Attacks in Iraq including a string of bombings against Shiite places of worship and a car bomb at a Kurdish political office killed at least 12 people and wounded at least 75 on Sunday, officials said.

Two car bombs and seven roadside bombs targeted two Shiite places of worship, known as husseiniyahs, in the north Iraq city of Kirkuk, one in the city's north and another in its south, a senior police officer told Agence France Presse.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius condemned Sunday's air strikes on Palestinian refugee camps in Syria and said the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad was nearing its end.

"It's a scandalous attack," the foreign minister told French television, accusing Assad wanting to "inflame the situation".

Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa said in an interview to be published on Monday that neither his government nor the rebels fighting to overthrow it are capable of a decisive victory.

"No opposition can end the battle militarily, just as the security forces and army cannot achieve a decisive conclusion," Sharaa told the Lebanese daily al-Akhbar.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appealed on Sunday for an immediate halt to firing on Palestinian refugee camps in Syria, after air strikes on the Yarmuk camp in Damascus killed at least eight civilians.

The Islamist Hamas movement also condemned the attacks, calling them a "crime."

King Hamad said on Sunday that Bahrain still respects "liberties" and "tolerance," as witnesses reported that police dispersed dozens of protesters in Shiite Muslim villages.

"Bahrain will remain a nation of law, institutions, liberties and tolerance between different religions and cultures," he said in a speech marking National Day.

Warplanes bombed a Palestinian refugee camp in south Damascus on Sunday for the first time in Syria's 21-month uprising, as the army escalated its efforts to suppress the rebellion in the capital.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air strike killed at least eight civilians at Yarmuk camp, which has been hit by intermittent violence during the past few months.

Kuwait's emir criticized the opposition for stirring "chaos" on Sunday as activists demonstrated outside the parliament during a speech in which he opened the newly elected assembly.

All of us "condemn these practices and the actions that breached the law, norms and values, worried citizens and caused chaos," said Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, in a clear reference to opposition demonstrations.

Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, tendered his official resignation on Sunday over fraud and breach of trust charges filed against him.

Lieberman's resignation goes into effect Tuesday. He said he hopes to take "the briefest possible leave."

Attackers using explosives overnight have again sabotaged a gas pipeline in southern Yemen, the energy operator and security officials said on Sunday.

Yemen LNG said in a statement posted on its Internet site that the blast occurred shortly after midnight, but it did not give details on any injuries or damage, or say whether the pipeline was shut down.

A slender majority of Egyptians approved a disputed constitution backed by President Mohammed Morsi and Islamist allies in the first round of a referendum, Islamists and an opposition group said Sunday, citing unofficial results.

Saturday's voting in 10 provinces including Cairo came after weeks of mass protests organised by an opposition coalition that initially aimed to torpedo the referendum, before it instead issued last-minute calls for the draft's rejection.