A civilian employee of Libya's interior ministry was gunned down on Friday in the increasingly lawless eastern city of Benghazi, security and medical sources said.

"Unknown assailants in a car opened fire at an engineer" working for the ministry, Mohammed al-Majabri, a security official told AFP.

With chaos in Libya, military takeover in Egypt and Syria's brutal conflict threatening to extinguish hopes fueled by the Arab Spring, only Tunisia stands out even as its stability hangs in the balance.

By the end of 2013, the political forces that emerged from the tumultuous changes in the region nearly three years ago have yet to build the new democratic order or bring about the social transformations demanded by the millions who took to the streets.

Seif al-Islam, the son of slain Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, appeared Thursday in a court in the western city of Zintan on charges of threatening national security, his lawyer said.

The trial hearing lasted only five minutes and was adjourned to February 27 "due to the absence of the other accused," said Mohammed Busema, the court-appointed legal representative.

A cousin and former aide of slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has been released two days after his acquittal in a trial for attempted murder, a security official said Wednesday.

Ahmed Qaddaf al-Dam, whose extradition Tripoli is demanding, was "freed overnight by police in Cairo following the court decision to acquit him" on Monday, the official said.

A months-long blockade by armed protesters of vital oil terminals in eastern Libya will be lifted on Sunday, allowing exports to resume, a tribal chief announced.

"We expect that the export of crude from the oil terminals will resume from December 15," Saleh al-Ateiwich, head of the powerful al-Magharba tribe which launched the blockade in July in support of its demands for regional autonomy, said Tuesday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency will inspect the condition of 6,400 barrels of yellowcake stockpiled in Libya later this month, the U.N. special representative for Libya said Monday.

Tarek Mitri said the uranium concentrate was stored at a former military installation near Sabha under the control of a Libyan army battalion.

Amnesty International alleged Monday a Libyan soldier was tortured to death by members of his own unit, calling on authorities to investigate the case and break with such Gadhafi-era practices.

"Hussein Radwan Raheel, 37, who served with the Saiqa Forces, an elite army unit under the ministry of defense, was severely beaten and subjected to electric shocks," Amnesty said quoting family members.

A Cairo court Monday acquitted a cousin and former aide of slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi of the attempted murder of two Egyptian police, judicial sources said.

Ahmed Qaddaf al-Dam was detained in Cairo in March following a gunfight with Egyptian policemen in his apartment and was held despite Libyan demands for his extradition.

One person was killed and five wounded Sunday when a car blew up in a cemetery in Libya's increasingly volatile second city Benghazi, security and medical sources said.

The explosion, after the funeral of a police officer killed in a similar blast, killed one of the car's passengers, security spokesman Ibrahim al-Sharaa said.

An American teacher was shot dead in Benghazi on Thursday, 15 months after a deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya's second city, medical and security officials said.

The dead man was a U.S. citizen who taught at the city's international school, security services spokesman Ibrahim al-Sharaa said.