Russia and China boycotted U.N. Security Council talks on a draft resolution condemning Syria's deadly crackdown on opposition protests, diplomats said Monday.

European powers stepped up their campaigning meanwhile for the resolution with one top envoy saying the delay in Security Council action has cost hundreds of lives in Syria.

The March 14 forces dubbed Premier Najib Miqati’s cabinet a “confrontational government” that will seek to consolidate itself against the repercussions of the indictment that will be issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

A high-ranking March 14 source told An Nahar newspaper published Tuesday that “the government of Hizbullah” was formed “given the critical situation in Syria.”

A U.S. man based in Scotland has unmasked himself as the author of the "Gay Girl in Damascus" blog, sparking fears Monday that his hoax could harm real-life opponents of the Syrian regime's crackdown.

Tom MacMaster, a bearded 40-year-old married Edinburgh University masters student, apologized on Sunday and confessed that he was "Amina Abdallah Arraf", supposedly a Syrian lesbian.

The March 8 camp may withdraw its confidence from Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati because of its doubts over his ability to form a new government, reported al-Liwa newspaper on Monday.

It has been disappointed with his efforts and may set a deadline of next Wednesday to withdraw confidence from him regardless if such a step is constitutional or not, said the newspaper.

U.S. sources have informed caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri about a plan to assassinate him in Beirut, “which was supposed to be carried out in May,” Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai reported.

In a report published Monday, the newspaper said the U.S. warnings to Hariri “coincided with similar warnings from the Saudi and French authorities.”

Around 30 people held a sit-in outside the Kuwaiti embassy in Beirut on Sunday shouting slogans in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said that the small crowd later dispersed without any clash with police.

Under the rattle of heavy gunfire and loud explosions, Syrian army troops and tanks moved into a restive northwestern city from two sides Sunday, extending the crackdown on a region that is historically hostile the Damascus regime.

The Local Coordination Committee, which documents Syrian anti-government protests, said Jisr al-Shughour was attacked from the southern and eastern sides by troops in about 200 vehicles, including tanks. It said blasts were heard as helicopters clattered overhead.

High-ranking March 14 sources have said that the March 8 coalition backed by Hizbullah was seeking to keep the political vacuum in Lebanon in an effort to help the Syrian regime at the security level.

The sources have expressed fears that a decision to keep the vacuum was aimed at “keeping the freedom of movement on the ground in case the situation in Syria deteriorated to the level that requires a security support from Lebanon.”

Around 4,300 Syrians who fled a brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protesters are staying in camps in southern Turkey, the Anatolie news agency reported Saturday.

Hundreds have fled in the last 24 hours, the agency said citing local sources.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun announced on Saturday that Lebanon’s future will be stable, ruling out the eruption of a civil or sectarian war or Sunni-Shiite conflict in the country.

He said upon his arrival to the southern town of Mlita: “We will twist the arm of U.S. Intelligence in Lebanon like we twisted that of Israel.”