The Russian government said on Monday that it will send two planes to Lebanon to evacuate Russian citizen from war-torn Syria, the first such effort since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad began in March 2011.

The Emergency Situations Ministry said two of its planes will fly to Beirut on Tuesday to carry more than 100 Russians from Syria.

President Michel Suleiman on Sunday expressed support for a law allowing civil marriages, currently illegal in Lebanon, saying it will help build unity in the multi-faith country.

"We should work on drafting a civil marriage law. It is a very important step in eradicating sectarianism and solidifying national unity," Suleiman wrote in Arabic and English on his Facebook page.

A sniper killed an Al-Jazeera reporter in southern Syria on Friday, the pan-Arab television network said, in the second such shooting of a journalist in two days in the conflict-swept country.

The killings take the death toll of reporters who have died in Syria's 22-month conflict to at least 20, according to a count by Agence France Presse and Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, or RSF.

Tired of failed forecasts about their country's bitter conflict that has left more than 60,000 people dead, some Syrians have turned to Lebanese fortune tellers and astrology to try to predict what lies ahead.

Nearly two years into the fighting, many have lost faith in political analysts and claims by parties on both sides of the conflict, who frequently promise that victory is near.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun restated on Tuesday his support for the Orthodox Gathering's electoral draft law, saying that he will veto any proposal that does not assure equality between Christians and Muslims.

"There is a Muslim domination over the Christian vote,” Aoun stated in an interview with OTV, adding that the Taif accord has granted Christians 64 deputies but they “never really elected their own lawmakers”.

Lebanon appealed on Sunday for $180 million from Arab countries to help it meet the Syrian refugee influx that has threatened to bring the number of the displaced to 420,000 in June, as the Arab League decided to send a team to Syria's neighboring countries to assess the status of refugees ahead of a donor conference in Kuwait on January 30.

Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo to discuss the Syrian refugee crisis agreed to send a team to Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq "to assess the situation of Syrian refugees on the ground," the Arab League said.

A severe snow and rain storm across Lebanon has caused blackouts across the country where Electricite du Liban contract workers have also been on strike for several days, residents and officials said on Thursday.

"There is a storm, and there is a problem in the grid. The electricity workers are on strike, and they're not letting anyone fix the problem," Energy Minister Jebran Bassil told Agence France Presse.

A powerful snow storm has magnified the misery for Syrians who have fled the country's civil war to Lebanon, turning two camps into a swamp in the eastern Bekaa valley.

The two encampments were immersed in water after the Litani River flooded. Dozens of Syrian refugees were left in search of alternate shelter along with their soaked and muddy belongings.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday announced that his allies support the electoral law proposed by the Orthodox Gathering, rejecting what he described as attempts to “steal the rights of Christians.”

“Our allies support the Orthodox Gathering law and we will hear their stance during the meeting of the parliamentary committees this evening,” Aoun told reporters after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc in Rabiyeh.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday called on the Free Patriotic Movement to seek its allies' approval of the electoral law proposed by the Orthodox Gathering -- under which each sect would elect its representatives -- or else endorse the electoral law proposed by March 14's Christians, which is based on 50 small electorates.

“We were among those who suggested amending the electoral law because the current law does not ensure proper representation and this is what several parties are saying,” Geagea said at a press conference he held in Maarab.