Every day at the family grocery stall in a Tunis market, Bilel Jani sees the reality of a biting economic crisis, which for many has overshadowed Tunisia's latest political turmoil.

"People here are poor," he said, handing a meagre bag of olives to a customer. "Most of our customers are living day-to-day. Monthly salaries these days don't even cover a week."

The small North African country, roiled by years of political turmoil that deepened with President Kais Saied's power grab last July, is also mired in a deep recession.

The United States said Thursday that "substantial progress" during negotiations in Vienna to save the Iran nuclear deal had been made, deeming an agreement possible within days if Iran "shows seriousness" on the matter.

The Vienna talks, which involve Iran as well as Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia directly, and the United States indirectly, resumed in late November with the aim of restoring the 2015 deal.

A renowned bookshop in Gaza reopened Thursday, nine months after it was flattened in an Israeli air strike during last year's conflict between the Palestinian enclave's rulers Hamas and the Jewish state.

The new Samir Mansour bookshop, funded by an international donor campaign, stands some 200 metres from the original site, which was destroyed by an Israeli air strike on May 18 last year in the Rimal district in the west of Gaza City.

The bookshop was a go-to for everything from school texts to the Koran to Arabic translations of European literary classics.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas met with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Thursday for talks on reviving a two-state solution to the conflict, Abbas's office said.

It was one of the highest-level meetings with an American official in recent years for the 86-year-old Palestinian president.

Abbas urged US action on what he described as "unilateral Israeli practices" that "undermine a two-state solution."

Drug trafficking from Syria into Jordan is becoming "organised" with smugglers stepping up operations and using sophisticated equipment including drones, Jordan's army said Thursday, warning of a shoot-to-kill policy.

Since the beginning of this year, Jordan's army has killed 30 smugglers and foiled attempts to smuggle into the kingdom from Syria 16 million Captagon pills -- more than they seized in the whole of 2021 -- the military said.

The United States on Thursday shipped nearly 5.2 million doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to Egypt and Nigeria, a White House official told AFP.

The shipments were the latest in a global campaign of donations from the United States. More than 400 million shots have already been dispatched from a target of 1.1 billion.

The calm outside Vienna's luxury Palais Coburg hotel on Thursday belied the fraught diplomatic talks on Iran's nuclear programme being thrashed out inside.

Aside from a few television cameras keeping watch for envoys arriving in black saloons, there are no indications that the negotiations to revive the 2015 deal could achieve a breakthrough or fail in the next few days.

World number one Novak Djokovic said he has missed playing tennis on Thursday as he prepares for his comeback in Dubai after the coronavirus vaccine row that kept him from defending his Australian Open title.

The Serb, who was deported from Australia over his vaccination status, toured the Serbian pavilion at Dubai Expo, removing his black mask when requested and writing a long message in the visitors' book.

"I am excited to go back and play on Monday," he said, referring to the Dubai ATP tournament during brief remarks to media. "I miss tennis after all that has happened."

Kuwait said Thursday the interior and defence ministers had resigned, after they protested the manner of parliamentary questioning of ministers in the oil-rich Gulf emirate.

A royal decree said the resignations of the two ministers, both members of the royal ruling family, had been accepted.

Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmed Mansour al-Ahmed Al-Sabah was replaced in a caretaker role by Oil Minister Mohammed al-Fares, government spokesman Tariq al-Mazram said.

French shipping giant CMA CGM on Thursday won a 10-year contract beginning in March to run the container terminal at Beirut port, Lebanon's public works and transport minister said.

CMA CGM -- the third largest shipping company in the world -- will take over Lebanon's biggest port a year and a half after a deadly explosion there killed more than 200 people and destroyed large parts of the capital.

"An agreement has been reached to sign a contract to manage, operate and maintain the container terminal at Beirut's port with CMA CGM," Ali Hamie told reporters in Beirut.