Tens of thousands of Egyptian demonstrators Tuesday encircled the presidential palace after riot police failed to keep them at bay with tear gas, in a growing crisis over President Mohamed Morsi's decree widening his powers.

The protesters cut through barbed wire a few hundred meters (yards) from the palace, prompting police to fire the tear gas before retreating, allowing demonstrators to reach the palace walls, Agence France Presse reported.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun rejected on Tuesday calls for a change in government and slammed the recent audio recordings revealing an arms deal being made between Mustaqbal MP Oqab Saqr and a member of the Syrian opposition.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc's weekly meeting: “Saqr must be put on trial.”

Two men were killed on Tuesday by sniper gunshots during clashes between Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh regions in the northern city of Tripoli.

“The bullets that killed Mohammed Ibrahim, 65, were shot from al-Qobbah region,” a military source told Agence France Press, adding that the army is now firing back at the sources of the gunshots.

Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad al-Maqdessi has defected from President Bashar Assad's regime, a Syrian opposition leader announced on Monday.

“Maqdessi left Damascus for Beirut and from there he headed to an unknown destination,” Jamal al-Wadi, the director of the office of revolutionary movement of the Syrian National Council, told Sky News Arabia television.

Three women were elected to Kuwait's new parliament as the house now includes as many as 30 new faces following the polls that reportedly saw a 38.8 percent voter turnout.

Three women were elected to the new parliament compared to four in 2009, according to results released by the National Election Commission.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour has said the Syrian war has "negative ramifications" for the region but advocated dialogue as the only solution to the crisis.

"There should not be any external military or any other kind of intervention," said Mansour at a one-day summit in Istanbul on Saturday.

Political and security efforts accelerated on Saturday to contain the repercussions of Friday's incident that killed a group of Lebanese Islamists from Tripoli in the Syrian border town of Tall Kalakh, As Safir daily said Saturday.

The army had been heavily deployed along the aptly named Syria Street dividing Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen in Tripoli, in a bid to deter any security deterioration, the daily added.

At least 17 Lebanese Islamists were killed in Syria on Friday as they were infiltrating the country, reported various media outlets.

Agence France Presse said that 17 Lebanese Sunni fighters were killed in Syria's Tal Kalakh border area in an ambush carried out by regime forces.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun accused the Mustaqbal Movement and its allies of “oppressing” Christian factions in Lebanon through their practices over the parliamentary electoral law.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc's weekly meeting: “Its allies, the Lebanese Forces and Phalange Party, are unjustly treating other Christian powers in Lebanon.”

Politically divided Lebanese made on Saturday a show of unity during an official ceremony in Rome that allowed Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi to join the elite club of churchmen who will elect the next pope.

Pope Benedict XVI formally elevated five other prelates at the ceremony that was held at St. Peter's Basilica, bestowing red hats and gold rings on them.