TUNIS: A bitter showdown between Morocco and its arch-rival Algeria over the disputed Western Sahara territory is causing diplomatic rifts with other nations and even risks sparking a full-blown conflict, analysts say.

“We’re seeing a diplomatic war, where both sides are resorting to anything short of open conflict,” said Riccardo Fabiani, North Africa project director at think-tank the International Crisis Group.

Western Sahara, a Spanish colony until 1975, is mostly desert but boasts immense phosphate resources and rich Atlantic fishing grounds.

DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities announced on Tuesday they had seized 24 kilograms of Captagon that had been crushed and reconstituted to look like hummus bowls.

The amphetamine is produced in pill form but these smugglers had crushed it and used the resulting paste to “mold pottery-like dishes coated with a brown adhesive,” the Interior Ministry said.

One man was arrested in Damascus in connection with the thwarted trafficking attempt, the statement said, without specifying where the shipment of fake hummus bowls was bound for.

CYPRUS: The eastern Mediterranean and Middle East are warming almost twice as fast as the global average, with temperatures projected to rise up to 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century if no action is taken to reverse the trend, a new report says.

The region will experience “unprecedented” heat waves, more severe and longer-lasting droughts and  dust storms and rainfall shortages that will “compromise water and food security” for the region’s 400 million people, according to a summary of the report released on Tuesday.

BEIRUT: The fate of migrants on board a boat that set off from northern Lebanon over 10 days ago remains uncertain amid conflicting reports.

The boat, thought to be carrying about 70 Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian migrants, is reportedly stranded near the coasts of Malta and Italy was in danger of sinking after its engine broke down. The captain of the boat is said to have abandoned the vessel three days ago on a rubber boat.

DOHA: The US said on Monday that two long-distance warplanes flew across the Middle East as part of a simulated international bombing exercise amid tense haggling on restoring a nuclear deal with Iran.

Top US General Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich said the “Bomber Task Force” simulation on Sunday showed that the US and its allies can “rapidly inject overwhelming combat power into the region on demand.”