A prominent Saudi Shiite cleric has urged protesters to use "words" rather than "bullets" in their fight for equality in the Sunni-ruled kingdom after violent clashes in a Shiite village.

In a sermon to worshippers at a mosque in the village of al-Awamiya late Tuesday, Sheikh Nimr Nimr said Shiites must "not respond to bullets with bullets," according to the text of the sermon published online.

The decision by Russia and China to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution targeting Syria marked a "sad day for the Syrian people" and for the council itself, France said Wednesday.

"The Security Council should not remain silent in the face of the Syrian tragedy," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in a statement, after the veto blocked the European call for "targeted measures" against Damascus.

OPEC member Kuwait is bracing for a major political showdown over a graft scandal involving MPs as the opposition mounts a fierce campaign to oust the prime minister.

Liberal, nationalist and Islamist opposition groups have united following allegations that pro-government MPs accepted hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes, with fingers pointed at the government as the source of the money.

China said Wednesday a U.N. Security Council resolution it vetoed threatening action against Syria for its deadly crackdown on protests would have "blindly" pressured the Arab nation and not helped.

The comments came after Russia and China blocked a Security Council motion calling for "targeted measures" if Syria's President Bashar Assad pursues his clampdown, which the U.N. says has left at least 2,700 dead.

Russia and China on Tuesday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution threatening action against Syria's deadly crackdown on protests, opening up bitter international divisions over the Arab Spring.

Amid new deaths in Syria and new threats of individual sanctions, the veto sparked the outrage of European nations, which proposed the resolution, and the United States, which said the council had "utterly failed to address an urgent moral challenge."

A Syrian army colonel who fled to Turkey has called for a united front against President Bashar Assad's regime, the Anatolia news agency reported on Tuesday.

"Opponent forces in Syria should get united and close ranks until the regime collapses," colonel Riad al-Asaad, who is currently taking refuge in Turkey, told the news agency.

Russia hit out on Tuesday at a U.N. resolution proposed by European nations that condemns Syria's deadly crackdown on anti-regime protests, describing it as "unacceptable."

Britain, France, Germany and Portugal had dropped the word "sanctions" from their draft text in a bid to win over members of the U.N. Security Council, but it was not enough to avoid opposition from veto-wielding Russia.

Egypt's state of emergency, which allows authorities to detain suspects without charge, will not be lifted until stability returns, its military ruler said in comments published on Tuesday.

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who took charge when a popular uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February, said the state of emergency would end "as soon as possible," the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported.

Bahraini authorities banned Tuesday the Shiite opposition from organizing a demonstration against the jailing of medics and activists over their roles in pro-democracy protests quelled in mid-March.

The head of Public Security, Major General Tareq Mubarak bin Daina, turned down the request by Bahrain's main Shiite opposition group al-Wefaq to organize a "human chain" protest in Manama, BNA state news agency said.

Shells fired into a popular shopping district of Yemen's capital killed one civilian and wounded two others on Tuesday, witnesses and medical officials said.

The two shells slammed into Hayel Road late in the morning as the area was packed with shoppers and pedestrians, killing one man, the witnesses said.