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Drivers in England will get 10 minutes’ grace before being fined if they stay too long in council-owned car parking spaces, the government has announced.

It is one of several changes, expected to take effect later this month, which include new restrictions on the use of CCTV cars issuing automatic fines.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said he wanted to end the «war on drivers».

But councils said many already allowed 10 minutes’ leeway and raised concerns about the safety of other changes.

The changes include:

• guidance for councils reminding them they are banned from «using parking to generate profit»
• a right for residents and businesses to demand – by a petition – that a council «reviews parking in their area»
• new powers for parking adjudicators so they can «hold councils to account»
• protection to stop drivers being fined after parking at out-of-order meters
• a ban on the use of CCTV «spy cars» except in no-parking areas such as bus lanes and near schools

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Several EU politicians and Russia’s opposition leader have been barred from attending the funeral of murdered Russian politician Boris Nemtsov.

A Polish politician was denied a visa under existing Russian sanctions while a Latvian MEP was turned back after arriving at a Moscow airport.

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was denied permission to leave jail, where he is serving a 15-day sentence.

Mourners are filing past Nemtsov’s coffin at Moscow’s Sakharov centre.

His funeral will be held in the afternoon (local time) at a Moscow cemetery, Troyekurovskoye, where murdered journalist Anna Politkovskayta was buried in 2006.

Nemtsov, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, was killed on a bridge near the Kremlin wall on Friday night.

No arrests have been made and no clear motive has been established for the crime.

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In the absence of any arrest or claim of responsibility, there are multiple theories for the murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.

Was he killed because he opposed the policies of President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s alleged covert war in Ukraine? Was he cut down in full view of the Kremlin in an attempt to discredit Russia’s leaders or even intimidate them, or incite a rebellion against them? Perhaps it was an opportunistic attack by someone harbouring a grudge?

Here are some of the principal theories about how might be behind the killing.

President Vladimir Putin

On the face of it, Nemtsov was a well-known, media-friendly, veteran opposition politician who was just days from leading an anti-war rally in Moscow (cancelled after his death).

«If you support stopping Russia’s war with Ukraine, if you support stopping Putin’s aggression, come to the Spring March in Maryino [a Moscow suburb] on 1 March,» he wrote in a social media post, published hours before he was shot (in Russian).

According to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Nemtsov was planning to publish «some persuasive evidence about the involvement of Russian armed forces in Ukraine».

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Aimen Dean is a founder member of al-Qaeda, who changed tack in 1998 and became a spy for Britain’s security and intelligence services, MI5 and MI6. Interviewed by Peter Marshall, he describes his years working in Afghanistan and London as one of the West’s most valuable assets in the fight against militant Islam.

Bosnia

Dean was brought up in Saudi Arabia, where opposition to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s made military jihad a noble concept. He was a teenager when Yugoslavia splintered, and Bosnian Muslims found themselves in mortal danger from Serb nationalists. He and a friend, Khalid al-Hajj – later to become the leader of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia – set off to become mujahideen.

I would say it was the most eye-opening experience I ever had. I was a bookish nerd from Saudi Arabia just weeks ago and then suddenly I find myself prancing up on the mountains of Bosnia holding an AK-47 feeling a sense of immense empowerment – and the feeling that I was participating in writing history rather than just watching history on the side.

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Iran should agree to freeze sensitive nuclear activity for at least a decade if it wants to strike a deal with the US, President Barack Obama has said.

However, the odds are against talks with Iran ending with an agreement, Mr Obama told Reuters news agency.

Negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme are at a critical stage, with an outline agreement due on 31 March.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to urge the US Congress on Tuesday to oppose a deal.

He was invited to speak at the US Capitol by Republican House Speaker John Boehner, angering Democrats.

Mr Netanyahu – who faces domestic elections in two weeks’ time – will not meet Mr Obama during his visit to the US.

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