Yemen, on the brink of famine, is very excited about its honey and coffee.

Welcome to Dubai's Expo 2020, the first world's fair in the Middle East that boasts over 190 participating countries — except Afghanistan, whose new Taliban rulers are a no-show.

Jordan's King Abdullah II received a call on Sunday from Syrian President Bashar Assad, the first conversation between the two leaders after a decade of strain over Syria's civil war.

The call comes amid efforts aimed at boosting cooperation between the two countries, which are facing challenging economic conditions.

The Algerian government has banned French military planes from its airspace, the French army said on Sunday, amid a diplomatic crisis sparked by a visa row and reported critical comments from President Emmanuel Macron.