Two years-old Momen Khaled al-Mohammed died on Tuesday from Meningitis after several Tripoli and northern hospitals refused to treat him because his family could not afford the cost of the care, the National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

"The child's parents went from one hospital to another but they were turned down for not being able to bear the cost of the treatment,” the NNA explained.

A group of civil society activists staged a sit-in on Tuesday near the parliament in downtown Beirut to condemn the preliminary approval of a draft electoral law they believe will aggravate the sectarian tensions in Lebanon.

The youth organization of the Democratic Renewal Movement and the movement's secretary Antoine Haddad took part in the protest. Haddad warned that the Orthodox Gathering's electoral proposal -- under which each sect would elect its own representatives -- “would drag us several centuries into the past and strip Lebanese citizens of their right to vote for a candidate who doesn't belong to their own sect.”

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc slammed on Monday the joint parliamentary committees' adoption of the Orthodox Gathering's draft electoral law, expressing that it is a “black day in Lebanon's history”.

“Some MPs have abandoned Lebanon and its institutions today,” the bloc's released statement said after the lawmakers' weekly meeting. “It is a black day in Lebanon's legislative history”.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday said “new realities” might emerge concerning ties with his Christian rivals, after they contributed to the joint parliamentary committees' approval of the controversial draft electoral law proposed by the Orthodox Gathering.

“Today is the brightest day in Lebanon's history because rights were returned to their owners without encroaching on the rights of others. The value of the votes of marginalized groups has been restored, that's why we're happy with this achievement,” Aoun told reporters after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform in Rabiyeh.

A cabinet session will be held at Baabda Palace instead of the Grand Serail on Wednesday given “the importance and the seriousness of the topics to be discussed”, the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Tuesday.

Wednesday's session will try to contain the discontent over Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun's comments on the current situation in Bahrain.

A statement attributed to the Free Syrian Army gave Hizbullah on Tuesday a 48-hour ultimatum to halt its alleged operations in Syrian territories, warning that it will retaliate to the sources of fire inside Lebanon.

“If Hizbullah didn't halt shelling Syrian territories, villages and civilians from Lebanese territories within 48 hours, we will strike back,” a statement attributed to the rebel FSA said.

Beirut airport security officers have thwarted an attempt to smuggle narcotic pills to Saudi Arabia, the state-run National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

NNA said that the officers searched a 25-year-old Jordanian after suspicion fell on him.

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader former PM Saad Hariri condemned on Tuesday the approval of the Orthodox Gathering electoral draft-law, describing the step as a “black day in the history of the parliament.”

“Approving the Orthodox electoral draft-law in the joint parliamentary committees is a black day in the history of legislative work,” Hariri said on his twitter account.

The Internal Security Forces removed on Tuesday posters mocking Saudi King Abdullah in a move considered as a response to a caricature published in a Saudi newspaper on Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

According to Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) the posters were erected in the areas of Jal el-Dib and Fanar.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour traveled to Moscow on Tuesday to attend the Arab-Russian Forum and hold talks with Russian officials on the situation in Syria.

In remarks carried by the state-run National News Agency, Mansour said the foreign ministers of Egypt, Iraq and Kuwait, and the Arab League chief will attend the forum.