U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in a second state, Mississippi, to cope with the expected impact of Hurricane Isaac.

The move followed a similar declaration for Louisiana issued on Tuesday and came as parts of Mississippi and neighboring states were placed under hurricane and tropical storm warnings.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon will stress to Iranian leaders this week that they must take "urgent" action on the country's nuclear drive and human rights, a U.N. spokesman said Tuesday.

The warning was given as Ban headed for Tehran to take part in the Non-Aligned Movement summit starting Wednesday. The United States and Israel said that Ban should not go to Iran.

Some 20 non-violent Syrian opposition parties and movements said in a meeting in Damascus on Tuesday that they seek to establish a democratic regime without resorting to arms.

"We are faced with two sides that use violence, but weapons only lead to attrition," said Raja Nassar, who coordinated the gathering.

Syrian opposition activists gathered in Berlin said Tuesday that it was too soon to form a transition post-Assad government after France said it would recognize a new provisional administration.

The opposition figures, meeting in the German capital to present a political roadmap after a possible ouster of President Bashar Assad, said it was premature to try to set up a new state.

French prosecutors have opened a murder inquiry into Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's 2004 death near Paris, sources close to the matter told Agence France Presse Tuesday.

The probe comes after Arafat's family launched legal action in France last month over claims the veteran Palestinian leader died of radioactive polonium poisoning.

Seven Syrians, including two children, who tried to sail to Cyprus to escape the conflict in their homeland drowned after their boat sank earlier this month, a Turkish-Cypriot police source said Tuesday.

The source speaking in the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which is recognized only by Turkey, said the disaster took place on August 16 off the coast of northern Cyprus, near the Karpas peninsula.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday urged Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi to warm relations with Israel by visiting Jerusalem.

"I was happy to hear Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi speak of Egypt's commitment to peace with Israel, to the Camp David peace accords and to the battle against terror," Lieberman said at a legal conference.

The head of Russia's army said Tuesday that Moscow had no intention to end its military presence in Syria despite the escalating violence and threat of President Bashar Assad's fall.

"Why are you so worried about Syria?" Chief of Staff General Nikolai Makarov demanded in response to a question about reports that Russia was in the process of evacuating its Syrian naval base and pulling out senior military personnel.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel this week makes her second trip of the year to China, with the Eurozone debt crisis taking center stage as it begins to drag on the two global economic powers.

Merkel was due to take nine ministers with her and a high-powered business delegation for the visit Thursday and Friday to Beijing and Tianjin which includes talks with Premier Wen Jiabao and a joint cabinet meeting.

A car bomb killed 12 people at a funeral in the mainly Druze and Christian suburb of Jaramana on the southeastern outskirts of the Syrian capital on Tuesday, state television reported.

"Another 48 people were wounded, many critically, in a terrorist car blast that targeted a funeral procession in Jaramana," it said.