Supporters and opponents of Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi lobbed firebombs and rocks at each other Wednesday as their standoff over his expanded powers and an Islamist-drafted constitution turned violent and left two people dead.

Bloodied protesters were seen being carried away as gunshots could be heard and the fierce political rivals torched cars and set off firecrackers, before riot police were deployed in a bid to end the confrontations.

Warplanes on Wednesday pounded suburbs of Damascus as regime forces fought to reclaim rebel-held areas of the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based watchdog, which uses a countrywide network of activists and doctors to compile its tolls, said at least 123 people were killed on Tuesday, including some 30 in and around Damascus.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards are telling the United States to "recount" the drones in its fleet as they insist that -- despite U.S. denials -- they captured a small U.S. unmanned spy plane over Gulf waters, Iranian media said Wednesday.

"Its capture is not an issue the Americans can easily refute," Guards spokesman Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif was quoted as saying.

Two Russian warships have made a rare call at Russia's controversial Mediterranean naval base in Syria to resupply and refuel, reports said on Wednesday.

The landing ships Novocherkassk and Saratov docked in the port of Tartus for several hours but their crews did not go ashore, the Interfax and ITAR-TASS news agencies reported.

Egyptians have taken their protests against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to the gates of his palace, demanding his ouster in scenes not witnessed even during demonstrations that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

An AFP photographer said hundreds of protesters were camped in front of the Itihadiya presidential palace Wednesday morning after it had been besieged the previous night by vast anti-Morsi crowds furious at a November 22 decree expanding his powers.

The United Nations made an urgent call Tuesday for Yemen's political parties to initiate a national dialogue, warning that its transition was under threat.

The U.N.-brokered power transition deal that eased president Ali Abdullah Saleh out of office a year ago after three decades in power and following protests calls for the national dialogue to produce a new constitution and electoral law.

The United Nations has had to cut food rations for hundreds of thousands of people in conflict-stricken Syria because of cash shortages, officials said Tuesday.

The World Food Program would not give a size for the cuts but said more are possible if it does not get cash. It estimates it needs $20 million to keep operations going in December.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday Israel is closely tracking developments relating to chemical weapons in Syria, whose regime has been warned against using them in the country's uprising.

"Along with the international community, we are closely following developments in Syria related to its chemical weapons stockpiles," Netanyahu said in a statement from his office.

Supporters of Tunisia's ruling Islamist party on Tuesday attacked a demonstration by the country's main labor union, in the latest unrest two years after the revolution, Agence France Presse reported.

Several dozen assailants attacked members of the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) who were gathered outside the union's headquarters in Tunis to mark the 60th anniversary of the assassination of its founder, Farhat Hached.

The United States on Tuesday appealed for restraint on both sides in Egypt as supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi clashed during nationwide protests.

"We would simply urge that protesters express their views peacefully and that they be given the environment, if you will, to protest peacefully," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.