Mourners Gather For Boris Nemtsov Funeral

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 03 Maret 2015 | 23.12

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Thousands of people have lined the streets of Moscow to pay their final respects to Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead four days ago.

Mourners queued from the early hours of the morning to file past Mr Nemtsov's body as it lay in state in the Sakharov Centre in central Moscow.

Even after the four-hour viewing came to an end, a line of people spanning roughly half a mile waited in the cold to enter the centre.

One mourner told Sky News' Moscow Correspondent Katie Stallard he was a "great politician" whose death was a "tragedy for Russia".

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Gallery: Boris Nemtsov: Funeral Of Murdered Putin Opponent Held In Moscow

People stand in line at a memorial service before the funeral of leading Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov in Moscow

Several hundred Russians, many carrying red carnations, queued to pay their respects. Mr Nemtsov was shot dead by an unknown gunman last week as he walked with his girlfriend

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The apparent assassination has shocked Russia. President Putin has blamed the killing on enemies trying to discredit the Kremlin

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Continue through for more pictures of the memorial service and funeral

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His coffin was then carried to the Troekurovskoye cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow for his funeral and burial.

The former deputy prime minister and long-time critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin was gunned down on a bridge near the Kremlin while walking with his girlfriend late on Friday.

No suspects have been arrested following the murder, considered the most shocking political assassination of Mr Putin's rule.

Leading Russian opposition figures have suggested the murder was politically motivated, although authorities deny any involvement, saying it could have been a provocation aimed at tarnishing Mr Putin's image.

The chief witness to the killing, Mr Nemtsov's Ukrainian girlfriend Anna Duritskaya, who has now left Russia after claiming she was barred from leaving by investigators, has said she did not catch sight of the killers.

The Kremlin has pledged to hold a full investigation into what Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has described as a "heinous crime".

Although one mourner told Sky's Katie Stallard she did not feel confident the killers would be brought to justice.

"Even if we have some results, I wouldn't be able to trust them," she said.

Several leading international figures are among the crowds of mourners, including former British prime minister Sir John Major and US ambassador John Tefft.

"If anyone believes that his (Nemtsov's) voice will be silenced by his murder, then I believe they have made a very serious error," the former prime minister told Sky News.

He called for a "thorough, comprehensive investigation" into the killing.

Meanwhile a number of Polish and Latvian officials say they were barred from entering Russia to attend the funeral.

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Gallery: Tributes Left At Scene Of Boris Nemtsov Murder

Supporters of Boris Nemtsov have left flowers at the scene of his murder near St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow

The Russian opposition politician, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot four times in the back within sight of the Kremlin

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Poland's foreign ministry said Polish senate speaker Bogdan Borusewicz was refused entry in retaliation for European Union sanctions over Ukraine.

Latvian MEP Sandra Kalniete said she was not given a reasonable explanation for the ban, but told news agency AFP she thought her "clear and explicit" opposition to Russia's actions in Ukraine may have played a role.

According to colleagues, Mr Nemtsov had been working on a report which apparently included concrete evidence that Russia was directly involved in the separatist movement which erupted in Ukraine last year.

He had also spoken of his fear of assassination following the murders of a string of other prominent opposition figures since Mr Putin came to power 15 years ago.

On Sunday tens of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of central Moscow to honour his legacy. Opposition leaders said the protest was also aimed at stopping a "campaign of hate" directed at those who question Mr Putin's rule.

Many of the demonstrators carried portraits Mr Nemtsov, as well as placards declaring "I am not afraid" and "He died for Russia's future".

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Did Clinton Break Laws With Private Emails?

By Sky News US Team

Hillary Clinton may have violated federal records laws by using a personal email account for all of her work messages, The New York Times reported.

The newspaper said the former secretary of state and likely Democratic presidential candidate conducted all her official business during her four-year tenure at the State Department on a private email account.

She did not have a government email account during her stint.

Mrs Clinton stepped down as secretary of state in 2013. She has not formally entered the presidential race, but would be considered a front-runner if and when she does.

Federal law says letters and emails written and received by federal officials are government records that must be retained.

Regulations at the time Mrs Clinton served as secretary of state called for emails on personal accounts to be preserved as well.

The Times said most experts believed private email accounts should only be used for official government business in emergencies, for example if a department's server is down.

Mrs Clinton's practice raised issues of transparency, and Jeb Bush, a presidential hopeful for the Republicans, was quick to react.

"Transparency matters. Unclassified @HillaryClinton emails should be released. You can see mine, here. http://jebbushemails.com", he tweeted.

A spokesman for Mrs Clinton told the Times that Mrs Clinton was complying with the "letter and spirit of the rules".

Mrs Clinton recently handed over 55,000 pages of emails to the State Department in response to a department effort to comply with record-keeping practices, according to the Times.

Responding to the report, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the department last year asked former secretaries of state through their representatives to submit any records in their possession to improve record-keeping and management.

"In response to our request, Secretary Clinton provided the department with emails spanning her time at the department," Ms Harf said in a statement.

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Netanyahu: US Relations 'Stronger Than Ever'

By Sky News US Team

Israel's prime minister has told America's largest pro-Israel lobby the two countries' ties are "stronger than ever" despite disagreements over nuclear talks with Iran.

Benjamin Netanyahu's appearance at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) came on the eve of a speech to the US Congress which has fuelled a rift with the Obama administration.

Mr Netanyahu accepted an invite from congressional Republicans to speak later, which was not co-ordinated with the White House.

He said: "Reports of the demise of the US-Israeli alliance are not only premature, but they're just wrong. Our alliance is stronger than ever."

Mr Netanyahu added: "My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama or the office he holds. I have great respect for both."

The White House was said to be infuriated because it was not consulted in advance of the invite, violating typical protocol.

It has also left Democrats in the uncomfortable position of being forced to choose between showing support for Israel and backing their president.

Sky News US correspondent Dominic Waghorn, in Washington DC, says: "For Mr Netanyahu to claim he did not intend any disrespect to Mr Obama is utterly disingenuous.

"Accepting the invitation to speak to Congress was an extraordinary breach with precedent and protocol.

"Mr Netanyahu knows Washington well enough to realise that a foreign government working with America's opposition party behind the back of the White House would only infuriate and offend the President."

However, the Israeli leader told AIPAC he had been compelled to address a "potential deal with Iran that could threaten the survival of Israel".

Mr Netanyahu is wary of the Obama administration's efforts to reach a nuclear agreement with Israel's arch-foe.

He fears Tehran will be left on the cusp of building the bomb, though the Iranians say their programme is for energy purposes.

Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, was applauded earlier as she assured the AIPAC conference: "There will never be a sunset on America's commitment to Israel's security. Never."

She also told the 16,000 delegates: "The United States will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. Period."

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner plans to present Mr Netanyahu with a bust of Winston Churchill at his speech.

The gift was chosen as Mr Netanyahu and Britain's wartime prime minister are the only foreign leaders to have addressed Congress three separate times.

But the White House has said President Obama would not meet Mr Netanyahu because such an invite could be construed as showing bias in Israel's 17 March elections.

Last week, Mr Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, described the manner of Mr Netanyahu's visit as "destructive" for the US-Israeli relationship.

His trip comes as a 31 March target looms for a framework deal with Iran in exchange for possible sanctions relief.

On Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry was in Switzerland for another round of talks with Iran.

The US is negotiating alongside Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.

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Pangolin: Battle To Save Most Hunted Animal

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent in Vietnam

The elephant, the tiger and the rhino are the undisputed "celebrities" of the world's endangered species, but they are by no means the animals most at risk of extinction.

The most hunted animal in the world is a creature so sought after by Chinese and Vietnamese consumers that, as Prince William recently remarked, it could be extinct before most people have ever heard of it.

As the Duke of Cambridge uses his state visit to China to press for an end to the country's massive illegal trade in wildlife, Sky News has been given access to a unique British-funded conservation facility fighting to save the pangolin.

A cross between an armadillo and an artichoke with legs, the pangolin is the most extraordinary of creatures.

The only mammal covered in scales; it is a little larger than a cat; it is shy, harmless and oddly enchanting.

The pangolin conservation centre is run by a 33-year-old Vietnamese man called Nguyan Van Thai, the director of a charity called Save Vietnam's Wildlife.

The centre's only permanent funding comes from Newquay Zoo in the UK.

"I remember pangolin everywhere in this forest when I was young," Thai says as we swap our shoes for special disinfected boots to enter the facility.

We are inside the Cuc Phuong National Park in northern Vietnam. This 220,000-hectare rainforest was once one of the pangolins many homes across Asia and Africa.

It is one o'clock in the morning; the most appropriate time for Thai to show us some of the 12 nocturnal pangolins he is rehabilitating at the centre.

The purpose-built 'pangolarium' is lit only by red bulbs.

There are four large enclosures, each a little smaller than a squash court. Underneath each one is a small bed box with access to the enclosure via a drain pipe.

Inside one of the boxes is Lucky, one of the first pangolins to arrive at the centre ten years ago.

He and the others will not be released to the wild again until the risk that they could be re-poached has gone.

Thai explains the pangolin is a creature invincible to everything in the wild except man.

On his phone he plays some footage of a crate of live pangolins destined for China but confiscated on the border in December.

They are curled into their trademark scaled balls, their defence mechanism.

The poachers who snared them in the forest have force fed them gravel to increase their weight and value.

Some 100,000 pangolins a year are hunted and trafficked like this.

This is the recorded figure. Many more will go untraced.

Conserving the pangolin is incredibly hard because they seldom survive in captivity. Only five zoos globally have them.

Thai is one of the few people who knows how to care for them, having spent three months 'living nocturnal' with them in the jungle.

We drive two hours north of the forest to Hanoi.

Thai wants to show us where many of the pangolin end up: medicine shops and restaurants.

On one street lined with traditional medicine shops it takes just five minutes to be offered a bag of pangolin scales.

It is claimed the scales can cure cancer and help mothers produce breast milk but there is no scientific evidence to back that up.

We are offered a bag: £50 per 100g.

Across town we visit a number of restaurants.

Despite pangolin meat being illegal, it is on the menu complete with a picture. The waitress boasts that government officials like to eat it.

The tragedy is that, like elephants and their tusks, the rarer the pangolin becomes, the more sought after it is.

Increasingly prosperous middle classes in China and Vietnam are the problem, Thai tells us.

Owning ivory and eating pangolin are now symbols of status.

Back at the conservation centre Thai has recruited a new member of staff. Heidi Quine is an animal behavioural expert.

She said: "The very real possibility exists that they are going to be eaten to extinction ... before most of us have ever even heard of them.

"If we don't save the pangolin then what else do we let go?

"There is absolutely no reason that these mammals need to be the most trafficked on the face of the planet."

:: Click here to watch the Sky News extended investigation.

:: To find out more about Thai's work to save the pangolin, visit www.savevietnamswildlife.org

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Coffee Prevents Heart Attacks, Study Says

Drinking up to five cups of coffee a day could help prevent heart disease, new research has found.

A team of experts studied a group of more than 25,000 Korean men and women with an average age of 41.

They had no previous signs of heart disease.

Their coffee consumption was listed as none, less than one cup a day, one to three cups a day, three to five cups a day and five or more every day.

The researchers discovered those who drank between three and five cups were less likely to show signs of heart disease.

Kangbuk Samsung Hospital in Seoul, South Korea, led the research.

The authors concluded: "Our study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that coffee consumption might be inversely associated with CVD (cardiovascular disease) risk.

"Further research is warranted to confirm our findings and establish the biological basis of coffee's potential preventive effects on coronary artery disease."

Victoria Taylor, senior dietician at the British Heart Foundation, said: "While this study does highlight a potential link between coffee consumption and lower risk of developing clogged arteries, more research is needed to confirm these findings and understand what the reason is for the association."

The researchers were looking for the presence of coronary artery calcium - an early indicator in heart disease.

People who drank a few cups of coffee each day were less likely to have visible calcium deposits in their arteries.

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Emwazi Recording: I'm Not An Extremist

A recording has emerged of Mohammed Emwazi denying plans to become an extremist in 2009, and condemning the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks.

In the clip, released by the CAGE advocacy group, the 26-year-old describes being interviewed by British security officials - and complains about being threatened by MI5.

According to Emwazi, he was asked for his views on the terrorist attacks in London and New York, to which he replied: "Innocent people are getting killed. What happened was wrong. If I had the opportunity to make those lives come back, I would."

The Londoner told CAGE that despite his condemnation of al Qaeda, his interrogators were still convinced that he was planning to train as a terrorist in Somalia - and had vowed to "keep a close eye" on him.

Emwazi told the officials: "After what I told you what's happening is extremism, you're still saying I'm an extremist?"

The University of Westminster graduate was identified as "Jihadi John" last week, and is believed to be the Islamic State fighter who has appeared in videos which depict the beheading of Western aid workers and journalists.

In emails to a journalist in 2010, Emwazi claimed he was a "dead man walking", and revealed he had contemplated suicide because of the treatment he had received at the hands of MI5.

Asim Qureshi, a research director for CAGE, said last week that the militant was "the most humble young person that I ever knew".

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Gallery: Jihadi John's email exhanges with Cage and a reporter

This email Mohammed Emwazi sent to a Mail On Sunday reporter in 2010 revealed his first encounter and his fear of MI5

He later made contact with the campaign group Cage and told them about clashes with border control officers

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The Putin Critics Who Have Been Assassinated

The murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov close to the Kremlin makes him the latest vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin to die violently or in suspicious circumstances.

The former deputy prime minister was gunned down in central Moscow while walking home from a restaurant with his girlfriend on Friday.

Mr Putin has pledged a full investigation into his death and said he will take personal charge of it.

Some activists have accused Mr Putin of being responsible, while his supporters have suggested Mr Nemtsov's murder may have been a provocation aimed at tarnishing the president's image.

No suspects have been arrested following the murder, considered the one of the most shocking in a long list of suspected political assassinations during Mr Putin's rule.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the deaths of these high-profile activists, politicians, journalists and lawyers.

:: Alexander Litvinenko - 2006

Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died in November 2006, almost three weeks after drinking tea poisoned with radioactive polonium-210.

It is understood he ingested the tea during a meeting with two fellow former Russian spies, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, at the Millennium Hotel in London's Grosvenor Square. Both deny any involvement in his death and remain in Russia.

Before fleeing Russia and being given British nationality, Litvinenko had accused Mr Putin of corruption. He also blamed Mr Putin for a number of apartment block bombings which helped start the Second Chechen War in 1999, the popularity of which helped bring him to power.

:: Anna Politkovskaya - 2006

The 48-year-old journalist, a prominent critic of Mr Vladimir Putin, was gunned down at her Moscow apartment block on 7 October 2006, the president's birthday. She was shot twice in the chest, once in the shoulder, and once, at point blank range, in the head

Five men were found guilty of the killing, including the gunman Rustam Makhmudov, although it is not yet known who ordered the killing.

Ms Politkovskaya specialised in uncovering state corruption and rights abuses. She won international acclaim for her reports in the Putin-critical newspaper Novaya Gazeta, about Russian abuses in Chechnya, and for her book Putin's Russia.

:: Sergei Magnitsky- 2009

Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in police custody in November 2009 after allegedly being denied medical treatment and brutally beaten.

He had been instructed by British-American businessman William Browder to investigate a multi-million tax fraud against the Russian state which Mr Browder's businesses had become unwittingly involved in. But when Magnitsky found evidence suggesting that police officials were behind the fraud, he was arrested and charged with having carried it out himself.

In July 2012 he was convicted - three years after his death - of tax evasion. Mr Browder successfully lobbied the US government to impose sanctions on those linked to Magnitsky's death.

:: Natalia Estemirova - 2009

The prominent human rights activist was found dead hours after being kidnapped on 15 July, 2009, in the Chechen capital, Grozny.

The 51-year-old had collected evidence of human rights abuses in Chechnya since the start of the second war there in 1999.

She also worked with the investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered in 2006.

:: Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova - 2009

Leading human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov was gunned down in broad daylight on 19 January, 2009.

Journalist Anastasia Baburova, 25, was shot dead after she tried to come to his assistance.

Mr Markelov had just held a press conference to protest at the early release of an army colonel who was jailed for the killing of a young Chechen girl. He had also represented the murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

:: Paul Klebnikov - 2004

Another investigative journalist, Paul Klebnikov, an American of Russian descent, was killed outside his office in a drive-by shooting in Moscow in 2004. He was the editor of Forbes Russia.

Mr Klebnikov had written about corruption in Russia and Forbes had published a list of Russia's richest people.

:: Sergei Yushenkov - 2003

The co-chairman of the Liberal Russia movement was murdered outside his home in Moscow, on 17 April 2003.

According to the Moscow Times, he was gunned down just hours after the Justice Ministry officially registered his Liberal Russia movement as a party.

:: Boris Berezovsky - 2013

Once one of the most powerful men in Russia, the self-made tycoon was leader of the so-called "oligarchs" who wielded power during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s.

But after falling out with Mr Putin - who is said to have been handpicked by Berezovsky as Yeltsin's successor - he fled and settled in Britain, where he became an outspoken critic of the new president.

He was found dead at his Berkshire home in March 2013 in an apparent suicide, although an inquest into his death recorded an open verdict.

SUSPECTED SHOW TRIALS

Alongside the suspicious deaths, there have been a series of criminal cases condemned as political "show trials" by critics of Mr Putin. Most recently was the case of anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny.

The Kremlin denies any political motivation and insists the judiciary is independent.

:: Alexei Navalny

The 38-year-old lawyer and activist rose to prominence by exposing political corruption in his blog before becoming a prominent speaker at anti-Putin rallies. He coined the phrase "party of crooks and thieves" to describe United Russia, Mr Putin's party.

He and his brother Oleg were charged with defrauding several companies, including the Russian subsidiary of the French cosmetics company Yves Rocher.

He was convicted in December of fraud and given a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence. His brother Oleg was jailed for the same period.

:: Sergei Udaltsov

The leader of the Left Front political grouping, the 37-year-old has described himself as a "Soviet patriot". He and his wife Anastasia have been nicknamed "Russia's Revolutionary Couple".

After playing a prominent role in anti-Putin protests, Mr Udaltsov was charged over a demonstration held the day before Mr Putin's inauguration for his third term as president in May 2012.

He was jailed for four and a half years for organising the protest, which had turned violent.

:: Leonid Razvozzhaev

A Left Front colleague of Sergei Udaltsov, he faced the same charges but fled Russia and tried to seek political asylum in neighbouring Ukraine.

He claimed that while his application was being considered, he was kidnapped, taken back to Russia, tortured and forced to sign confessions which he subsequently disowned.

Russian authorities insisted that he had given himself up voluntarily.

He was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.

:: Mikhail Kosenko

The political activist was convicted of using violence against police officers during the same Bolotnaya Square protests that Sergei Udaltsov and Leonid Razvozzhaev were jailed for organising.

Despite testimony that he was a peaceful demonstrator, Mr Kosenko was sentenced to indefinite psychiatric detention. He was released in July 2014.

Amnesty International said: "Kosenko's only 'crime' was publicly expressing his beliefs. This is reminiscent of the Soviet-era tactics when the authorities used psychiatric treatment to silence dissenting voices."

:: Greenpeace

In September 2013, 30 Greenpeace activists, including six Britons, were arrested for taking part in a protest at an Arctic oil installation.

They were initially charged with piracy, which could have carried a prison term of up to 15 years. The charge was downgraded to hooliganism, which still could have carried a seven-year term, before they were released after two months in detention.

At the time Mr Putin said their treatment should serve as a lesson to others and suggested unnamed foreign rivals could have been behind their actions.

:: Pussy Riot

The all-female punk group were jailed for two years for hooliganism for performing an anti-Putin song in Moscow's main cathedral in March 2012.

They were freed in an amnesty initiated by Mr Putin in December 2013 shortly before the Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi.

:: Vladimir Yevtushenkov

One of Russia's richest men, the billionaire was placed under house arrest in September on suspicion of money-laundering over his purchase of a controlling stake in oil company Bashneft.

He was released from house arrest on 17 December and was praised in Mr Putin's annual press conference two days later.

However, Kremlin critics say the case is part of a bid by the Russian government to regain control of oil and gas assets sold off in the chaotic privatisations of the 1990s.

The arrest has led to comparisons with the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

:: Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Mr Khodorkovsky was one of the original "oligarchs" - the tycoons who took advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s to make their fortunes, before using their clout to effectively rule Russia during the weak presidency of illness-plagued Boris Yeltsin.

In 2003 Mr Khodorkovsky was arrested on charges of fraud. He was jailed for nine years and his oil company Yukos broken up by the state. He and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, were put on trial again in 2010, this time for embezzlement, and were jailed for another four years. Mr Khodorkovsky was suddenly released in December 2013.

Both trials were seen as politically-motivated and a signal from Mr Putin to the rich and powerful to think twice before supporting opposition parties.

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Thousands Flee Volcano Eruption In Chile

One of South America's most active volcanos has erupted leading authorities to evacuate around 3,000 people from their homes.

The Villarrica volcano in southern Chile erupted at 3am local time sending heavy smoke billowing into the air and lava surging down its slopes.

The tall plumes of ash that spewed upwards stretched to 1.9 miles (3km) above sea level.

Authorities issued an orange alert yesterday due to increased volcanic activity which was later upgraded to red.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said she will travel to the local area and urged residents to remain calm.

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Gallery: Villarrica Volcano Erupts In Chile

Ash and lava spew from the Villarrica volcano in Chile, as seen from Pucon town in the south of Santiago

The volcano erupted in the early hours of Tuesday, sending a plume of ash and lava high into the sky, and forcing the evacuation of nearby communities

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Man On FBI's Most-Wanted Terror List Arrested

By Sky News US Team

A former taxi driver from Northern Virginia who was on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists has been captured in Somalia.

Liban Mohamed, 29, is charged with providing material support to al Qaeda and the Somali-based group al Shabaab.

He worked as a taxi driver in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County and has lived in other Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC.

The FBI believes Mohamed, who was born in Somalia but is a naturalised US citizen, left America in 2012.

It considered Mohamed's arrest a priority because of his knowledge of the nation's capital and its landmarks.

The man, currently in Somali custody, is one of about 30 people on the FBI's most-wanted list for terrorists.

The FBI has also described Mohamed as a "close associate" of Zachary Chesser, another Northern Virginia man who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for trying to join al Shabaab, an al Qaeda affiliate.

Chesser also made online threats against the creators of the South Park cartoon for an episode perceived as an insult to the prophet Mohammed.

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Iran Rebukes Obama Before Netanyahu Speech

By Sky News US Team

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to give a historic speech to the US Congress, just as the row over Iran's nuclear ambitions heats up.

Iran has labelled as "excessive and illogical" remarks by President Barack Obama about a possible deal with Israel's arch-foe over its uranium programme.

Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly attacked the Iran talks, and the White House is wary he may reveal specific details to US lawmakers.

On the eve of the speech, Mr Obama accused Mr Netanyahu of having previously made unfounded attacks on a 2013 interim pact with Iran.

"Netanyahu made all sorts of claims," he told Reuters on Monday. "This was going to be a terrible deal."

"This was going to result in Iran getting $50 billion worth of relief. Iran would not abide by the agreement. None of that has come true."

Mr Obama also said a minimum 10-year agreement offered the best hope of avoiding an atomic-armed Tehran.

But on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif branded Mr Obama's remarks "unacceptable".

He was speaking in Switzerland, where he and US Secretary of State John Kerry were meeting for a second day ahead of a 31 March deadline for a deal. Iran insists its programme is for civilian energy purposes.

About a quarter of Democratic lawmakers are expected to skip Mr Netanyahu's speech in protest.

The White House is displeased that it was not consulted in advance when the visit was arranged between congressional Republicans and the Israeli prime minister.

Mr Netanyahu said on Monday he meant no disrespect to Mr Obama by accepting the invitation.

By early Tuesday, about 60 of the 232 congressional Democrats said they planned to sit out the speech.

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the Republican whose invitation to Mr Netanyahu triggered the diplomatic crisis, said on Tuesday he expected a full house.

"America's bond with Israel is stronger than the politics of the moment," he said in a video message.

It was unclear if Mr Obama would tune in to the speech.

The White House has said the President will not meet Mr Netanyahu, citing the need not to show bias towards any candidate in Israel's 17 March elections.

Mr Netanyahu will join Winston Churchill as the only foreign leader to have addressed Congress three separate times.

The Republicans are presenting him with a bust of Britain's wartime prime minister in honour of the occasion.

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