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Tiger Woods apologises for the spitting incident that cost him a fine at the Dubai Desert Classic.

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An aide to the Russian judge who convicted Mikhail Khodorkovsky at his second trial last year has said he did not write his own verdict.

Judge Viktor Danilkin resented having to take orders from above during the trial of the former tycoon, Natalya Vasilyeva told Russian media.

The judge denied her allegations, describing them as slander.

The trial for fraud of Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev was widely condemned abroad as unfair.

Already in detention since 2003, he was sentenced to a further six years in prison and is not now due for release until 2017.

Under Russian law, it is for the judge alone to write his verdict, without any interference by other members of the judiciary.

According to Ms Vasilyeva, Judge Danilkin was indignant at having to take orders and was anxious and irritable because of it.

When asked for confirmation of what she had reportedly told Russian media, Ms Vasilyeva’s office said she was on holiday.

Speaking to Russian gazeta.ru, a widely read liberal Russian newspaper, she said that the judge had been under “total control”, constantly receiving instructions from the Moscow City Court.

Judge Danilkin began writing the sentence but it did not please his superiors, she said.

“As a result he received a different verdict which he was obliged to read out,” she told gazeta.ru.

“I know for a fact that the sentence was brought from Moscow City Court,” she said.

“And it is obvious that it was written by criminal case appeal judges, that’s to say, by Moscow City Court judges.”

Ms Vasilyeva said she knew the judges’ names but preferred not to give them.

The part of the verdict dealing with sentencing was delivered to Judge Danilkin while he was still reading out the verdict, she added.

Ms Vasilyeva said her information came from “people close to the judge” but she was unable to say how the alleged additional parts of the sentence were passed to the judge.

She said her duties at Moscow’s Khamovnichesky Court, where the trial took place, were assistant to the judge and court press secretary.

She told gazeta.ru she did not expect to continue in her post at the court after the interview.

Responding to his assistant’s allegations, Judge Danilkin told Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency: “I am sure that the statement by Natalya Vasilyeva is nothing but slander and can be denied through a legal process.”

Moscow City Court spokeswoman Anna Usacheva described Ms Vasilyeva’s comments as a “provocation” and a “well-planned PR act” ahead of the court’s review of an appeal of the verdict.

“I am sure that Natalya Vasilyeva will yet renounce her comments,” Ms Usacheva added.

Khodorkovsky, once seen as a political threat to former President Vladimir Putin, was found guilty along with Lebedev at the end of December of stealing billions of dollars from their own oil firm, Yukos, and laundering the proceeds.

The defence had argued that the charges were absurd since the amount of oil said to have been embezzled would be equivalent to the entire production of Yukos in the period concerned.

The US state department said at the time that Washington was concerned by the apparent “abusive use of the legal system for improper ends, particularly now that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have been sentenced to the maximum penalty”.

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A priest has told mourners at the funeral of one of the victims of the Cork air crash that it was a dreadful accident which had left six families bereft of their loved ones.

Pat Cullinan, 45, originally from Omagh, was a partner in accountancy firm KPMG in Belfast.

Requiem mass for Mr Cullinan is being held at St Patrick’s Church in Cranagh, outside Plumbridge.

The funeral of Brendan McAleese, who also died, will be held later.

His funeral service will be held in Tannaghmore, County Antrim.

The plane was travelling from the City Airport in Belfast when the tragedy happened on Thursday morning.

Three people from Northern Ireland were among those who died.

A representative of the Irish president attended requiem mass for Pat Cullinan.

He was described as an extraordinary, kind and charitable gentleman. Sympathy was extended to all the other victims families.

Earlier, local parish priest, Joseph O’Connor said Mr Cullinan’s family were “shattered” following his death.

Mr Cullinan’s colleague, Jon D’Arcy, Chairman of KPMG in Belfast said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with Pat’s family and friends at this terribly sad time.

“He was highly regarded by all of his colleagues and clients and his tragic and untimely death has come as a shock to everyone in the firm, especially to those in our Belfast office and to all who knew Pat as an exceptional friend and colleague.”

Tom McBride is a cousin of Mr Cullinan’s and said he was “first and foremost, a very dedicated, loving family person”.

“He was one of a family of five and never forgot his roots.

“He was always a quiet but very well-focused individual, who clearly had objectives and goals in sight, and went after them in a very quiet and dignified way. I don’t think anybody is surprised by how well he did in his professional career.”

Brendan McAleese, 39, who was originally from Tannaghmore, County Antrim, owned the Central Laundries business in Cookstown, County Tyrone, and was married with a young family.

A funeral service for Mr McAleese will be held at St MacNissius Church in Tannaghmore.

He was a cousin of the Irish President Mary McAleese’s husband Martin.

Mrs McAleese, who will be at the funeral, paid tribute to him, saying he was a fine and loving husband, father, son and brother.

“No words can ease their pain but I hope they draw some small comfort from knowing that our thoughts and prayers, both here and in homes throughout the country, are with them at this darkest hour,” she said.

South Antrim assembly member, Thomas Burns, attended the McAleese family home on Sunday and will also be at the funeral service.

He said the family were in “great distress”, but “were holding up well”.

“Brendan McAleese was a very successful business person, but he was also a tremendous family person,” he added.

“It is a very close and tight community in Tannaghmore and they all feel very much for the McAleese family.

“Everyone has only the highest praise for Brendan, he was a loveable character.”

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Anglo-American jazz pianist Sir George Shearing, best known for his song Lullaby of Birdland, has died in New York aged 91 of heart failure.

Blind from birth, he began his career in London before moving to the US in 1947 and becoming one of the best known jazz pianists of the post-war era.

Made an OBE in 1996 and knighted in 2007, he was renowned for his unusual “locked hands” style of playing.

Nat King Cole and Peggy Lee were among the music stars he worked with.

Sir George played for three US presidents as well as the Queen and led his own quintet for decades.

He was still performing into his 80s but suffered a serious fall in 2004 that led to months in hospital and nursing home care.

The previous year he had received a lifetime achievement honour at the BBC Jazz awards.

At the time of his knighthood, Sir George spoke fondly of his early years “playing in a pub for the equivalent of $5 a week”.

“Receiving such an honour as a knighthood might also show young people what can be achieved in life if one learns his craft and follows his dreams,” he added.

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Education Secretary Michael Gove should play no part in a review of cancelled school building projects ordered by a High Court judge, Labour has said.

Mr Gove was told to reconsider his decision to scrap the Building Schools for the Future scheme in six areas after it was ruled he had unlawfully failed to consult councils.

Shadow education secretary Andy Burnham said it was a “damning verdict”.

But Mr Gove said his decisions had been “clear and rational”.

The axing of the £55bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme in July last year means that at least 700 planned school rebuilding projects in England will not go ahead.

Mr Burnham has written to Prime Minister David Cameron, asking him to remove Mr Gove from any role in deciding the project’s future following Friday’s High Court ruling.

The education secretary answered an urgent question in the Commons on Monday.

He insisted he would approach the issue in an “open-minded” way, adding that the the judicial review had found in the government’s favour on the substantive issues.

Responding to the question from Labour’s John Cryer, Mr Gove said: “It was, of course, deeply regrettable that any building projects had to be cancelled.

“But the scale of the deficit we inherited meant cuts were inevitable and the inefficiency which characterised BSF schemes meant we needed a new approach.”

The challenges – by Waltham Forest Council, Luton Borough Council, Nottingham City Council, Sandwell Council, Kent County Council and Newham Council – related to the revamp or rebuild of 58 schools which, if allowed to go ahead, would have cost the government £1bn.

They argued they had had a legitimate expectation that the projects would be funded.

But Mr Gove told MPs that Mr Justice Holman’s advice “makes clear the decisions I made were clear and rational”.

He added: “The judge has not ordered a reinstatement of funding for any BSF project. Nor has he ordered me to pay compensation to any of the claimants.”

The judge ruled that Mr Gove must give each of the authorities involved an “opportunity to make representations”.

Mr Burnham said: “We urgently now need an independent inquiry into Michael Gove’s handling of this whole sorry saga. All relevant paperwork should be disclosed so that people can see what advice was given by civil servants and how these decisions were taken.

“We hear reports that Michael Gove overruled civil servants who warned that errors were likely and ignored legal advice – this is no way to run a department of state.

“The judge requested that the minister reconsider the decisions “with an open mind”. By his reaction, Mr Gove has shown that his mind is firmly made up.

“That is why, in the interests of fairness, I am calling on the prime minister to remove Michael Gove from any role in the re-run of this decision.”

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Convicted murderer Colin Howell has told a court what led him to confess to the murders of his wife and the policeman husband of his then mistress.

Howell, 51, began giving evidence at Coleraine Crown Court on Monday in the murder trial of his former lover Hazel Stewart.

Howell has already pleaded guilty to killing his wife Lesley and Trevor Buchanan.

Hazel Stewart, 47, denies the 1991 double murder.

Howell explained why he had confessed to the crimes, which he originally staged to look like a suicide pact.

The former dentist, who is serving a 21-year sentence at Maghaberry prison, had poisoned the pair as they slept.

He then tried to make it look as if they had taken their own lives in a suicide pact.

“I just knew that the time had come that the truth had to be told,” Howell told the court on Monday.

“I was overwhelmed by my conscience from hiding those crimes for such a long time.

“I believed there still were scars that needed to be put right and I wanted to tell the truth, that was my only motive.”

The bodies of Mrs Howell, 31, and Mr Buchanan, 32, were found in a fume-filled garage in the seaside town of Castlerock.

Mrs Stewart, from Ballystrone Road, Coleraine, denies entering into a joint-enterprise with Howell to murder their respective partners.

She told police it was his plan and that she wanted nothing to do with it.

Howell recalled in court how and why his affair with Stewart had developed in 1990.

He claimed he and his wife Lesley had relationship problems before their marriage in 1983 and that these had deteriorated as the years passed.

Howell claimed his wife had started to express doubts about why they had got married in the first place and that he had lost his motivation and “began to look around”.

“We came into the marriage with unhappiness between us but we both sincerely wanted it to work, but it didn’t,” he added.

Howell said his unhappiness grew when his wife was pregnant with their youngest two children Daniel and Jonathan in the late 1980s – a time, he said, when he had to shoulder more responsibility in terms of the family.

“Lesley was very astute and intelligent, a match for me, so there were often arguments and debates and she generally got the upper hand,” he said.

He said this had made him feel insecure and he wanted to “look for someone who approved of me”.

“That’s probably part of the reason for having an affair with Hazel – the attention I got,” he said.

Howell said he had got to know Stewart, who also attended his church, when she worked as an assistant in the playgroup his children attended.

He said they grew closer when they both took their children for swimming lessons.

“She approached me and said she was impressed with the way I was doing my front crawl,” he said.

“That she would like to do it the way I did because she had problems breathing.”

Howell said he gave her a few lessons and on the third he recalled running his hand across her stomach.

“She didn’t object,” he said.

Howell said he then apologised and admitted he was not having “innocent thoughts” about her.

“She said ‘Well, I’m not that innocent myself’ and she swam away,” he added.

Howell said the affair developed into a sexual relationship weeks later when he went round to her house on the pretence of teaching Stewart the guitar.

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David Cameron will say it is his “mission in politics” to make the Big Society succeed – amid claims it is being wrecked by spending cuts.

In a speech to social entrepreneurs in London, the prime minister will vow not to “back down” over negative headlines.

And he will set out details of how a £200m Big Society bank to fund voluntary projects will work.

But critics say the fund will not be nearly enough to make up for cuts in local authority funding.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, became the latest public figure to enter the debate on Sunday, warning that investment in public services is needed if the Big Society was to succeed.

“I think everybody has got to be concerned,” he told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show.

“The Big Society, which is right, has got to build capacity and investment has got to go into it.”

Sir Stephen Bubb, who heads the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, said charities and social enterprises were already having to make redundancies and scale back their work.

He told Sky News: “You can hardly build a bigger society if the very people at the heart of that vision are cutting back on the work they do.”

But in his speech on Monday, Mr Cameron will insist the policy is still on course.

“Let me make one thing absolutely clear: I’m not going to back down from what I believe in just because of a few bad headlines.

“The Big Society is my mission in politics. It’s what I want us – as a country – to build. Together. And I’m going to fight for it every day, because the Big Society is here to stay.”

He will blame years of “Big Government” for creating a “broken society” in which people have “become incapable of taking their own decisions and taking responsibility for their lives”.

“The Big Society is how we’ll fix our broken society, how we’ll strengthen families, how we’ll bring communities together,” the PM will say.

And he will add: “The Big Society is not a government initiative. It’s about giving you the initiative – to take control of your life and work with friends, neighbours and colleagues to improve things around you.”

Mr Cameron is expected to announce details of a Big Society bank, which will use money from dormant bank accounts to inject £200m in working capital projects approved by the government.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “The Big Society Bank’s purpose is to help provide start up capital so that charities and social enterprises can increase their scale and take up the opportunities offered by opening up public services. This market is potentially worth billions of pounds.”

On Sunday, Labour leader Ed Miliband said government cuts had made the Big Society a “failure” – because people could not volunteer at libraries and Sure Start centres which had closed.

And shadow office minister Tessa Jowell said the fact Mr Cameron had to defend the policy proved all the problems identified with it were true.

“It’s too vague, that people don’t understand what it means, centrally that you cannot combine greater responsibility for civil society, voluntary and community organisation, with cuts in the money that support them to do the work that they do.”

But, in an interview with BBC1’s Politics Show, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude angrily rejected the Labour leader’s claim.

He said: “It’s such a silly thing to say because actually there is so much going on, there are so many ways in which people can get involved and do get involved.

“We have got to look at ways of doing things differently. The idea that you’ve got to have your Sure Start centre and your library and everything all in separate places because otherwise there won’t be places for people to volunteer is simply absurd.

“It’s such an old-fashioned way of looking at things.”

Mr Maude hinted that a promised £100m “transition fund” – to help groups hit by cuts – could be extended.

And he hit back at claims that the government had been unable to communicate to the public what the Big Society actually meant.

“I would say we have had a huge communication success because everyone is talking about it,” he said.

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Artist portrays year in shadowy world of MI6

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A warning over shisha-smoking has been issued after a teenage cafe owner from Lancashire caused an explosion while lighting his pipe with a blow-torch.

Blackburn with Darwen Council said it would “prosecute anyone” smoking on premises as it was both “dangerous” and illegal.

Mohammed Wasim Natha, 19, of BBQ Base in Darwen Street, Blackburn admitted breaching health and safety laws.

He was fined £2,000 at Blackburn Magistrates’ Court.

Natha, who suffered flash burns when gas leaking from a canister nearby exploded, was also ordered to pay £2,000 costs.

Shisha pipes or hookahs are filled with flavoured and aromatic tobaccos but must be smoked outdoors since the smoking ban was introduced in July 2007.

Councillor Arshid Mahmood said: “The defendant did not heed the warnings that health and safety officers had given him in an effort to assist the company.

“As a result, there was a serious risk both to public safety and employees. There was lack of awareness about the requirement of health and safety regulations which are in place for both the protection of staff and the public.

“I hope this case acts as a warning to anyone else who allows shisha-smoking on their premises. It is not only dangerous but we will prosecute anyone we catch breaking the law.”

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The heaviest snowfall in more than a century on South Korea’s east coast is causing widespread chaos.

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