Three people died in violence overnight in Damascus province, one of them shot dead by regime troops and the other two killed in a blast, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.

A young man was gunned down by regime troops late on Saturday in the town of Al-Tal, the Britain-based watchdog said, adding that an explosion rocked the Daf al-Shouk area, killing two.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel lamented the fact that the political powers do not seem keen on adopting proportional representation for the parliamentary electoral law, he told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Sunday.

He said: “I am still holding on to proportional representation … All preparations however to hold the 2013 elections are complete.”

Syria has freed 265 detainees "involved" in the popular uprising against President Bashar Assad, "but who do not have blood on their hands," the state news agency SANA reported on Saturday.

Releasing detainees is a requisite of the six-point peace plan brokered by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan last month, as is the ceasefire agreement that came into effect on April 12 but has suffered violations ever since.

Regime troops used tear gas on Saturday to try to disperse a mass funeral attended by thousands of people who took to the streets of the Syrian capital to mourn slain protesters, a rights group said.

"Syrian regime forces used tear gas to disperse people attending the funerals of the Kfar Sousa martyrs and calling for the fall of the regime," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Deputy Head of Hizbullah's Executive Council Sheikh Nabil Qaouq slammed on Saturday U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman for interfering in the elections, considering it as a “violation of sovereignty and dignity.”

“His discussions that focused on the elections confirm that he is the actual leader of the March 14 forces in Lebanon,” Qaouq said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed that the upcoming 2013 parliamentary elections will be an opportunity to maintain the sovereign path in Lebanon, rejecting any attempts of elimination through the adoption of a new electoral law.

“We are confronting elections that are similar to a war of abolition but we won’t allow anyone to eliminate us,” Jumblat said on the phone during a dinner held by the PSP in California.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Saturday that over 24,000 Syrian refugees fled the unrest in their country to Lebanon.

A weekly update by the UNHCR said that “13,405 refugees have been registered in the North in coordination with the Higher Relief Council.”

Head of the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council Nasri Khoury said Saturday that Damascus hasn’t expressed dismay at the performance of the government of Premier Najib Miqati.

Following talks with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour, Khoury said: “I didn’t feel that Syria is frustrated from the performance of the Lebanese government.”

A series of blasts rocked Syria's capital and the northern commercial hub of Aleppo on Saturday, killing at least five civilians in the second city, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

One explosion in Aleppo went off in a car wash just as a bus was passing by in Tal al-Zarazir district, the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The opposition Syrian National Council called on U.N. observers on Saturday to visit the Damascus neighborhoods of Kfar Sousa and Tadamon where nine people died during demonstrations and funerals a day earlier.

In a statement, the SNC urged the observers to visit "where the funerals of the martyrs killed Friday will be held."