Tim Graham / Tim Graham

Traffic on the highway heading out of Miami at Opa Locka Boulevard, Florida, United States of America

The Canadian Automobile Association is warning their members to take special precautions when traveling internationally — to Florida.

That's because the Sunshine State last year passed a largely unnoticed law that requires foreign drivers to own largely-unused "international driver's permits" from their home country.

The legislation, which went into effect January 1, was intended to make sure all Florida drivers held a license translated into English.

But it also meant scores of snowbirds flew down from the Great White North in 2013 not knowing they were breaking the law. 

Florida lawmakers are apologizing to Canadians, British and other English-speaking countries that have been unintentionally targeted as a result of the law, and Florida's Highway Patrol has suspended its enforcement.

Still, there are questions about the impact on car rentals and insurance coverage for foreigners driving in the state. The state's tourism website, Visit Florida, is urging visitors to consult with an "in-country travel professional for guidance."

That's why the CAA, Canada's version of AAA, has on the homepage of its website guidelines for the new law and FAQ on how to obtain an international driver's license, which costs $25.

"Until the law is changed, we continue to recommend Canadians traveling to Florida should consider obtaining an IDP," the site reads.

That change could come soon, as state officials are quickly realizing some of the unwanted consequences of the bill.

"We will work with the legislature to amend the law this year so it does not burden international visitors to our state, who make up an important part of our tourism industry," said John Tupps, deputy press secretary for Florida Gov. Rick Scott, on Tuesday.

Florida state Rep. Ben Albritton, a Republican, introduced the bill with the intention of making things easier on Motor Vehicle employees who regularly deal with identification from foreign lands.

"This one I just missed. I want to tell the people in Canada I am sorry," Albritton told the Tampa Bay Times. "If I messed something up, I am man enough to fix it."

Canada topped all other countries in travel to Florida in 2011 with more than 3 million visitors there. Another English speaking country, the United Kingdom, ranks third on the list with 1.3 million visitors.

Tourism spending in the state totaled $67.2 billion in 2011.

It is unclear when the law will be officially amended.

Updated at 11:27 p.m. ET: As Isaac lashed south Florida on Sunday, the tropical storm threatened to make landfall later this week as a hurricane in New Orleans on the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s near destruction of that historic city.

Although the worst seems to have passed in Florida – a relief to Republicans planning their national convention – officials in Key West ordered visitors and residents to remain indoors as the storm moved through the island chain.

“You’ve chosen to remain in the Keys during this storm and the only safe place for you to be is indoors,” said Monroe County Emergency Management Director Irene Toner. “Stay off roads and don’t go outside.”

300-mile stretch of Gulf Coast on alert after 'huge storm' Isaac drenches Florida

As of 11 p.m. ET, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour, was about 75 miles west, southwest of Key West, moving west, northwest at 14 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla. said.

Isaac caused weekend havoc in Cuba, where it downed trees and power lines. Before that, Isaac was blamed for seven deaths in Haiti.

Forecasters warned that Isaac could be upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane – capable of sustained winds of 96-100 mph – as it hits the northern Gulf Coast somewhere between Florida and Louisiana later this week.

The governors of Mississippi and Louisiana declared a state of emergency as officials prepared for Isaac.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal urged residents in low-lying areas of several southeastern parishes to voluntarily leave ahead of the storm. He said mandatory evacuations would likely be ordered on Monday. The governor also activated 4,000 National Guard troops and informed other states that Louisiana might need assistance if hit by Isaac.

"We’re all going to err on the side of being overprepared," Jindal said. He added that he may skip his speaking engagement at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., this week if his state is still threatened by the storm.

In the city of New Orleans, which was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina seven years ago, Mayor Mitch Landrieu also declared a state of emergency. "I'll remind everybody that we thought Katrina would be a wind and rain event," Landrieu said.

"Residents should be frightened because we have issued a State of Emergency," Mississippi Gov. Bryant said. "However, I urge individuals and families to finalize their personal preparedness efforts. Review your family communication plan, make sure your emergency supply kit is fully stocked and know where you will go if you need to evacuate."

The National Hurricane Center on Sunday evening discontinued a hurricane warning for the Florida Keys and west coast of Florida, but issued a hurricane warning hurricane for the northern Gulf of Mexico coast from the New Orleans area to the Florida Panhandle.

In South Florida, three people were killed in two separate crashes due to wet roads, reported NBC News affiliate NBCMiami.com. The first crash involved a head-on collision, which killed both drivers, and in the second, the car plunged into a canal and the driver drowned, officials said.

Some minor flooding and power outages were reported in the Florida Keys but with the worst seemingly over, South Florida officials were relieved as Isaac shifted west. "We prepared for the worst and for us it's a relief," Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez  said, according to NBCMiami.com.

Related: Follow Isaac's path with our storm tracker
Related: Live updates and analysis from weather.com

Dr. Rick Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center, said forecast models “can drive us nuts sometimes” but they play an important role for guidance.

“It’s still very uncertain where the center of Isaac will come ashore in its final landfall in the northern Gulf,” Knabb told the Weather Channel on Sunday, “and that can make all the difference as to who gets the strongest winds, who gets the strongest storm surge.

“Gradually, we’re seeing (Isaac’s) inner core develop. We’re certain it’s going to be a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico,” Knabb said.

Cancellations and shutdowns
The Republican Party said it would recess its national convention in Tampa for a day out of safety concerns as the storm bore down. Republicans, who will formally nominate Mitt Romney as their presidential candidate for the November election, will briefly convene their four-day meeting on Monday, then recess until Tuesday. 

“When she storm passes and the sun comes out it’s going to be great to be in Tampa,” Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said.

Related: Republicans effectively cancel first day of convention 

Gulf of Mexico oil operators braced for the first hurricane to affect the U.S. oil patch in 2012. Officials said the storm could shut down more than half of U.S. offshore oil output. Isaac's more westerly expected track brings it closer to the heart of the U.S. offshore oil patch, which produces about 23 percent of U.S. oil output and 7 percent of its natural gas output

Airlines are preparing for Isaac’s impact on Florida by waiving fees for changes and refunds for flights into and out of south Florida. Additionally, airlines on Sunday canceled most of south Florida operations.

Key West airports were closing Sunday night and most operations in and out of Miami and Fort Lauderdale were canceled until noon Monday, according to FlightAware.com. Airlines are not expecting long-term impact in Florida from the storm and should be operating normally by late Monday once airplanes, crew and staff are back in position. 

More than 740 flights to, from and within the United States were canceled Sunday in preparation for Isaac, with the bulk of the cancellations at Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

Meanwhile, the Sunday night performance of classic rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd at Tampa’s American Action Network Pavilion at Liberty Plaza was canceled over safety concerns.

Old hat for locals
Key West locals followed time-worn storm preparedness rituals while awaiting the storm.

On Saturday, a steady line of cars moved north along the Overseas Highway, the only road linking the Florida Keys. Residents boarded up windows, laid down sandbags and shuttered businesses ahead of the approaching storm. Even Duval Street, Key West's storied main drag, was subdued for a weekend, though not enough to stop music from playing or drinks from being poured.

Slideshow: Isaac tracks toward Florida

Alan Diaz / AP

Tropical Storm Isaac rakes the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba as it makes its way toward Florida.

Launch slideshow

"We'll just catch every place that's open," said Ted Lamarche, a 48-year-old pizzeria owner visiting Key West to celebrate his anniversary with his wife, Deanna. They walked along on Duval Street, where a smattering of people still wandered even as many storefronts were boarded up and tourists sported ponchos and yellow slickers.

"Category None!" one man shouted in a show of optimism.

Related: Weather Channel slideshow: The Wrath of Isaac

The Keys were bracing for storm surges of up to four feet, strong winds and the possibility of tornadoes. The island chain's two airports closed Saturday night, and volunteers and some residents began filing into shelters.

"This is a huge inconvenience," said Dale Shelton, a 57-year-old retiree in Key West who was staying in a shelter.

The Associated Press, Reuters and NBC's Isolde Raftery contributed to this report.

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Updated at 7:40 a.m. ET: Tropical Storm Isaac dumped heavy rains on Haiti on Saturday, threatening floods and mudslides in a country where hundreds of thousands of people remain homeless more than two years after a devastating earthquake.

Lashing rains and high winds were reported along parts of Haiti's southern coast and in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, where more than 350,000 survivors of the 2010 earthquake are still living in fragile tent and tarpaulin camps.

Intermittent power outages affected the greater Port-au-Prince area in the early hours of Saturday as Isaac bore down on the impoverished Caribbean country.

At 5 a.m. ET, the U.S. National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning for the Florida Keys, including the Dry Tortugas, the west coast of Florida from Bonita Beach southward and Florida Bay.

It also issued a hurricane watch notice for Florida’s east coast from Golden Beach southward.

The NHC also said the Bahamas government had issued a hurricane watch for Andros Island.

The NHC's notice at 5 a.m. said Isaac had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph, down from 70 mph earlier Saturday, and was about 150 miles southeast of Guantanamo, Cuba.

'Life-threatening flash floods'
The Weather Channel reported that bands of heavy rain triggered flooding in Puerto Rico through Friday, even with Isaac's center well to the southwest. A bridge collapse and mudslide was reported early Friday. Power outages were also reported. The U.S. Virgin Islands were also affected.

The Weather Channel said heavy rainbands on the cyclone's eastern flank were expected to continue to hammer Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  

Follow Isaac's path with our storm tracker

Storm total rainfall of 8 to 12 inches is possible, with up to 20 inches locally, The Weather Channel said. Additionally, 4- to 8-inches of rainfall, with isolated incidents of 12 inches, was possible in Jamaica.  

"Life-threatening flash floods and mudslides will likely result from that amount of rain," it warned.

Aid workers prep Haiti's tent city residents for Isaac's onlsaught

Isaac's march across the Caribbean comes as U.S. Republicans prepare to gather in Tampa, on Florida's central Gulf Coast, for Monday's start of their national convention ahead of the November presidential election.

The convention is still expected to proceed as planned but Gulf of Mexico operators began shutting down offshore oil and gas rigs on Friday ahead of the storm.

But the biggest immediate concern was heavily deforested Haiti.

On Friday, the government and aid groups evacuated thousands of tent camp dwellers but many Haitians chose to remain in their flimsy, makeshift homes, apparently out of fear they will be robbed, said Bradley Mellicker, head of disaster management for the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

"There's a lot of people who are resisting because they are scared of losing what little they have now," Mellicker said.

Churches, schools are shelters
About 3,000 volunteers from the government's Civil Protection office were dispatched across Haiti, warning people about flood and landslide risks, and about 1,250 shelters -- schools, churches or other community buildings -- that have opened their doors to house people seeking refuge from the storm.

But Red Cross officials said the number of shelters could be grossly inadequate and Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe acknowledged Haiti had "limited means" to ensure public safety.

Red Cross and IOM representatives joined government officials in trying to evacuate 8,000 of the "most vulnerable people," including 2,500 sick and disabled, from 18 tent camps in low-lying coastal areas of Port-au-Prince.

Live updates and analysis from weather.com
Transcript of weather.com experts answering Isaac questions 

Many Haitians, most of whom scrape by on less than $1 per day, consider disaster an inevitable part of life in the poorest country in the Americas.

"We live under tents. If there's too much rain and wind, water comes in. There's nothing we can do," said Nicholas Absolouis, an unemployed 34-year-old mechanic at one camp for homeless people on the northern edge of the chaotic capital.

"There are still too many people living in the camps. There's a good chance that those might be destroyed with the passage of the cyclone," said France Hurtubise of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Haiti.

Flooding could also help reignite a cholera epidemic, which has killed more than 7,500 people in Haiti since the disease first appeared in October 2010, foreign aid workers said.

Could hit New Orleans
On its current path, forecasters said Isaac would hit Cuba and the southern tip of Florida before making landfall anywhere from the Florida Panhandle in the northwestern part of the state to Alabama and as far west as New Orleans.

A tropical storm warning was issued for the entire coast of south Florida on Friday, and a hurricane warning also went into effect in the Florida Keys.

Isaac has drawn especially close scrutiny because of the Republican Party's convention, a four-day meeting during which former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will receive the party's presidential nomination.

Party officials insist the convention will go ahead, even if they have to alter the schedule. But NHC meteorologist Rick Danielson said Tampa could potentially be hit by coastal flooding and driving winds or rain.

"There is still a full range of possible impacts on Tampa at this point," he said.

Danielson said it was very hard to project intensity before Isaac passes over mountainous Cuba on Saturday and Sunday and enters the Florida Straits. But the Florida Keys, the island chain off the southernmost part of the state, were definitely in harm's way.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Updated at 11 p.m. ET: Tropical Storm Isaac strengthened on Friday as its lashing rains took aim at flood-prone Haiti, but it was not expected to become a hurricane until it barreled into the Gulf of Mexico early next week. 

On its current path, forecasters said Isaac would hit Cuba and the southern tip of Florida before making landfall anywhere from the Florida Panhandle in the northwestern part of the state to Alabama and as far west as New Orleans.

Forecasters put the entire coast of south Florida under tropical storm watch as of 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on Friday.

But the biggest immediate concern was heavily deforested Haiti, where the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the full force of the storm was expected to be felt later Friday.  

Isaac could pass near Florida's Gulf Coast early Monday just as the Republican National Convention is scheduled to start in Tampa. 

Winds at tropical storm strength extend 185 miles out from Isaac's center, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an afternoon advisory, making it a very wide storm.

On exiting Haiti, Isaac's center should cross Cuba on Saturday, and then pass south of the Florida Keys before making landfall as a Category 1 hurricane overnight Tuesday somewhere between New Orleans and Tallahassee, NBC meteorologist Al Roker said Friday on TODAY. Warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico will be "energy for the storm" as it makes its way across the gulf, he added.

In related developments Friday:

• The U.S. embassy in Haiti sent an e-mail to American citizens in the country warning that flights into and out of Port-au-Prince have been suspended due to Isaac.
• Oil and gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico started preparing as Isaac's track looked to skirt the heart of the U.S. offshore energy producing zone. BP said it would shut down its giant Thunder Horse platform, the world's largest. Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and Apache Corp. said they would evacuate some workers from their Gulf platforms with no production impacts. Other offshore drillers were likely to shut production in coming days as the storm approaches.
• The U.S. military moved 22 F-16s from Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida to Fort Worth, Texas. Three F-15s from the base are on alert to move to Jacksonville if necessary.

South Florida could see a few twisters and heavy rain -- some 5-10 inches Sunday and into Monday, weather.com experts said in an online chat with readers Friday.

Florida has not been hit by a major hurricane since 2005 and officials are concerned that residents there have become complacent.

Aid workers prep Haiti's tent city residents for Isaac's onlsaught

"I think it's a challenge of getting people to understand their risk and make sure they’ve got a plan," said Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

With more than 19 million people living across the Sunshine State, Fugate wants every Florida resident to have enough supplies to last 72 hours and to know when to evacuate.

Click this image to get to our Atlantic storm tracker.

"I think the most dangerous thing is when people keep waiting to see what the next forecast is even if they’re in an evacuation zone. They say, 'Oh, it’s just a Category 1 storm or a minimum hurricane.' We’ve seen significant impacts from tropical storm force winds and rain," Fugate added.

In the Florida Keys, where there are few routes available for evacuation -- U.S. 1, Key West International Airport, and the Florida Keys Marathon Airport -- Mayor Craig Cates said his biggest concern was the storm's timing. Cates said he would need at least 36 hours to begin evacuations of tourists and residents.

"If it (Isaac) comes straight on to Key West, we’re worried about the damage that could happen in Key West. If it goes further up the Keys, it could damage power lines and we could get affected," Cates said. "Even if it hits further up the state, we have got to be prepared with our generators and our supplies. Being on an island, we understand that."

Forecasters with The Weather Channel think the evacuation decisions could come quickly. It is anticipated that watches will be issued for South Florida and the Keys by Friday night. In the event of an evacuation, Cates told The Weather Channel that tourists would leave first, followed by special needs citizens. 

Live updates and analysis from weather.com
Transcript of weather.com experts answering Isaac questions 

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said state officials are working with convention organizers, who will ultimately make the call on a delay or cancellation of the event.

State officials announced Thursday that they will wait to make decisions about moving supplies until after Isaac passes Cuba. FEMA has already placed food and generators in Jacksonville.  

Isaac is forecast to remain a tropical storm after crossing the Dominican Republic and Haiti and then passing over Cuba into the Florida Straits.

The National Hurricane Center warned it was "important not to focus on the exact track because of forecast uncertainties and the fact that Isaac has a large area of tropical storm force winds."

Follow Isaac's path with our storm tracker

Isaac was expected to dump between 8 and 12 inches of rain over parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and up to 20 inches in a few areas. That poses a significant threat to Haiti, which is highly prone to flooding and mudslides because of its near-total deforestation.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, still has about 350,000 people living in tents or makeshift shelters more than 2-1/2 years after a devastating earthquake that took more than a quarter of a million lives.

Red Cross workers toured crowded tent camps of Haitians left homeless by the 2010 quake to warn about Isaac.

Authorities in the Dominican Republic evacuated people living on the banks of rivers, streams and areas vulnerable to landslides in preparation for the approach of Isaac, whose effects were beginning to be felt with showers in the south of the country.

Weather.com and Reuters contributed to this report.

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A Florida jury has convicted Cristobal Palacio of second-degree murder and two counts of child abuse in the October 2008 shooting death of his ex-wife's British husband, Paul Winter, in front of her children, NBCMiami.com reported.

Palacio, 46, was charged with first-degree murder in Winter's killing in Palacio's Kendall driveway.

But the jury Friday night opted to convict him of the lesser murder charge instead, as well as child abuse. Palacio shot Winter six times, including twice in the back, in a jealous rage in front of his 6-year-old twins and his ex-wife, Jennifer Winter, according to authorities.

Jurors deliberated for almost 20 hours over two days before coming back with their decision.

See the original story at NBCMiami.com | More from NBCMiami.com

"I don't know what case they watched," defense attorney Michael Walsh said. "I don't know what facts they listened to."

On the last day of his trial on Wednesday, Palacio tearfully told the jury he acted in self-defense.

He said he thought Winter, who wasn't armed, was going for a gun.

"He comes out like he’s so pissed, angry, I mean, you could see the veins,” Palacio said. “I hadn't done nothing to this guy. He starts coming at me."

Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com 

When the verdicts were read Friday, Palacio did not show emotion. He looked forward and blinked.

"He's just in shock," Walsh said. "He doesn't even know what just happened."

Walsh also explained why his client shot six times.

"When you squeeze that trigger, you can fire 10 bullets in less than three seconds, so in three seconds when your life is threatened, you're not really counting bullets, you're just squeezing," he said.

Winter, originally from Tunbridge Wells, had moved to Miami in 2007 and married the ex-wife of Palacio, a fraud investigator for Citibank, the Daily Telegraph reported.

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The graphic designer, 42, was in the process of applying for U.S. residency and had planned to open a bed and breakfast with his American wife, whom he met through an online gaming website, the Telegraph reported.

During the trial, Jennifer Winter told the court: "He walked up to my husband after he was laying face down and he shot him more in the back, after he was already dead – he shot him more in the back."

She wept as she described the moment after the shooting, and said: "Why did you do this? Why did you kill my husband? How could you do this? Then he just smiled like he was so proud of himself."

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Steve Marcus / Reuters

A police car blocks the road Friday as federal and local law enforcement officials take artwork from a storage building in Boulder City, Nevada, in a seizure related to the arrest of German fugitive Ulrich Felix Anton Engler.

A German fugitive sought for five years in a Florida-based fraud scheme that netted more than $100 million has been arrested in Las Vegas, authorities said Friday.

Ulrich Felix Anton Engler, 51, was arrested for being in violation of U.S. immigration law, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

He is wanted on criminal charges filed in Mannheim and Hamburg, Germany, courts where he is accused of committing fraud on a repetitive and gainful basis, officials said in a prepared statement. If convicted, Engler faces up to 20 years in prison.

A fingerprint match from a Feb. 11, 2011, drunken driving case in which a Nevada Highway Patrol officer cited Engler, who may have used a different name at the time, helped U.S. Marshals track him down, The Associated Press reported.

“I hope Mr. Engler's victims in this case feel a measure of relief that Mr. Engler's fraud and long run are over and that he will soon face justice in Germany for his alleged crimes," said ICE Director John Morton.

The FBI and local police on Friday seized more than 1,000 pieces of artwork from a storage facility that Engler allegedly rented in Boulder City, about 25 miles east of Las Vegas.

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FBI Agent Patrick Turner in Las Vegas called the action an effort to recover proceeds on behalf of Engler's alleged victims.

Engler is accused of using a marketing company in Cape Coral, Fla., to build an Internet pyramid scheme. From June 2003 to December 2004, it collected almost $101 million from more than 3,500 investors in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, authorities said. Once the money reached the United States, investors lost access to it, they said.

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When the arrest warrant was issued in Germany, Engler was believed to have been living in Florida.

Last year, U.S. marshals and INTERPOL officials in Washington determined Engler was living in Nevada, where he was perpetuating his fraud schemes under a new identity, Joseph Miller, officials said.

He will be turned over to law enforcement officials in Germany, they said.

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press and NBC News' Jim Gold.

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Stringer / Reuters

Penny Palfrey, an Australian-British swimmer starts her attempt to swim to Florida from Havana on Friday.

Updated at 6:40 p.m. ET: Strong currents early on Sunday defeated marathon swimmer Penny Palfrey in her attempt to complete a record-breaking 103-mile swim from Cuba to the United States without a shark cage.

Palfrey, a 49-year-old grandmother, was plucked from the waters of the Florida Straits at about midnight after setting out from Havana on Friday and swimming for more than 40 hours, her team told NBC News.

In a statement, her team said a strong southeast current that made it impossible for her to continue her swim and that she was on an escort boat being taken care off by her support crew.

Palfrey had already made it well past the halfway point across the dangerous body of water that separates communist Cuba from the United States.

"Penny has been 100 percent focused on this swim for a year, so she was quite a bit upset. There were of course some tears. She didn't know what was happening until we told her, so it took a few minutes while she took that in," her husband  Chris Palfrey said Sunday at a news conference in Key West, Fla. 

She was hospitalized Sunday, receiving IV drips and pain medication. Painful blisters and ulcers under her tongue made it difficult to talk. Her husband said it was too early to discuss the possibility of another attempt.

Her doctor said she was dehydrated and had low blood pressure, but remarked her blood work was fairly normal considering the swim.

"She was still strong, but 41 hours of continuous swimming ... she was physically exhausted," Chris Palfrey said. "It was really only her mental focus that was keeping her going. She was going really, really well but she only had a few more hours in her."

Palfrey, who was born in Britain but lives in Australia, had initially hoped to complete the crossing and arrive somewhere in southern Florida within 40 to 50 hours.

Her swim followed two unsuccessful attempts last year by American marathoner Diana Nyad, now 62, to cross the Florida Straits, which are known for tricky currents and unpredictable weather.

The swim was completed successfully by Australian swimmer Susan Maroney in May 1997, but unlike Nyad and Palfrey she used a shark cage. 

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Ian Johnston / msnbc.com

Slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin's parents and brother with Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered British teenager Stephen Lawrence, outside the University of London Union in London, England, Friday. From left: Lawyer Daryl Parks, Trayvon's parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, Doreen Lawrence (front), Jahvaris Fulton and lawyer Benjamin Crump.

The parents of slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin held a public meeting in England Friday to highlight the dangers of “profiling” people by the color of their skin or outward appearance.

Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton took to a stage at the University of London with the mother of a black British teenager, Stephen Lawrence, who was murdered in a racist attack in Eltham, South London, in 1993.

Doreen Lawrence campaigned for years to get justice for her son, and two men, Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 35, were only found guilty of Stephen’s murder in January. Three other suspects remain at large.

Trayvon Martin, 17, who was unarmed and walking back to the home of his father’s fiancée, was shot dead by George Zimmerman, 28, in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26.

Zimmerman saw the teenager, called 911 and began following him. Zimmerman claims Martin attacked him and he shot in self-defense, citing Florida's "stand your ground" law. Zimmerman was not charged for more than six weeks, sparking protests across the U.S. and also in London, and is now awaiting trial for second-degree murder.

Ian Johnston/msnbc.com

Slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin's parents Sybrina Fulton (left) Tracy Martin (back) and brother, Jahvaris Fulton, (right) with Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered British teenager Stephen Lawrence.

With tears in her eyes, Fulton told an audience of journalists, activists, students and others, “I should not be looked at differently because of the color of my skin.”

“Although it’s a sad moment for us to be here, it warms my heart to know there are other people who are supporting us,” she said.

“I say to you today … just stand up, stand up and be heard. Don’t let this happen to another one of our children,” Fulton added.

“Until you have lost a child, it’s very difficult for you to understand how we feel, and the hurt and the pain that we have," she said.

Fulton also released a Mother's Day video appeal on YouTube and the Justice for Trayvon Martin Foundation's website Friday for people across the United States to campaign for "stand your ground" laws to be re-examined.

She said she would say a prayer on Mother's Day for other mothers who had lost their children to "senseless gun violence."

"Nobody can bring our children back, but it would bring us comfort if we can help spare other mothers the pain that we will feel on Mother's Day and every day for the rest of our lives," Fulton said.

At the meeting in London, Tracy Martin said that Doreen Lawrence was “an inspiration" to their fight for justice.

“We can stand together on common ground … the loss of children. It certainly is a unique fraternity to be in, one that we didn’t choose to be in,” he said. “She [Lawrence] is proving you can turn tragedy into something positive… there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

He said profiling was “not just an issue of black and white.”

“It’s a profiling issue in general, profiling of all sorts,” he said.

After the public meeting, a vigil was held just outside Downing Street, home to the British prime minister's official residence.

Trayvon's parents spoke briefly and then stood with the crowd of about 100, who chanted "I am Trayvon Martin" and "No justice, no peace."

 18 years after racist slaying, fear still stalks London's streets 

The meeting was organized by the Million Hoodies Movement for Justice, JusticeTM.org, a website set up after Trayvon’s murder, and Occupy London.

“You cannot be afraid to leave home, you cannot be afraid to walk down the street and feel someone is going to do something to you. You have to be comfortable in your surroundings,” Tracy Martin said.

He added that more needed to be done to teach people how to resolve conflict peacefully.

Ben Crump, a lawyer representing the family, said that the support for Trayvon’s family in England showed the case was an “international issue” and “one of human rights, not just profiling.”

It was a reminder to “the local people who so conveniently went to sweep the death of a young black child under the rug” that “every life is important, every life matters.”

Racist killers sentenced in UK's 'Rosa Parks moment'

“Trayvon was 17, Stephen was 18, they had so much life ahead of them,” Crump said. “These children did not deserve this tragic, untimely end to their lives.”

Zita Holbourne, of British campaign group Black Activists Rising Against Cuts, said there had been cases where people had died in police custody and at the hands of the state in the U.K. and “they’ve been predominantly black.”

“We’re not seeing the justice that we should see,” she said. “What we are seeing is family upon family having to set up campaigns to fight for justice.”

“I think it’s important to come together from across the globe to fight injustice and racism.”

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