The United States on Thursday condemned the assassination of a leading critic of Tunisia's ruling Islamists, saying violence had no place in the country's transition to democracy.

Tunisian MP Mohammed Brahmi was shot dead outside his home Thursday in the second such slaying this year, with fingers again pointed at the authorities.

President Barack Obama will welcome his Yemeni counterpart for talks next week that could touch on the fate of dozens of Yemenis held at Guantanamo, the White House said Thursday.

The August 1 meeting with President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi aims to "further strengthen our counter-terrorism partnership, and enable the return of Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay who have been designated for transfer," the White House said.

A United Nations body that handles war reparations for Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait said Thursday it had handed over a further $1.07 billion (810 million euros) to the emirate.

The payment, related to damage to oil facilities and resulting financial losses, brings to $42.3 billion the total sum handed out by the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC).

Ousted president Mohammed Morsi's last prime minister proposed on Thursday a plan to ease tensions in Egypt, as the Islamist leader's loyalists braced for a showdown with the military.

Hisham Qandil, who has kept a low profile since Morsi's overthrow on July 3, proposed in a video posted on YouTube the release of prisoners since the coup and allowing a delegation to visit Morsi, detained by the army.

Militants killed two Egyptian soldiers and wounded four in a shooting in north Sinai on Thursday, as the military vowed to crack down on "terrorism", officials said.

The army officer and conscript were killed when gunmen opened fire on a military checkpoint near the town of Sheikh Zuwayid, security officials and medics said.

Authorities in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Thursday closed local offices of Al-Arabiya TV and Palestinian news agency Maan for alleged "false" reporting of Hamas help for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

"The Attorney General decided to close down Al-Arabiya and Maan offices in Gaza for distributing false news regarding the smear campaign against Hamas and Gaza about what's happening in Egypt," a Hamas official told Agence France Presse.

A Polish photojournalist has been kidnapped by masked gunmen in northern Syria, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Thursday, calling for his "immediate and unconditional release".

Marcin Suder, a freelancer who works for the Corbis agency and other outlets, was abducted on Wednesday during a raid on a media center in Saraqeb, in the northwestern province of Idlib, RSF said.

Two U.N. envoys on a mission to persuade Syria's government to allow inspectors to probe alleged chemical weapons attacks ended a 24-hour visit Thursday, the United Nations said in Damascus.

Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom and Angela Kane, the U.N. high representative for disarmament, "have left Damascus after an official two-day visit, during which the experts met with Syrian officials" including Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, said U.N. media and communications analyst Khaled Al Masri.

More than 100,000 people have now been killed in the Syria civil war, U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon said Thursday as he appealed for new efforts to convene a peace conference.

On the ground, violence raged in the flashpoint city of Homs and a car bombing in Damascus killed 10 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

French President Francois Hollande strongly condemned the killing of Tunisian opposition politician Mohammed Brahmi on Thursday and called on the country to unite behind its democratic transition.

"The president condemns in the strongest terms the assassination this morning in Tunis of lawmaker Mohammed Brahmi," Hollande said in a statement.