Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel voiced hope on Wednesday that the rival parties would reach consensus over the new electoral law, rejecting attempts to thwart the upcoming 2013 parliamentary elections.

He revealed after talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi at Bkirki that the March 14 opposition leaders held a meeting on Tuesday night to discuss a proposal by Speaker Nabih Berri to resume the meetings of an electoral subcommittee tasked with studying electoral draft-laws.

Syrian rebels are closely monitoring the regime's chemical weapons sites but don't have the means to seize and secure them, their newly elected military commander told The Associated Press.

Gen. Salim Idris, who defected from the Syrian army in July, said he is "very afraid" a cornered Syrian President Bashar Assad will unleash such weapons on his own people.

Syrian authorities will hand over to Lebanon the bodies of the remaining three fighters who were killed in an ambush by regime troops in the town of Tall Kalakh, local newspapers reported on Wednesday.

According to As Safir newspaper, Lebanese authorities will receive the last batch of corpses during the upcoming week in the third and last round of such transfer.

International peace envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi is expected to visit Lebanon during his upcoming tour of the region, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Diplomatic sources told the newspaper that Brahimi will arrive in Beirut after a short visit to Egypt and Syria after President Bashar Assad sets the date for a meeting.

The year 2012 is likely to be one of the deadliest for journalists around the world, with at least 67 killed while doing their jobs, a U.S.-based media rights group said Tuesday.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said the number of deaths is up 42 percent from last year, due in large part to the Syria conflict, shootings in Somalia, violence in Pakistan and killings of reporters in Brazil.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Tuesday noted that the March 14 forces are exerting efforts more than others to pass a new electoral law, urging Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to “let the state function” before offering advice to al-Qaida about Syria.

“The current deterioration of the economic situation stems from the lack of confidence in the government politically and security-wise, as it does not have relations with the Arab countries and they're almost severed, at a time when the factor of the Arab countries has an impact on our economy,” Geagea said in an interview with the Central News Agency, in response to Nasrallah's recent suggestion to form an economic action group.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun slammed on Tuesday the March 14 camp's obstruction of parliamentary work, accusing the “minority of practicing a dictatorship” in Lebanon.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc's weekly meeting: “I assure the people that no unrest will take place if the parliamentary elections are not staged due to the March 14 camp's obstruction.”

The European Union on Tuesday donated its 2012 Nobel peace prize cash, plus a one million-euro top-up, to thousands of children impacted by war in Syria, Colombia, Congo and Pakistan.

"In situations of conflict, children are often the most vulnerable," said EU president Herman Van Rompuy. "So it is only right that this award should benefit young victims of armed conflicts."

Lebanon saw a mass influx of Palestinians on Tuesday, as hundreds fled mounting violence in the Yarmuk refugee camp in Syria and entered through the Masnaa border in the east, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

They will join about 2,000 other Palestinians who crossed into Lebanon over the past three days, according to estimates by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and the Lebanese General Security.

The U.N.'s World Food Program warned Tuesday that the spiraling violence in Syria was making it increasingly difficult to distribute food in the war-torn country.

"Food needs are growing in Syria," said WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs, whose organization distributes most of its aid in Syria through the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC).