Deputy PM Nick Clegg's pledge to retain island seats in the UK parliament has been welcomed in Scotland.

He plans to cut the number of MPs from 650 to 600 and review constituencies before the 2015 election.
The Boundary Commission is to be asked to redraw the constituency map, so each has roughly the same number of voters
However, Orkney and Shetland and the Western Isles would be exempt because they were "uniquely placed given their locations", Mr Clegg told MPs.
It had been feared that the island seats - which are small in terms of population - could disappear and that this would lead to their distinctive needs not being represented to the same extent in the UK Parliament.
SNP MP for Na h-Eileanan Iar, Angus MacNeil MP, said the announcement was a "victory for common sense".
"I have long argued that island constituencies are unique and cannot be parcelled up into neat population bundles in the same way as inner city seats," Mr MacNeil said.
"The announcement by the UK Government today is welcome recognition of this."
The leader of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Angus Campbell, said it was "good news for the Western Isles".
He said: "I am pleased that the Government has recognised the case that the Comhairle has made.
"If we had been tagged on to the west coast of Scotland the geography would have made it very difficult for an MP to properly represent constituents in such a spread out area. This is a common sense decision that will be warmly welcomed throughout the Western Isles."


A 40-year-old accountant has been named the new Ooni of Ife - a revered monarch in south-west Nigeria.

Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi is the new king, one of the most influential among the Yoruba people, Nigeria's second biggest ethnic group, who number about 35 million in West Africa.
He is a prince from one of the ruling houses in the Ife kingdom.
The previous Ooni of Ife, Oba Sijuwade, died in a London clinic in July aged 85.
Mr Ogunwusi was selected from 21 candidates who included his older brother.
The BBC's Chris Ewokor in Abuja says the selection criteria have not been made public.
Traditionally, kingmakers from within the family choose the Ooni of Ife from descendents of the Yoruba god Oduduwa in consultation with their oracle, known as Ifa.
Mr Ogunwusi will be one of the youngest traditional rulers in Nigeria, our reporter says.
Ooni of Ife:
Nigeria's many monarchs


Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson gave a joint press conference on Tuesday with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

The claim: Boris Johnson says his remarks have been taken out of context.
Reality Check verdict: The comment about President Obama looks slightly better with full context. The remarks about Hillary Clinton do not.
An American journalist asked him about some of his comments about President Barack Obama and Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
"There is such a rich thesaurus now of things that I have said that have been, one way or another, through what alchemy I do not know, somehow misconstrued, that it would really take me too long to engage in a full global itinerary of apology to all concerned," he said.
"I think most people who read these things in their proper context can see exactly what was intended."
Let's have a look at what the US journalist accused Mr Johnson of having said.
The claim: Mr Johnson said, wrongly, that President Obama did not want a bust of Churchill in the White House and harboured a part-Kenyan's "ancestral dislike for the British Empire".
The reality: In an article in the Sun newspaper, Mr Johnson says a bust of Winston Churchill was removed from the Oval Office and returned to the British Embassy on the day President Obama moved in, although he does add: "No-one was sure whether the president had himself been involved in the decision."
But, referring to an article in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson then says: "Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan president's ancestral dislike of the British Empire - of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender."
In-between the publication of the Daily Telegraph article and that of the one in the Sun, the White House said a bust of Winston Churchill had been prominently displayed outside the Treaty Room of the White House residence since the 1960s.
But a copy of that bust, lent by then Prime Minister Tony Blair to then US President George W Bush while the original was undergoing repair, had been removed from the Oval Office.
"On 20 January 2009, inauguration day, all of the art lent specifically for President Bush's Oval Office was removed by the curator's office, as is common practice at the end of every presidency," it said.
The claim: Mr Johnson described Hillary Clinton as someone with "dyed blonde hair and pouty lips and a steely blue stare like the sadistic nurse in a mental hospital" and likened her to Lady Macbeth.
The reality:  In an article in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson says: "She's got dyed blonde hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital.
"How could I possibly emit the merest peep of support for a woman who seems to have acted out the role of first lady, from 1993 to 2000, like a mixture between Cherie Blair and Lady Macbeth, stamping her heel, bawling out subordinates and frisbeeing ashtrays at her erring husband?"
The full article is actually an argument that Mrs Clinton should be president because Bill Clinton would make such a good "first husband".
But the support for her candidacy might not be considered be enough context to overcome the obvious insults.
Read more: The facts behind claims about our relationship with the EU


A Nottinghamshire school once rated as outstanding is about to be placed in special measures, the BBC understands.

St Edmund Campion Catholic Primary School, in West Bridgford, is expected to be criticised in an Ofsted report which is due to be published shortly.
Problems first emerged in January when the head teacher was suspended.
The South Nottingham Catholic Academy Trust, which runs the school, has declined to comment ahead of the report's publication.
St Edmund Campion is one of the top performing primary schools in the country.
In last summer's Sats exams, the 405-pupil school had a 100% attainment in reading, writing and maths.
Longstanding head Dorothy Longley was replaced at the beginning of the year but the trust declined to give an explanation.
The trust has now reportedly dissolved the board of governors.
Outside the school, parents expressed sympathy for Mrs Longley but complained about a lack of information.
They highlighted receiving only two emails since January, one to confirm the removal of the head and another to state no more detail could be released.
Duncan Emerson, who has two daughters at the school and has helped to set up a petition demanding answers from the trust, said he was "shocked and disappointed" at the news.
He said: "I am really unhappy the school is going into special measures but clearly we do not know what the investigation has found because we have no official information.
"I do think the trust has some question to ask about how they prepared the school for the Ofsted inspection but my main source of disappointment is the way this situation has been handled by the trust and indeed the Diocese of Nottingham."
He added: "We have been met with a wall of silence."
The trust and diocese said: "(We) do not comment on rumour but look forward to the post inspection report's publication and will respond to the report once it has been published".


Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the arrest of his predecessor's security adviser, for allegedly stealing some $2bn (£1.3bn).

Sambo Dasuki is accused of awarding phantom contracts to buy 12 helicopters, four fighter jets and ammunition. He denies the allegations.
The equipment was meant for the fight against Boko Haram Islamist militants.
Soldiers have complained that despite the military's huge budget, they were ill-equipped to fight.
Mr Dasuki reacted to the order by saying he had never been invited to appear before the weapon procurement investigative panel, which made the allegations.
He was already under house arrest when the president issued the order for his arrest.
This was as part of an ongoing trial for allegedly possessing illegal firearms.
The court for that trial had ordered for his passport to be released for him to be able to travel to the UK for treatment for suspected prostate cancer.
It was expected that the trial would continue on his return. But the government refused to let him leave the country.
Before he got into power in May, Mr Buhari vowed to investigate corruption in the previous government, in which Mr Dasuki served.
The BBC's Bashir Sa'ad Abdullahi says soldiers have reported they are better equipped since President Buhari came into office, but the previous president's supporters say this is because those weapons were ordered while Goodluck Jonathan was in power.
A spokesman for Mr Buhari said the corruption resulted in the needless deaths of thousands of Nigerians.
Boko Haram has killed thousands in north-eastern Nigeria in its campaign to create an Islamic state.
In the latest militant attack, at least 32 people were killed by a suicide bomber on a vegetable market  in the north-eastern city of Yola on Tuesday night.
This led Facebook to activate its safety check feature for the first time following an attack in Nigeria.


A jury has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of a police marksman who shot and killed a suspected armed robber 10 years ago.

Azelle Rodney, 24, was killed in Mill Hill, north London, in April 2005, the Old Bailey heard.
Anthony Long opened fire on Mr Rodney after his police car pulled up in an operation to foil an attempted robbery.
Mr Long, who says he believed his colleagues were in "imminent" danger, denies murder.


Prince Charles has said the 1979 IRA murder of Lord Mountbatten gave him a profound understanding of how people affected by the Troubles suffered.

The prince will later visit the County Sligo village of Mullaghmore where his great-uncle and three others died.
"I look forward to seeing at last the place that he so loved, and to meeting its inhabitants," he said.
Prince Charles spoke of the compassion shown by people in the area after Lord Mountbatten was killed.
"Their loving kindness has done much to aid the healing process," he told a civic reception.
The prince will visit the scene of the IRA explosion on the second day of his four-day visit to the island of Ireland, north and south.
The IRA detonated a bomb on a fishing boat at Mullaghmore on 27 August 1979, killing Lord Mountbatten, his 14-year-old grandson, Nicholas Knatchbull, and 15-year-old Paul Maxwell. The Dowager Lady Brabourne died the day after the attack.
On the same day, 18 British soldiers were killed as two booby-trap bombs exploded beside Narrow Water Castle, near Warrenpoint in County Down.
Speaking ahead of his visit to Mullaghmore, the prince told a civic reception in Sligo: "At the time I could not imagine how we could come to terms with the anguish of such a deep loss, since for me Lord Mountbatten represented the grandfather I never had.
"It seemed as if the foundations of all that we held dear in life had been torn apart irreparably.
"Through this experience, I now understand in a profound way the agonies borne by so many others in these islands, of whatever faith, denomination or political tradition."
Louis Mountbatten, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, has been described as uncle and godfather to the Prince of Wales. In fact he was neither.
Lord Mountbatten was Prince Charles's great-uncle, through his father. He was also second cousin once removed to the Queen.
His mother was one of the prince's godparents.
As well as his close links to the Royal Family, Lord Mountbatten was a British statesman. He served as the last Viceroy of India and was appointed as the First Sea Lord and Chief of the Defence Staff.
He would spend his summers at Classiebawn castle, overlooking Mullaghmore in County Sligo, a family house of his wife Edwina.
Lord Mountbatten: life and death.
The prince said the island of Ireland had "more than its fair share of turbulence and troubles", and "those directly affected don't easily forget the pain".
"Recent years have shown us though that healing is possible, even when the heartache continues," he said.
Prince Charles spoke of the importance of reconciliation.
"I'm only too deeply aware of the long history of suffering which Ireland has endured, not just in recent decades but over the course of its history," he said.
"It is a history which I know has caused much pain and much resentment, in a world of imperfect human beings, where it is always too easy to overgeneralise and to attribute blame.
"At the end of the day however, we should never forget that our acquaintance has been long, and we can turn that knowing into something new and creative.
"We need no longer be victims of our difficult history with each other."
During his visit to Mullaghmore, Prince Charles is expected to meet the mother of Paul Maxwell from Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, who had been working on Lord Mountbatten's fishing vessel.
Mary Hornsey said the royal visit was "extending the hand of forgiveness".
Ms Hornsey has not returned to the scene of her son's death since saying "goodbye" to Mullaghmore in 1979 but has decided to accept an invitation to meet Prince Charles on Wednesday.
"I think it is going to be very emotional for me, but I know it has to be done," she told BBC Radio Ulster.
"It is going to be a time of reconciliation and I hope that good will come of it."
Ms Hornsey said she felt she had "some kind of bond" with the prince as they had both lost loved ones in the same attack.
"I feel that he is making a statement in coming," she said.
"He is extending the hand of friendship and forgiveness, and I think that is very important. Every little step counts, and when we get more steps it will be even better."
Recalling her son's murder, Ms Hornsey said it was a "beautiful summer morning" and she and her husband were sitting outside their holiday cottage when the bomb exploded.
"Suddenly there was this almighty bang. I've never heard anything quite like it in my life, and I knew immediately Paul was dead," Ms Hornsey said.
"My husband at the time said: 'Don't be so silly' and he decided to go down to the harbour.  He thought perhaps there might have been a gas leak at the castle or something like that.  He went down and of course, that great tragedy unfolded."
She added: "Just knowing he would never be here again - that was awful, so hard."
Ms Hornsey said she constantly thinks about her lost son, the type of man he would have become and how he would have looked after her as she got older.
"I do think that I have become a stronger person because of the awful tragedy, but I have paid an awful price for that," she added.
The prince's visit to Mullaghmore comes a day after he shook hands with the Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in Galway.
Ms Hornsey described the prince's meeting with Mr Adams as "a very good thing".
General Sir Mike Jackson served with the Parachute Regiment, of which Prince Charles is Colonel-in-Chief.
"It would be hard I think to overstate the significance of such a meeting," he said.
"I listened very carefully to Prince Charles' words and they were very moving. And we should remember also it follows on from the Queen's extraordinary state visit to the Republic [of Ireland]."
When asked on BBC's Talkback programme would he be prepared to follow the example of the Prime Minister David Cameron who apologised in parliament for the actions of British paratroopers on Bloody Sunday, Mr Jackson said although he associated himself with what Mr Cameron had said, he said he would fall short of using the word sorry himself.
Fourteen civilians died in 1972 after paratroopers opened fire on crowds during a civil rights demonstration.
Sir Mike said there had been tragedies experienced by both sides during Northern Ireland's Troubles and singled out the killing of 18 British soldiers when two booby-trap bombs exploded beside Narrow Water Castle, near Warrenpoint in County Down.
The attack happened on the same day as the killing of Lord Mountbatten in Mullaghmore.
Speaking after his handshake with Prince Charles, the Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said it was "obviously was a big thing for him to do and a big thing for us to do".
After their private meeting, Mr Adams said Prince Charles felt able to empathise with other people who had suffered during the 40 years of violence on the island of Ireland.
"I think it was good that he's come here and I think it's good that he has come to Mullaghmore, and I think it's good that we met," he said.
On the second day of the royal couple's visit to the island of Ireland, they have also been attending a service of peace and reconciliation at St Columba's Church in Drumcliffe, where they visited the grave of Irish poet WB Yeats.
Among a choir of secondary school students performing at the ceremony was Bethany McLoughlin, whose grandfather Gerard McKinney was one of 13 people killed by paratroopers in Londonderry during a civil rights march on Bloody Sunday in January 1972.
The 17-year-old Ursuline Convent pupil was chosen by coincidence to join singers from local schools. Her father Gerard McLoughlin said he believed it was an opportunity for further reconciliation.
After the service, Prince Charles planted a tree at the church in memory of Lord Mountbatten.
The prince and the duchess will end the second day of their visit with some horseracing at the Sligo Races.


A "crisis" has now been reached in teacher training in Wales, according to the Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood.

On Sunday, a union warned of a risk of a crisis as targets for trainee teacher numbers in secondary schools and for PGCEs were both missed in 2015-16.
Ms Wood told AMs on Tuesday Plaid had previously warned of a "perfect storm" on the matter and "the crisis is now".
Welsh ministers said taking control of teaching pay and conditions, in 2018, was "crucial" to addressing the matter.
"Back in April Plaid Cymru warned that we are heading for a perfect storm - we are now in the middle of that storm," Ms Wood said.
"The secondary school intake for trainee teachers has dropped a third below the target. The crisis is here and the crisis in now."
The Plaid leader said Wales was currently short of "around 280" secondary school teachers and that a third of current teachers intended to leave the teaching within the next three years.
First Minister Carwyn Jones said he wanted to get the "right package in place" for teachers, when powers over their pay and conditions were transferred from Westminster next year.
He said he wanted "a holistic package" for the profession.
"Next year we will have the opportunity and the responsibility of controlling teachers' pay and conditions," Mr Jones said.
"We want to work with the teaching unions to put forward a package which makes teaching more attractive for perhaps it has been for some people in the past.
"Getting control of pay and conditions is absolutely crucial to that."
The first minister added: "It's always been a strange anomaly that we have responsibility for education but not for pay and conditions.
"That's at the heart of delivering a good deal for teachers and that's what we intend to do."


A man arrested in connection with more than 30 sex offences is wanted by police after he failed to answer bail.

Adam Day, 40, from Leeds, was arrested in 2013 for offences relating to sexual assault and indecent images.
Police believe he has connections with Norfolk and Worcester and was last known to be in the Brighton area.
West Yorkshire Police said he could be living in tents and busking in town and city centres across West Yorkshire and Norfolk.
He is described as white, about 5ft 7ins tall and of average build with short brown hair, a goatee beard and blue eyes.
Det Sup Pat Twiggs, of West Yorkshire Police, said: "We believe he is living a transient lifestyle, sleeping in tents and busking for money or working in cash-in-hand jobs."
He appealed for anyone with information to contact the Leeds Child Safeguarding Unit on 0113 385 9474.


Reading have signed Northern Ireland midfielder Rachel Furness from Women's Super League One rivals Sunderland.

The 28-year-old is the first player to leave the Lady Black Cats since the top-flight club announced it would revert to being a part-time club.
Furness, who had two spells over 12 years at Sunderland, joins Reading on a contract until June 2018.
"Rachel is a brilliant addition to our squad and she brings great experience," said Reading boss Kelly Chambers.


Eight military sites in Scotland will close in the next 16 years, cutting the defence estate by 20%, the UK defence secretary has announced.

Sir Michael Fallon said major Army bases at Fort George in the Highlands, Glencorse Barracks, near Penicuik, and Redford Cavalry and Infantry Barracks in Edinburgh would shut.
Stirling's Meadowforth Barracks and three other bases will also close.
They are among 56 sites which will shut across the UK.
Naval base MoD Caledonia in Rosyth, Craigiehall Barracks in Edinburgh and Forthside Barracks in Stirling will also be shut down.
Fort George, near Ardersier, will close as an active barracks in 2032.
The 18th Century artillery fort currently houses soldiers from the Black Watch (3 SCOTS).
The Black Watch battalion currently stationed there will be moved to another base in Scotland.
But Sir Michael also announced that Kinloss Barracks in Moray is to remain open for the foreseeable future.
The closing dates for the bases are Meadowforth Barracks - 2022, Redford Cavalry Barracks - 2022, Redford Infantry Barracks - 2022, Fort George - 2032, Glencorse Barracks - 2032, MoD Caledonia - 2022, Forthside Stirling - 2022, Craigiehall Scottish Army HQ - 2018.
The defence secretary told the Commons that the defence estate was ''vital, but too vast'' and too inefficient, and that the closures would help to deliver better value for money and allow the release of land to build 55,000 houses "where they are needed most".
He added: "We have been spending billions maintaining a defence estate that doesn't meet the needs of our Armed Forces. This plan delivers an estate fit for our forces and their families.
"By putting money where it is needed, we will provide better facilities to train our Armed Forces and deliver more stability for military families."
The SNP's defence spokesman at Westminster, Brendan O'Hara, said Scotland's defence facilities had been "hollowed out and sold out" because of the UK government's "obsession" with nuclear weapons.
Sir Michael responded by saying that the government was investing more in Scotland, with additional personnel being stationed at RAF Lossiemouth and work on eight Royal Navy frigates to begin on the Clyde next year.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney described the closures as "a huge blow" for Scotland.
He said: "Our defence footprint has been worn away through successive cuts, so it is unacceptable that the UK government has announced a near 20% reduction to our defence footprint. This comes just three years after the last Army Basing Plan, billed as offering stability and certainty.
"These brutal cuts spell the near total removal of the Army from large parts of Scotland and the end of the Royal Navy's presence in Fife. It is deeply distressing to witness the announcement to close truly historic sites, such as Glencorse, home to the Army for almost 150 years, and Fort George, a garrison for almost 250 years."
Margaret Davidson, leader of Highland Council, said the withdrawal of the Army from Fort George would take Â£20m out of the local economy.
Local businesses supply the site and there are about 200 armed forces families connected to the base.
Ms Davidson said: "Fort George is a huge symbol in Highland life. It is a presence of the Army in our community. It is going to be a great loss."
What currently goes on behind the imposing walls at Fort George?
It is summer-time, and on a parade ground inside Fort George a soldier from the Crimean War is relaxing and tucking into a Cornetto.
Elsewhere, Roman legionnaires, chainmail clad knights, Jacobite fighters and government red coats mingle with young families and overseas tourists who have poured over a draw bridge into the fortification.
In an arena, the crowd is entertained by demonstrations of Viking raids and infantry drills from hundreds of years ago.
Read more here.
Major General Alastair Dickinson, who is the director of Army basing and infrastructure, described the announcement as "the right thing to do" from a military perspective.
He said: "It's incredibly sad and we're very conscious of this but the reality is - let's take Fort George as an example - we've got 21st Century soldiers. They need 21st Century equipment. They need 21st Century training and they need 21st Century accommodation.
"Fort George is a great monument. It's a great tourist attraction, but it's a listed building and it's very difficult to get it to the point where we can have 21st Century living and as a result we have got to move.
"From a military sense I think this is the right thing to do. We've got an estate that's too big. We've got to do something about it and we are doing.
"The way that this will work is that we will use three hubs of specialism and centres of capability. What we'll be able to do is put two or three regiments and the same sort of individuals together."
The Scottish government, SNP MPs and MSPs, Highland Council and the Moray Firth Partnership had been campaigning against the closure of the Fort George base after it emerged that the site formed part of a Ministry of Defence review of the UK's defence estate, along with Kinloss.
Fort George is managed by the Ministry of Defence and Scottish government agency, Historic Environment Scotland.
Large parts of the historic site are open to the public and more than 55,000 visitors take tours of the fortification every year.
The role of Fort George has been examined in previous rounds of defence cuts, including in 2011.
Fort George was built on the southern shores of the Inner Moray Firth on the orders of King George II following the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
It was a symbol of the Crown and was given the resources to crack down on fresh Jacobite rebellions, or risings.
Fort George would go on to provide a base for armed forces personnel training for D-Day landings during World War Two.
Today, the fort remains a working barracks and also houses the museum collections of the Seaforth Highlanders, The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and the Queen's Own Highlanders (Seaforth and Camerons).
RAF Kinloss was home to Nimrod surveillance aircraft before all of those stationed there were retired in 2010 and new planes were scrapped.
The site closed as an air station in 2012 and the Army now occupies the former air station.
RAF personnel and jet aircraft continue to operate from nearby RAF Lossiemouth.


A second former footballer has spoken of being sexually abused by Barry Bennell while at Crewe Alexandra.

Steve Walters - who was the club's youngest debutant in 1988 - has spoken to the Guardian newspaper.
Ex-Crewe player Andy Woodward has also waived his anonymity about abuse he suffered at the club as a child.
Bennell, a coach at the club, was sentenced to nine years in prison in 1998 after admitting sexual offences against six boys.
Cheshire Police have confirmed that six people have contacted them since Mr Woodward went public, one of which was Mr Walters.
Mr Walters, 44, was not part of the original case against his former coach Bennell, but told the Guardian: "All these years, I've had this secret inside me.
"But I have to let it all out now. It's the only way. I want closure and I know, for a fact, this is going to help me move on.
"It's been unbearable but, just from reading the article from Andy, it already feels like a massive burden off my shoulders. I have to do this, and I just hope it will help bring more people forward, too."
Crewe chairman John Bowler told BBC sports editor Dan Roan that he was "infuriated and very disappointed" with Bennell's previous crimes.
Mr Bowler said the club was "distressed" by the accusations being made.
Mr Bowler, who was chairman at the time of Bennell's offences, was asked about whether more could have been done.  He replied: "When we've done our inquiries and looked at the detail of the various accusations, then I'll be in a position to answer that kind of question."
He added he was "very sorry for the distress caused" to both Mr Woodward and Mr Walters.
In an earlier statement, Mr Bowler said: "We are a proud football club and would always take any allegation seriously."
Mr Bowler said the club had needed time to review the situation after Mr Woodward went public last week.
"When things come out of the blue like this, you first want to make inquiries and reflect from within," he said.
Mr Woodward told BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme on Tuesday that he believed his experience was "the tip of the iceberg".
A spokesman for the NSPCC praised the former Sheffield United and Bury defender for coming forward, adding there was "more to be done in the world of sport" to keep children safe.
The organisation said: "It is time for the government and sports organisations to work together to close gaps in child protection and make sure that the thousands of sports clubs across the country have robust safeguarding policies in place."
Sue Ravenlaw, head of equality and safeguarding at the Football Association, also praised Mr Woodward, 43, for his "immense courage" in going public with his story.


The Italian government's credit rating has been slashed by Moody's from Aa2 to A2 with a negative outlook.

The ratings agency blamed a "material increase in long-term funding risks for the euro area", due to lost confidence in eurozone government debts.
Despite Rome's low current borrowing needs, and low private-sector debt levels in Italy, Moody's said market sentiment had turned against the euro.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the decision was expected.
"The Italian government is working with the maximum commitment to achieve its budget objectives," said Mr Berlusconi.
He said that a plan to balance the government's budget by 2013 had been approved by the European Commission.
Sell-off
The initial market reaction to the downgrade was muted.
The news broke half an hour after the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
But after-hours trading in stock market futures suggested that at least one percentage point of a late 4% market rally may have been wiped off.
Asian trading was mixed, with stocks initially surging after a report in the Financial Times that EU finance ministers were considering a plan to recapitalise European banks.
By Robert PestonBusiness editor, BBC News
Italy's banks face squeeze
In Japan, stocks on the Nikkei index lost early gains to close down 0.86%. South Korea's main market lost 2.33%. Australian shares ended 1.40% higher.
Stock markets in Hong Kong and mainland China were closed for a holiday.
Oil prices were trading higher in Asia on hopes that efforts by European authorities to contain the eurozone crisis would prevent the world economy from slowing.
Brent crude for November delivery bounced back above $100 a barrel, rising $1.83 to $101.62.
Analysts say Italy's downgrade is likely to be followed by similar cuts in the credit rating of Italy's banks, which would put severe pressure on their ability to borrow.
"This downgrade will make it even harder for Italy to borrow," says BBC business editor Robert Peston. "However, that is not the worst of it.
"If Italy is looking like a more risky place to lend, its banks... will find it harder and more expensive to borrow. The [eurozone] banking crisis will be exacerbated."
The rationale for Moody's downgrade will also be worrying for other eurozone governments, such as Spain, whose borrowing costs have also risen like Italy's as markets have lost confidence in their creditworthiness.
Moody's also raised warnings about Italy's growth outlook, citing structural economic problems in Italy, as well as the global economic slowdown.
Another problem noted by the rating agency was what it called political and economic "implementation risks".
"The question is, if [eurozone governments] will move fast enough... to really put in place a credible solution," says Robert Peston.
An expansion of the eurozone's bailout fund already approved by the euro's 17 governments in July - which is now seen by markets as inadequate - has still yet to be ratified by all the national parliaments.
The slow political response to the emerging crisis, necessitated by the European Union's institutional set-up, has been criticised by many commentators, including European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
However the key issue for Moody's was the change in the market's attitude towards eurozone government debts.
The Italian government has for several years earned more in tax revenues than it spends. However, the government also has a large outstanding debt - equivalent to nearly 120% of GDP.
The government relies heavily on the markets' willingness to relend these debts as they come due, and to lend it the cost of meeting its interest payments.
Moody's said that Italy could be further downgraded to "substantially lower rating levels" if a further deterioration in investor sentiment made it even harder for the country to raise cash from the markets.
Italy's cost of borrowing rose sharply over the summer on market fears that a slowdown in Italian growth could make existing debts unsustainable.
That prompted the European Central Bank to intervene by buying up Italy's debts - a controversial policy in Germany. But despite the ECB's action, Italian borrowing costs have begun to creep up again in recent weeks.


The man suspected of shooting dead nine people at an African-American church in Charleston should face the death penalty if convicted, South Carolina's governor has said.

"We will absolutely want him to have the death penalty," Nikki Haley told NBC television.
Suspect Dylann Roof, 21, is due to make his first court appearance on Friday.
He was arrested on Thursday more than 200 miles away in North Carolina and flown back to South Carolina.
Police are treating the killings at the Emanuel AME Church on Wednesday evening as a hate crime.
Prayer vigils have been held in churches in Charleston and across the US for the six women and three men who died.
At the vigil for victim Sharonda Singleton, her teenage children told the BBC they had forgiven her killer and wanted to focus on moving on in a positive way.
"We already forgive him for what he's done," said her son, Chris.
"And there's nothing but love from our side of the family. Love is stronger than hate."
Churches in Charleston were full to overflowing on Thursday evening as prayer services were held. Some services were held outdoors.
Hundreds gathered outside the Emanuel AME Church to pay tribute.
Governor Haley told NBC's Today show that South Carolina had been "hurt" by the deaths of nine innocent people.
She said she wanted the suspect tried on state charges in South Carolina rather than federal charges.
Mr Roof is due to appear in court via video link for a bail hearing on Friday. He is being held at a detention centre in the Charleston area, the county sheriff's office said.
He was detained on Thursday after police acting on a tip-off stopped his car in Shelby, North Carolina.
Police had earlier released CCTV images of the suspect and the dark saloon car he had driven away in.
Mr Roof's social media presence suggests he was interested in white supremacy.
His Facebook profile page shows a picture of him wearing a jacket with flag-patches from apartheid-era South Africa and Rhodesia - the name of Zimbabwe during the era of white minority rule. He also had a Confederate flag plate on his car.
Dalton Tyler, who said he was a friend of Mr Roof, told ABC News the suspect had spoken in support of racial segregation and had said "he wanted to start a civil war".
It emerged on Thursday that the gunman had sat in a Bible study group at the church for nearly an hour before launching his attack.
In pictures: Americans share images of racial imbalance after Charleston
"The suspect entered the group and was accepted by them, as they believed that he wanted to join them in this Bible study," Charleston County Coroner Rae Wilson said.
She said he then became "very aggressive and violent".
Eight people died at the scene and one person died later in hospital. There were three survivors.
The victims were named as Pastor Clementa Pinckney, 41; Cynthia Hurd, 54; Tywanza Sanders, 26; Ms Singleton, 45; Myra Thompson, 59; Ethel Lance, 70; Susie Jackson, 87; the Rev Daniel Simmons Sr, 74; and DePayne Doctor.
Cynthia Taylor, a niece of Ms Jackson, said she had spoken to a survivor, Felecia Sanders, who said she had played dead as she lay on top of her granddaughter to protect her.
US President Barack Obama said the killings again raised the issue of US gun ownership, saying: "At some point, we as a country have to reckon with the fact that this type of massacre does not happen in other advanced countries".
The Emanuel church is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church in the US south. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King gave a speech there in April 1962.
Tensions have been heightened since the shooting two months ago of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man by a white police officer in North Charleston, which prompted angry protests.
The officer has since been charged with murder.


At least 17 people are believed to have drowned in a shipwreck off the northern coast of Haiti.

The bodies of 11 men and six women washed ashore in the coastal town of Le Borgne, about 100 miles (160km) north of Port-au-Prince, the AP reports.
One official told AFP news agency the dead were migrants who were trying to reach the neighbouring Turks and Caicos Islands, but this is unconfirmed.
No sign of a ship has been found and it is unclear if there were any survivors.


Deliveries to 120 Buckinghamshire homes have been suspended after a postman was attacked by a dog for a third time.

The attacks took place in Whaddon Chase, Aylesbury, and despite warnings from Royal Mail the dog's owner has declined to keep it under control.
The owner was asked to muzzle the dog during deliveries, Royal Mail said.
"In the latest attack, the postman suffered serious scratches. Previous attacks were more severe and required hospital treatment," a spokesman said.
The attacks take place in the street and this has led to a whole area being deprived of deliveries.
Dave Joyce, from the Communication Workers Union that campaigned for a strengthening of the Dangerous Dogs Act, said if the attacks had been on the owner's property then deliveries would have been denied just to that address.
However, the attacks have been on the street when the dog slipped its lead and attacked the postman.
Thames Valley Police said the first report had been made on 20 January this year.
"An officer gave advice to the dog owner on controlling their pet. Two further incidents have been reported to TVP which are currently being investigated."
Sally Hopkins, from the Royal Mail, said: "Deliveries to residents in Whaddon Chase have been temporarily suspended following a dog attack on one of our postmen on 16 September.
"This was the third time this dog has attacked our postman.
"Royal Mail has asked the owner to keep their dog under control. Unfortunately this hasn't happened.
"We only suspend deliveries if the safety of our postmen and women is at risk. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this temporary suspension."


Michael Gove has given rise to debate after he left his son alone in a bed and breakfast for six hours in order to go to a party.

The Tory MP and Brexit campaigner attended an event hosted by the Times and Sunday Times to mark the end of the Cheltenham Literary Festival event with his wife Sarah Vine.
But the Sunday Mirror has claimed his 11-year-old child was found by a night porter at 1.30am, asking where his parents were.
Celebrities had tweeted about the event earlier this month, with comedian Armando Iannucci commenting on Mr Gove  "busting moves" on the dance floor.
A friend of the Goves told the BBC: "(Their son) wanted to watch TV rather than go to a dinner with his parents, he's a mature and confident secondary school pupil so they were happy to leave him at the hotel under the supervision of staff.
"The dinner was at a sister hotel so staff could have easily passed messages if there were any issues. He was totally fine and there were no problems."
The law in the UK does not stop a parent from leaving their child at home alone, but it states that children must not be neglected or abandoned "in a manner likely to cause [them] unnecessary suffering or injury to health".
An NSPCC spokesman said: "It can be a difficult decision to decide when children are old enough to be left alone and there are a whole host of things to think about.
"Parents need to consider whether a child would know what to do if something went wrong, and talk to their child and see if they are comfortable and confident about being left by themselves."
The charity's advice is that children under 12 should not be left at home alone for a long period of time because they are "rarely mature enough to cope in an emergency" and that children under the age of 16 are not left alone overnight.
The Goves were staying at No.38 The Park Luxury Bed and Breakfast in Cheltenham.
Andy Young, who runs the nearby Ravenhurst Luxury Bed and Breakfast with his wife, said: "Here, we have communal areas but we are not open to the public, so guests feel comfortable leaving a sleeping baby if they are in the next room or in the house.
"But we don't have guests who go out into Cheltenham for the evening and do that.
"Nor to our knowledge have any older children been left in a room. They are normally out doing fun activities with their family.
"I could see it if they were unwell, but in most cases for us, that means the family would cancel the trip."
The manager of No.38 The Park was contacted by the BBC but said she was not willing to comment.
Rachel Johnson, journalist and sister of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, said she was with Mr Gove and his wife until 1.30am at the Cheltenham party.
Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr show, she said the couple had also left their two dogs which the boy was looking after, adding "I think it is absolutely fine."
Author Ian Rankin, who also appeared on the show, stood up for the politician as well.
"It is not much of a story," he said. "If I left my 11-year-old in a room, a) he wouldn't have left it as he would have been on his computer or watching DVDs, and b) he would have had a mobile phone and phoned his parents asking what time are you coming home."
But others have criticised the couple's actions.
Child protection campaigner Russ Martin said: "If true, one must question [Mr Gove's] parenting skills and his ability to parent. Many parents deal with social services on a daily basis and if they left their 11-year-old child in a hotel while they went off on a night out, all hell would break loose.
"How can Mr Gove be instrumental in policy development for child protection and education and then make a fundamental mistake like this?"


Imagine a far flung land where you can catch a ride from the Jackie Chan bus stop to a restaurant called Translate Server Error, and enjoy a hearty feast of children sandwiches and wife cake all washed down with some evil water.

If such a rich lunch gets stuck in your gnashers, you'll be pleased to know there are plenty of Methodists on hand to remove your teeth.
And if by this point you've had enough of the bus, fly home in style on a wide-boiled aircraft. But whatever you do, please remember that when you land at the airport, eating the carpet is strictly prohibited.
No, I haven't gone mad. These are all real-world examples of howlers by auto-translation software.
Joking aside, poor translations can have big implications for firms who run the risk of offending customers and losing business, or at least looking very amateurish.
Yet we keep being promised that machine learning and natural language processing will soon make flawless, near-instantaneous translation a reality.
So how long will businesses have to wait?
In January, Skype rolled out its real-time translation software, which allows voice-to-voice translation in seven languages.
But even this hi-tech development was not without its teething problems, randomly turning Mandarin words into obscenities on one occasion.
The glitch was spotted by photographer Tom Carter who was in China shooting a Skype commercial and had been using it to speak to people in Mandarin.
When he said: "It's nice to talk to you" to a local scout in Yangshuo, Skype translated it into a very offensive stream of swear words.
The issue was blamed on how the Great Firewall - China's way of censoring the web - had interrupted the Skype conversation.
Translation programs, such as Google Translate, have traditionally been built around phrase-based statistical machine translation.
This works by analysing a back catalogue of texts that have already been translated - such as academic papers and glossaries. It analyses them in parallel in both their original and target languages, then uses statistical probabilities to select the most appropriate translation.
Its effectiveness depends greatly on the quality of the original language samples and it's prone to mistakes, often sounding clunky and mechanical.
For this reason, Alan Packer, director of engineering language technology at Facebook, said recently that statistical machine translation was reaching "the end of its natural life".
Instead, translation tech is now moving towards artificial neural networks. These are structured similarly to the human brain and use complex algorithms to select and use the appropriate translation.
But rather than just translate the words, a neural network can learn metaphors and the meaning behind the language, allowing it to select a translation that means the same thing to a different culture, rather than a direct literal translation which may in some cases cause offence.
Facebook, which carries out up to two billion translations a day in 40 languages, plans to roll out such a system later this year.
Search giant Google, too - which now offers 103 languages covering 99% of the online population - is also reported to be working on switching its translation service over to neural networks.
But it has not said publicly how soon it plans to make that transition.
But before you think auto-translation is on the verge of perfection, think again.
Professor Philipp Koehn, a computer scientist and expert in translation technology at the University of Edinburgh, tells the BBC there is still some way to go.
"There are very hard problems with semantics and knowledge representation that have to be solved first, and that we are not close to solving," he says.
"The main challenges are when there is less explicit information in the source language than what is needed for generating proper target language."
For example, Chinese doesn't have the equivalent use of plurals, verb tenses, or pronouns as in English, which makes exact translation very difficult, he says.
And English doesn't use gendered nouns, which makes things tricky when translating into languages that do, such as French, Italian and German.
Until these challenges are overcome, mistranslations are likely to continue, whether that's Chinese bus routes changing Sichuan Normal University Campus Station to The University Jackie Chan Campus Station, or restaurant owners calling their establishments "Translate Server Error".
Although translation technology may be improving rapidly, the cost of failure is potentially huge, so many businesses are unwilling to put their faith in it entirely.
Clem Chambers is chief executive of ADVFN, a global stocks and shares information website that covers over 70 stock exchanges around the globe.
He says: "For us, when it comes to creating geographic and language-targeted websites, nothing beats having native speakers who actually have a thorough understanding of the financial markets.
"Translation tech has come a long way and can provide good literal translations, but what we need is something that really speaks the language of the local end user, with all the subtleties and colloquialisms specific to their country."
In other words, translation tech has its uses, but rely on it entirely at your peril.
Follow Technology of Business editor @matthew_wall on Twitter
Click here for more Technology of Business features


Transport giant Stagecoach has reported increased revenues and profits, helped by a strong performance from its UK regional bus division.

The group, which runs bus and rail services in the UK and has operations in North America, said revenues rose 4.5% to £2.9bn in the year to 30 April.
Pre-tax profits were 2% higher at £180.7m.
Profits in its regional bus arm rose 3% to £147.4m, with revenues rising by 4.8% to more than £1bn.
About 2.8 million passenger journeys are currently made on Stagecoach buses each day across the UK.
Perth-based Stagecoach said it placed orders worth more than £90m on new greener buses for 2014/15, with the record figure highlighting its confidence in "continuing to get people out of their cars and back on board the bus".
It added: "The market conditions are positive with a combination of a rising population, increasing road congestion, the cost of running a car and widespread concern for the natural environment providing good potential for increased bus usage across the UK."
The group's megabus.com business has continued to expand in the UK, mainland Europe and North America, where it has added new services in Florida and North and South Carolina.
Stagecoach said it believed there was "a large market for high-quality, good-value inter-city coach travel".
The group's rail arm saw profits fall by 17% to £34.3m, but revenues lifted 4.2% to £1.2bn. Stagecoach said the division performed in line with expectations.
The group's rail operations include South West Trains, Island Line and East Midlands Trains and it has a 49% shareholding in Virgin Rail, which runs the West Coast franchise.
Stagecoach recently failed to secure the new Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern rail franchise, but this was offset by the award of a new West Coast franchise until 2017.
The company said positive discussions were continuing with the Department for Transport with a view to agreeing franchise extensions or direct awards at South West Trains and East Midlands Trains.
Commenting on the results, chief executive Martin Griffiths said: "We have met our expectations for the year.
"Across the group, we have a strong set of locally-managed businesses which are improving services for our customers, supporting the economy and communities, and adding value for our investors."


The US says it has ordered families of defence personnel and diplomats out of parts of Turkey amid security fears.

Dependants are being moved out of Adana, Izmir and Mugla provinces.
The US European Command said the decision was not permanent but "intended to mitigate the risk to [Department of Defense] elements and personnel, including family members".
Once a beacon of stability, Turkey has entered a period of high tension and violence.
Key cities have been struck by a spate of deadly bombings. Meanwhile Turkey has been fighting Kurdish militants in its restive east and struggling to prevent violence spreading from across its border with Syria.
US-Turkey: The strained alliance
How dangerous is Turkey's instability?
The US State Department has warned all Americans against travel to south-eastern Turkey.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the decision had been made out of an "abundance of caution".
"There's no specific threat that triggered this but a broader decision based on what we've seen in the region," he said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is visiting the US this week to attend President Barack Obama's nuclear security summit.
But rarely have relations between the US and one of its key Nato allies been so poor as those between Washington and Ankara, says the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus - with each other's response to the Syrian crisis a particular point of friction.
Some 5,000 US service personnel and dependants are based at the Incirlik air base in the southern city of Adana - from which the US launches air strikes on fighters from so-called Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
But security fears last July prompted officials to ban troops and their families from frequenting the "American alley" of markets and kebab restaurants which had flourished outside the base's gates.
Two months later, officials offered military families the chance to evacuate voluntarily - an option only few took up. Now they are being involuntarily evacuated.
"This decision allows for the deliberate, safe return of family members from these areas due to continued security concerns in the region," said the US European Command statement.
The state department, meanwhile, said it had also ordered the departure of family members of employees at the US Consulate in Adana as well as family members of US government civilian employees in the western Izmir and Mugla provinces.
In a statement, it warned US citizens of "increased threats from terrorist groups throughout Turkey and to avoid travel to south-eastern Turkey".
The decision to evacuate was made in consultation with the Turkish government, said the European Command.
"We understand this is disruptive to our military families, but we must keep them safe and ensure the combat effectiveness of our forces to support our strong ally Turkey in the fight against terrorism."
The battle against militants from so-called Islamic State remained a priority for both Turkey and the US, it said.


A new base for BBC Three is to be created in Birmingham, alongside a hub for the corporation's proposed partnerships with local newspapers.

The plans come as the government is to due publish its White Paper on the future of the BBC on Thursday.
The organisation has faced criticism for under investment in the city, once home to the fabled Pebble Mill studios.
The BBC said the plans meant a Â£10m boost for "fresh talent and innovative digital content for young audiences".
The new investment is on top of an existing Â£125m already tied to the second city base in The Mailbox, it said.
Under the plans, the commissioning, publishing and some production of BBC Three's short-form content, along with the social media team that supports it, would relocate to Birmingham by 2018.
The channel, which targets 16 to 34-year-olds with a mix of comedy, documentaries and current affairs, went online only in February, to save Â£30m. It will also still be based in London.
A new youth team will also be set up at The Mailbox site, which will be the main suppliers of news content for the channel's Daily Drop, BBC Three's new, mobile-first platform.
The local newspaper partnerships - outlined in September by director general Tony Hall as a pool of local reporters who will share work with local papers - are expected to be based in Birmingham alongside the English Regions HQ.
"These teams, together with Birmingham's young and diverse demographic, will be harnessed to act as part of the hub for the identification, development and commissioning of new diverse talent and programmes as announced in the BBC's Diversity and Inclusion strategy last month," a spokesman said.
"To support this, the BBC Academy will launch a new scheme, the Birmingham Production Apprenticeship, for new off-air talent from diverse backgrounds."
Lord Hall said Birmingham had benefited from recent extra investment, but there was more to do.
"Now we're putting Birmingham at the heart of our innovation with BBC Three and making it home to a new youth team for BBC News.
"The city's incredible diversity also means it's the perfect place to lead our work to ensure we reflect the changing face of Britain.
"This package is good news for Birmingham and good news for the BBC."
Mark Rogers, chief executive of Birmingham City Council, said the plans were a "vote of confidence" for the city.
"Our city has the talent and creativity to play an important role in the next chapter of the BBC story," he said.
"As a city we have worked hard to make the case for Birmingham and this is a welcome development."
The Mailbox is already home to services including BBC WM, radio drama, The Archers, some Asian Network programmes, BBC Midlands Today and BBC Digital England.


Fresh evidence has come to light in the unsolved case of a teenage girl who was stabbed to death and sexually assaulted in Bath almost 30 years ago.

Student Melanie Road was 17 when she was stabbed to death after a night out in June 1984.
An eyewitness has said he saw Miss Road arguing with a man earlier that evening.
Her killer may have been a man who lived either as a student or resident in the city at the time, police said.
The information comes from an eyewitness who contacted the police some time after seeing an appeal marking 25 years since Melanie died.
"He recognised that man as someone he'd seen in Bath before," Det Insp Julie Mackay said
"He said he's local, doesn't know his name but he'd definitely seen him in Bath before.
"Maybe he was there as a student, we know that Bath has a very big student community, maybe he was a resident, but certainly in 1984 I think the killer was living in Bath and I think there's a good chance he could still be living there now."
Ms Mackay said the argument was seen at the top of the lane that led up from the Farmhouse pub to the top of St Stephen's Road on the night of her murder.
Her body was found on 9 June 1984 in front of some garages nearby.
Police say they have a full DNA profile of the killer.
They have been working through a database of 12,000 male names who were either witnesses or suspects at the time.
So far, some 5,500 names have been eliminated from the inquiry and 250 men have been swabbed since March.
Two new photographs of Melanie have been released by her family as part of the 30th anniversary appeal to find her killer.
Her mother, Jean Road, has also written a letter to people in Bath which was printed in a local newspaper.
In it, Mrs Road wrote: "I beg the people of Bath to search their memories of 30 years ago on the 9th of June.
"I know it's a long time ago - to me it's only yesterday. Some people say... let it rest, but I can't."
The letter describes the devastation Melanie's murder wrought on the family and urges people not to protect the killer, "because he also is in need of help".


A 14th Century portrait that hung in a Cambridge museum for decades has been revealed as double-sided after a 600-hour restoration project.

The Virgin Mary and Christ Child by Italian Renaissance artist Pietro di Niccolo da Orvieto, had been on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Conservators preparing it for an exhibition found another painting on the reverse panel.
Experts believe it depicts the wound Jesus Christ sustained on the cross.
The painting had always been hung unscrutinised with the Virgin Mary on show until preparation began for the Madonnas and Miracles exhibition, which depicts the world of religious devotion in the Italian Renaissance home.
The piece, which had been affected by centuries of discolouration and grime, was brought back its former glory by seven conservators from the museum's Hamilton Kerr Institute.
It is now thought the depiction of the Virgin Mary and Christ Child was originally made as a double-sided devotional object, for private prayer and contemplation for worshippers.
As well as the "vivid depiction" of the wound, infrared reflectography showed detail of the folds in the Virgin Mary's veil - known as a maphorion -  after being invisible to the naked eye for centuries.
This was then restored from a flat black overpaint to its original bright blue hue - which symbolises the heavens.
According to the museum, the painting is "testament to the religious devotion of the Italian Renaissance".
The painting now sits in a glass display where both sides can be seen.


"Doris the Destroyer" and the havoc she wreaked has captivated the picture editors of Friday's papers.

In Northern Ireland, the main casualty of this year's first named storm was a top tourist attraction made famous by the US TV show Game of Thrones.
"Doris day" turned out to be a dark day for the Dark Hedges in Armoy, County Antrim, according to the Daily Mirror.
Calamity befell one of its majestic beech trees which have lined "the King's Road" for more than two centuries.
However, all is not lost for the landmark, which draws tourists and fans of the show from all over the world.
Patrick Gregg, from the Dark Hedges Preservation Trust, tells the Irish News there are plans to replace storm casualties with new, six-foot beech trees.
The Belfast Telegraph leads with the exclusive revelation of the identity of the mystery donor who "bankrolled" the DUP's pro-Brexit campaign last year.
The paper says DUP adverts were funded by a £425,000 donation from the Constitutional Research Council, which is chaired by a former vice-chair of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party.
Describing the campaign as a "great success", DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson tells the paper his party has "gone far further" than others on donation transparency, and challenges other parties to reveal their donors.
Speaking of money, how much does it cost to feed a hungry crocodile for a full year?
The Irish News [£] leads with Sinn Féin's first formal estimate on the annual cost of implementing an Irish Language Act.
The party's Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir has crunched the numbers and believes it would cost about £3.5m.
However, with the DUP warning the act could cost £100m a year, the gulf between the two former government partners is clear.
Inside the paper, the language theme continues, with a report that a Catholic church in north Belfast is set to offer a weekly Latin Mass. [£]
It's a case of back to the future for Saint Thérèse of Lisieux church, as Latin Mass was phased out by Vatican reforms in the 1960s.
The service is returning by popular demand, and a six-month trial will begin in Lent.
Amid heightened tensions and emotions over the conduct of Troubles killings investigations, many papers report on the frustrations of the coroner Adrian Colton.
He is tasked with examining events that became known as the Ballymurphy Massacre, when 10 people were shot dead by the Army over a three-day period.
The News Letter, and others, report the coroner's "profound regret" that a political row over funding is delaying the inquest process.
Efforts to track down the bombers who placed an undercar bomb underneath a police officer's car in Londonderry are also being hampered, says the Irish News.
The paper quotes sources close to the investigation saying detectives were still trying to identify the components of the device when it blew up.
The unexpected blast highlighted the dangers faced by Army Technical Officers to former soldier Doug Beattie from the Ulster Unionist Party.
He tells the Belfast Telegraph that the Army bomb squad should be awarded a medal for its efforts to keep the public safe.
The Queen may well take note of his request, as it seems she takes a keen interest in Northern Ireland affairs.
The paper says the monarch "revealed her support for the Green and White Army" as she presented Northern Ireland football manager Michael O'Neill with his MBE.
The manager said the Queen congratulated him on his team's performance in the Euro 2016 finals last summer.
"I said how it had been such a positive thing for Northern Ireland, and she was aware of that, and she said 'that was great and to just keep doing it'," said Mr O'Neill.


Glasgow University has become the first in the UK to announce that it will sell off the shares it holds in companies that produce fossil fuels.

A spokesman said the university recognised the "devastating impact" that climate change could have and the "need to reduce the world's dependence on fossil fuels".
The university is withdrawing Â£18m of investments over the next decade.
It comes after students had mounted a campaign calling for the change.
More than 1,300 were involved in the campaign, which included rallies and fake oil spills.
David Newall, secretary of the university's governing body, said: "The university recognises the devastating impact that climate change may have on our planet, and the need for the world to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.
"Over the coming years we will steadily reduce our investment in the fossil fuel extraction industry, while also taking steps to reduce our carbon consumption."
The university will freeze new investments in fossil fuels and, over 10 years, divest its hydrocarbon investment which is around 4% of its total endowment.
Glasgow joins 13 American universities and many other institutions who together have pledged to withdraw more than $50bn in assets from the fossil fuel industry.
Just before the recent New York climate summit, the heirs to the Rockefeller fortune announced they planned to pull their funds from fossil fuels.
Campaigners say that, so far, 181 institutions and 656 individuals have agreed to withdraw their money from fossil fuels.
Students in many universities are lobbying for governors to divest but are often meeting strong resistance from governing bodies charged with prudent investment of university funds.
Glasgow has confirmed that its commitment is subject to reassurance that the financial impact for the university is acceptable. Its effects will be monitored by the governing body.
Campaigner Callum Shaw, said: "Among students the argument about whether climate change exists is not really happening - people have read the academic papers and are not in any doubt. We started out as a small group, but the campaign quickly gained traction."
Other British universities are also set to consider the issue.  The School of Oriental and African Studies is expected to make a divestment decision in the next month.
Decisions are also imminent from a handful of other institutions including the University of Edinburgh. Oxford University and its colleges are consulting on divestment from $3.8bn worth of investment. More than 1,000 Oxford students and academics have joined the campaign.
Scientific reports have suggested it will only be possible to burn about a third of the fossil fuels already discovered and keep a stable climate.
Mary Church from Friends of the Earth Scotland said: "Well done Glasgow for becoming the first university in the UK to take this hugely important step. Not only is this great news for the planet, but it also makes good financial sense [because] at some point this carbon bubble is going to have to burst."
So far the divestments worldwide have not dented investments in the fossil fuel industry. Oil, gas and coal companies form one of the world's largest asset classes, worth nearly $5 trillion at current stock market values. They are liked by investors because of their profits and shareholder yield.
The campaigners hope eventually to emulate the success of the anti-apartheid campaign by making fund-holders embarrassed to invest in fossil fuels.
Follow Roger @rharrabin


Crystal Palace have signed teenage Belgian winger Jason Lokilo from Anderlecht after he received international clearance.

The 17-year-old has been training with the Premier League club's under-21 and under-18 sides since the end of July.
"I'm very happy to have signed with Palace," he told the club's website.
"It's a very good place for wingers. I'm a right winger, but I can play anywhere. I'm left-footed, so I like to cut inside to create chances to score."


It's anti-bullying week and we have been taking a look at how people bully each other in Minecraft.

17 November 2015 Last updated at 07:15 GMT
Griefing is a name for a type of bullying that can happen in Minecraft.
It can happen on multi-player games online.
It's when someone damages a person's buildings, sets harmful traps, or steals all of their items on purpose, just to be mean.
This can be frustrating for players, whose hard work can be destroyed very quickly.
Ayshah has been speaking to some of you, who have experienced griefing, and also got some top tips from Youtuber Stampy.


Thousands of headscarves or hijabs have been collected for women in Syria.

Yorkshire-based charity One Nation UK has been taking medicines, clothing and food to war-ravaged parts of the country for several years.
For the first time it is collecting hijabs, which it says helps women to socialise and access public services.
Volunteers in Leicester said they had been particularly successful, collecting more than 2,000 in just one week since the appeal was launched.
The national appeal has more than a dozen collection centres across the country.  Organisers said "thousands" had already come in but Leicester was particularly busy.
Rukhsana Hussain, 36, of Uppingham Road in the city, said: "It's been a really good response. It's been a real surprise. I set aside a room in the house but within two days I needed more room and more help."
"Women in Syria need to be able to access all the help they can and this will allow them to go out to perhaps a local point which is distributing food," she added.
"The hijab is the first thing I look for before going out and imagine how important it would be for making women in Syria feel more comfortable."
The aid container is expected to be sent out in the first week of October.
The charity also runs projects in Bangladesh, Gaza, India, Sierra Leone and Sudan, as well as Syria.


The man who was prime minister last Christmas and isn't this Christmas thinks he knows why.

"I stand here as a great optimist about how we can combat populism. It may seem odd that I am so optimistic, because after all the rise of populism cost me my job."
So said David Cameron recently, on the lecture circuit for the defeated, at DePauw University in Indiana in the United States.
The man who is president of the United States this Christmas and won't be for much longer has opined on the subject too.
"This whole issue of populism. Maybe somebody can pull up in a dictionary the phrase populism. But I am not prepared to concede the notion that some of the rhetoric that has been popping up is populist," Barack Obama said recently.
OK then, Mr President, let's take you up on that dictionary idea.
"There is no definition of populism. It is like liberalism or conservatism. It varies from continent to continent and century to century," John Judis, the author of the book called The Populist Explosion told BBC Radio 4's The World at One.
But, he added: "Populism is based on a dichotomy, on a differentiation between the people and the elite."
So, can the word "populist" be usefully attached to Jeremy Corbyn, Donald Trump and Brexit?
"The strategy that we adopted was really quite a simple one because we realised that to get attention, similar to Trump, we had to be outrageous," recalled Andy Wigmore, the director of communications for Leave.EU, a group he described as the "provisional wing" of the broader Leave movement, during the EU referendum campaign.
"There was an element of pantomime to our approach. The more outrageous we were, the more attention we discovered we got. The more attention we discovered we got, the more outrageous we were. That was the foundation of our campaign."
The Trump campaign in America was their template. Their critics describe both as crude, irresponsible and, yes, populist.
But Andy Wigmore said that was unfair: it was about engaging those who had, until then, given up on politics.
"They were the two and a half million people who had never voted before, very much in Labour strongholds. And that is what we concentrated on. So were we irresponsible to put messages out to them? No.
"We had to use every weapon we could, against an establishment that was attacking everything that was said and everyone who was saying it. Nigel Farage being a classic example."
So is there a parallel here, however unlikely, between Mr Farage and the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn?
"There is the common theme of being against the establishment and challenging an establishment that has become completely corrupt and out of touch with the people," Hilary Wainwright, the co-Editor of the socialist, feminist and green magazine Red Pepper said.
"Nevertheless, Jeremy's whole ethics and political demeanour is one of him, a politician, believing in the people. He is actually not simply giving a voice to the people but also attempting to build a politics that shares power with the people. I don't think that is yet built into the understanding of populism."
The success of those who define themselves against the so-called "establishment" arguably creates a bigger challenge for them having won, because of the scale of what their supporters expect them to achieve.
But, looking at President-Elect Trump, John Judis has noticed a partial shift in emphasis.
"What Trump has done is, he's definitely shed some of his populist rhetoric. The idea that he was going to "drain the swamp" of all of these fat cats who were controlling Washington.
"He's ended up with an administration filled with Wall Street people and billionaires. But in terms of some of his demands about jobs no longer being shipped overseas, bad trade deals, changing the relationship with China, he is going to try to do them. When a populist takes power, that doesn't necessarily mean they are going to fail at their task."
Let's conclude by returning to that fuzzy concept of populism.
Douglas Murray, an associate editor at The Spectator magazine, says the word is so debased in reality it only conveys one impression.
"When I see the term 'populism' used, I know the author is referring to a movement the author he or she doesn't like. That is what it does. It signals to the listener that the thing they are deprecating is to be deprecated."
But, he argues, whether you think the term has any value or not, what it is attempting to describe does matter and must be celebrated.
"We had in Britain, for years, a mounting problem about this issue about our relationship with the European Union.
"I am amazed that so many people have chosen to interpret the most legitimate expression of dislike that you can do - ie voting - and interpreting that as some awful, rabble-like, unwashed monstrosity. It is the only thing we have to stop something, far, far worse."


A Christian former magistrate, sacked for comments he made about same-sex adoption, is suing the NHS after also being suspended as a trust director.

Richard Page was struck off following a BBC interview in which he said it was better for a man and a woman to adopt.
He was also removed as a non-executive director by Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT).
During a tribunal earlier he said he "was subjected to a campaign for vilification and victimisation".
Mr Page, of Headcorn, Kent, served as a magistrate for more than 15 years and has worked in mental health services for 20 years.
In 2014 he ruled against a gay couple's adoption bid.
The tribunal heard the other magistrates and court clerk had complained about him being "biased against same-sex couples, bringing the magistracy into disrepute" and being swayed by his Christian views rather than evidence.
Following media interviews in which he repeated "it is best for any child to be raised in a traditional family with a mother and a father", Mr Page was suspended by KMPT, and sacked from the bench.
Then chair of the trust, Andrew Ling, said Mr Page's comments and continuance as a trust member would have a major impact on staff and patients, particularly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) staff.
Mr Page brought a case against them because he believes he has been discriminated against as a Christian.
In a witness statement presented to the tribunal he denied being homophobic and said the reasons for refusing the adoption in this case were three-fold: one of the applicants had a previously failed adoption application and there was no background on the circumstances of that; the child's foster parents of nearly three years also wanted to adopt the child; and he suspected the applicants of  "adoption shopping" in England where the process is easier than in some countries, with plans to then take the child abroad.
A foster parent himself, he added: "I struggle to understand how my comments are relevant to my position in the NHS."
A spokesperson for NHS Improvement said: "It would be wholly inappropriate for us to comment while proceedings are ongoing."
The tribunal continues.


Pope Francis has delivered a passionate plea for peace in his first Easter Sunday message since being elected.

Francis used his "Urbi et Orbi" address to call for peace in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and across the globe.
He singled out "dear Syria", saying: "How much blood has been shed! And how much suffering must there still be before a political solution is found?"
Easter is the most important festival in the Christian calendar and pilgrims have attended church across the world.
By David WilleyBBC News, Rome
In past years there have been two parts to the Pope's Easter message - a heartfelt appeal for peace in the world's trouble spots, and multilingual  greetings to the crowds thronging St Peter's Square.
There were 250,000 people from more than 100 countries present this morning.
But Pope Francis decided to cut the vernacular greetings.
He is, of course, most comfortable speaking his native Spanish, and he is also completely fluent in Italian as his family is from Piedmont in northern Italy.
Pope Francis was, however, almost incomprehensible when he tried out a few words in English to the crowds in St Peter's Square last week.
So he decided not to read out the  "Happy Easter" greetings that had been prepared for him in 65 different languages including difficult-to-pronounce oriental tongues.
Popes John Paul II and Benedict used to struggle to pronounce even a short phrase in Burmese,  Chinese or Korean, Pope Francis chose not even to try.
But his body language spoke volumes. He was completely at ease saluting families, kissing babies and tenderly embracing a young disabled man, as the Pope was driven in an open jeep around the packed square.
Pope Francis also speaks when he remains silent.
Pope Francis, formerly Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was elected on 13 March, becoming the first non-European pope for almost 1,300 years.
He replaced Benedict XVI, who held the office for eight years and became the first pontiff in more than 700 years to resign, saying he no longer had the physical strength to continue.
In his Urbi et Orbi (To the city and the world) speech, Pope Francis began with a simple "Happy Easter!"
The 76-year-old Pope, who has begun his tenure by emphasising humility, went on: "Christ has risen! What a joy it is for me to announce this message... I would like it to go out to every house and every family, especially where the suffering is greatest, in hospitals, in prisons."
Later in his speech, Pope Francis said: "We ask the risen Jesus, who turns death into life, to change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, war into peace."
The Pope then mentioned troubled regions of the world in turn.
In pictures: Easter festivities
"Peace for the Middle East, and particularly between Israelis and Palestinians, who struggle to find the road of agreement, that they may willingly and courageously resume negotiations to end a conflict that has lasted all too long.
"Peace in Iraq, that every act of violence may end, and above all for dear Syria, for its people torn by conflict and for the many refugees who await help and comfort."
For Africa, the Pope referred to Mali, Nigeria - "where attacks sadly continue" - the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.
He added: "Peace in Asia, above all on the Korean peninsula: may disagreements be overcome and a  renewed spirit of reconciliation grow."
Profile: Pope Francis
Pope Francis concluded by saying: "Peace in the whole world, still divided by greed looking for easy gain, wounded by the selfishness which threatens human life and the family, selfishness that continues in human trafficking, the most extensive form of slavery in this 21st Century."
BBC Rome correspondent, Alan Johnston, says the Pope has reinforced his image as a man of simple, down-to-earth tastes, not wearing the more ostentatious of papal costumes and, for the moment, not moving into the grandiose papal apartments.
One pilgrim in Rome on Sunday, Briton Tina Hughes, said that Francis represented a "new beginning".
"I think he brings something special. He connects with people. I feel good about him," she told Reuters.
In the days before Easter, the Pope had reached out to women and Muslims.
During a Holy Thursday Mass at a youth detention centre he washed and kissed the feet of 12 people, including two girls and two Muslims, and in a Good Friday procession referred to the "friendship of our Muslim brothers and sisters" in the Middle East.
But our correspondent says that, after Easter, the Pope will have to begin tackling the key issues facing the Catholic Church, such as reforming a Vatican bureaucracy riven by infighting and allegations of corruption, and tackling the issue of clerical sexual abuse.
Vatican watchers will also be keeping a keen eye on new appointments to key positions.
In his Easter homily, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, invited the Pope to visit.
The patriarch, the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land, also urged the international community to take "concrete and effective decisions to find a balanced and just solution for the Palestinian cause, which lies at the heart of all the Middle East's troubles".


Gas compressor maker Vert Rotors has been given a £1.5m funding boost to scale up manufacturing at its factory in Edinburgh.

The money was raised by angel syndicate Equity Gap, along with venture capital firm Par Equity, US syndicate Aero-Den and the Scottish Investment Bank.
The move has led to five new skilled jobs which have been filled by former oil and gas supply chain workers.
The company said it planned to add further posts in the future.
Vert Rotors was founded by Olly Dmitriev in 2013 and produces ultra compact low-vibration gas compressors for aerospace, medical and other applications.
The funding will be used to increase capacity at Vert's manufacturing facility in Gracemount and expand its customer base.
Mr Dmitriev said: "This investment brings valuable highly skilled manufacturing jobs to Edinburgh and allows Vert Rotors to increase our sales outreach.
"Our products are fully manufactured in Scotland and exported to Europe and the USA. We look forward to scaling up our operations following this investment."
Jock Millican, from Equity Gap, said: "Vert Rotors has potential to disrupt the established marketplace significantly with its high quality products.
"Olly has an excellent track record in business and has a clear vision for the future of the company."


The American billionaire who wants to buy Portsmouth would remove fan representation from its board.

Former Walt Disney chief executive Michael Eisner is in exclusive negotiations over a potential takeover.
Speaking publicly about the bid for the first time, Eisner, 75, stressed his desire to protect the club's name and colours, and keep them at Fratton Park.
"I really would like everyone behind us," he told the Portsmouth News. "I don't want a contentious acquisition."
Since exiting administration in 2013, the Pompey Supporters' Trust (PST) has owned 48% of Portsmouth's shares.
Eisner and his Tornante Investment Group are currently in a 70-day negotiation and due diligence period with the club.
His revamped club board would no longer include three PST members, but would instead be a heritage board.
It would possess a veto on any attempts at changing the club's name, colours or moving further than 15 miles from Portsmouth city centre.
"I'm sure there are people out there who don't want this to happen, but I hope they are few and far between," Eisner said.
"The way Portsmouth and the Trust brought this team out of receivership and how they have managed it in the last four years and stuck with it is extremely impressive.
"My investment is in moving the club forward. That is a large investment and I am prepared to do that."
The PST said it would be "inappropriate at this stage" to respond publicly to Eisner's proposals, which he is due to present to the board and shareholders before the end of the season.
Eisner, who is also a former president of Paramount Pictures, left Disney in 2005.
His business portfolio through Tornante includes investment, acquisition and operations of media and entertainment companies.
On the pitch, Paul Cook's side are on the verge of automatic promotion from League Two and need just eight more points from their remaining five games to secure a top-three finish.


A road in southern Scotland has been completely blocked after an accident involving a lorry towing part of a wind turbine.

The incident happened at about 22:45 on Monday on the A713 Castle Douglas to Ayr road just north of Parton.
A Daf lorry, part of a convoy heading to the Brockloch wind farm at Carsphairn, left the roadway.
Nobody was injured in the crash but the route is expected to be closed for a considerable length of time.
Insp Campbell Moffat said: "The road is fully closed at present and will remain so until the heavy lifting equipment can be taken to the crash site to recover the vehicle and load.
"A full diversion has been implemented around the scene and drivers are asked to avoid the area where possible."


The boss of Thomas Cook has said the tour operator has nothing to apologise for over the deaths of two children while on holiday.

Robert and Christianne Shepherd, from Horbury in Wakefield, died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Corfu in 2006.
Group chief executive Peter Fankhauser told an inquest into their deaths that he felt "incredibly sorry" for the family but did not have to apologise.
Earlier, the children's mother confronted the former chief executive.
Leslie Thomas, QC, representing the children's family, asked Mr Fankhauser to explain why he did not feel Thomas Cook should apologise.
The CEO said: "I feel so thoroughly, from the deepest of my heart, sorry but there's no need to apologise because there was no wrongdoing by Thomas Cook."
Robert and Christianne died while they were on holiday with their father and step-mother at Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel, booked by Thomas Cook.
Experts have previously told the inquest how a hot water boiler in an external outhouse had a number of faults and this was the source of the lethal carbon monoxide.
Mr Fankhauser said Thomas Cook, which had a policy of avoiding hotels where rooms had gas hot water appliances, was lied to by people at the hotel who said there was no gas supply at the complex.
He said the immediate cause of the problem was that a vital safety device had been disconnected on the boiler.
The CEO gave evidence after Manny Fontenla-Novoa, who was chief executive of Thomas Cook's UK and Ireland operation in 2006 and went on to become group chief executive.
Mr Fontenla-Novoa exercised his legal right not to answer questions that could incriminate him.
This prompted the children's mother Sharon Wood, who was in the public gallery, to say he should "speak up for himself".
The hearing continues.


A Pennsylvania couple, who struggled to find medication after their young daughter received a heart transplant, have been found dead along with their children in an apparent murder suicide.

Mark and Megan Short and their children, aged 8, 5 and 2, died of gunshot wounds, police said.
Police called the deaths a "tragic domestic incident."
The family was featured in news reports after Willow Short, then an infant, received a heart transplant in 2014.
Since then, the Shorts had trouble obtaining Willow's medication on time. The drugs that prevented Willow's body from rejecting her new heart are subject to strict rules, which often complicated their delivery.
The hurdles the family faced were detailed in a New York Times article.
Megan Short wrote in a blog that she suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) amid Willow's difficult treatments.
"I don't think PTSD ever truly goes away but, with therapy, medication, and the right support, I have begun to loosen its grip on me," she wrote.
"As I work on my own mental healing, I wanted to share my experience so that other heart parents know they are not alone."
Neighbours told the Reading Eagle that the couple had been heard arguing and Megan Short planned to leave her husband.
Authorities said they found a "murder-suicide" note and one of the adults was found with a handgun.


The Irish and British governments are to sign a treaty establishing a body to work towards the end of paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland.

NI Secretary James Brokenshire and Irish Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan will sign the treaty in Dublin later.
The Independent Reporting Commission proposed the body as part of a way to end last year's political impasse at Stormont.
The talks will also include issues arising from the Brexit vote.
Speaking ahead of Tuesday's meeting, Mr Brokenshire said: "There was never any justification for paramilitary groups, there is none today and there will not be in the future.
"The IRC provides for an independent review of progress towards disbanding paramilitary groups which continue to blight our society.
"For generations, paramilitary activity wrecked lives in Northern Ireland, and for many people the repercussions continue."
The IRC's annual reports will be published by the two governments.
The commission may make recommendations to the Northern Ireland Executive to inform future Programme for Government priorities and commitments.
The IRC will have four members, with the British and Irish governments nominating one member each and the Northern Ireland Executive two members.
Mr Flanagan said it was "another landmark day for Northern Ireland".
"This is an important step in implementing the Fresh Start Agreement provisions to eliminate paramilitarism and tackle organised crime," he said.
He said he would hold talks with Mr Brokenshire on the still stalled efforts to establish new mechanisms to deal with the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
"As co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, it is vital that the Irish and British governments continue to work together in a spirit of partnership to deliver on the full promise of that agreement and subsequent agreements," he said.
"Of course, we will also be continuing our discussions on the implications for Northern Ireland of a UK-exit from the EU."


The summer transfer window was the richest in Premier League history as total spending for the calendar year reached £1bn for the first time.

Summer outlay passed £870m, 4% up on the record set last year.
The biggest spenders, Manchester City, paid the two biggest fees, £55m for Kevin De Bruyne from Wolfsburg and £49m for Raheem Sterling from Liverpool.
Manchester United's £36m signing of Monaco teenager Anthony Martial was the biggest deadline-day move.
That fee could rise to £58m with a number of incentive-based add-ons.
Since the introduction of the transfer window system in 2002, gross transfer spending has exceeded £7.3bn, with over 80% of this being spent in summer transfer windows, according to financial analysts Deloitte.
Manchester City broke their club record twice this summer to bring De Bruyne and Sterling to Etihad Stadium as they became England's highest gross spenders in a single window.
Their total spend of approximately £160m beat the near £150m outlay of Manchester United in summer 2014, including deals for Fabian Delph, Patrick Roberts and Nicolas Otamendi.
The Premier League leaders were boosted this summer by having restrictions on their transfer spending lifted after meeting their Financial Fair Play target.
City's spending in 2014 was capped at £49m and they were also fined £16.3m for breaching Uefa rules.
The four Premier League clubs competing in this season's Champions League - City, United, Chelsea and Arsenal - had a combined gross transfer spend of around £340m, representing around 40% of the aggregate gross transfer spend by Premier League clubs.
The signing of 19-year-old Martial, Everton's £9.5m capture of Argentine defender Ramiro Funes Mori and Papy Djilobodji's £4m arrival at Chelsea from Nantes on Tuesday helped the 2015 window overtake the £835m set last year.
Liverpool have used the Sterling money (and more) to sign seven players, with Christian Benteke (£32.5m), Roberto Firmino (£29m) and Nathaniel Clyne (£12m) the most expensive.
Manchester United have also been busy, spending £139m to bring in Martial, Memphis Depay, Matteo Darmian, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin, while Chelsea left it late in the window to conduct their serious business, signing Pedro, Baba Rahman and Djilobodji.
Newly promoted Watford have been the busiest club, signing 15 players.
West Ham were the busiest club on transfer deadline day but what else happened on Tuesday?
Total transfer fees paid to overseas clubs were £585m, about 10% higher than in the summer of 2014 and 67% of the aggregate gross transfer spend by Premier League clubs.
The Premier League clubs' net transfer spend of £460m - the amount by which outlay to Football League and overseas clubs exceeded their income from those sources - exceeded the previous record of £410m set last summer.
The financial rewards of staying in the Premier League at the end of this season are immense.
Starting from 2016-17, the Premier League TV rights deal increases from £3.018bn to £5.136bn for three seasons.
The bottom club will pocket £99m per season with the champions earning more than £150m in prize money, even before extra money is paid for featuring in a TV match.
Alex Thorpe, senior manager in the Sports Business Group at analysts Deloitte, said: "Premier League clubs continue to use increases in their revenue to invest in playing talent.
"Looking across Europe, Premier League clubs' gross and net spending this summer is more than double that of any other European league. The driving force behind this is the growth and distribution mechanism of the league's broadcast rights.
"Earlier this year we reported the remarkable rebalancing of revenues and costs, such that Premier League clubs collectively generated pre-tax profitability for the first time since 1999, with clubs set to enjoy a further revenue boost when the next broadcast deals start in 2016.
"Therefore, despite a new record level of player transfer spending this year, collectively Premier League clubs have a chance to invest in playing talent while remaining profitable in a way that was previously not the case."
Across the other 'big five' top divisions of Europe, the next highest spending league was Italy's Serie A, with a gross spend of £405m, followed by Spain's La Liga (£400m), the German Bundesliga (£290m) and Ligue 1 in France (£220m).
BBC World Service's John Bennett said: "Serie A was incredibly busy this window but still produced less than half the spend of the Premier League. Desperate to get back into the premier league of European clubs, Inter brought in 15 players and AC Milan spent money on players like Colombian forward Carlos Bacca for £21m.
"Barcelona didn't let a transfer ban stop them from bringing in two new players but it was surprisingly quiet at Real Madrid where Mateo Kovacic and Danilo were the only relatively high-profile signings.
"And in France, Marseille are the example of a club struggling to compete with Premier League money. They lost around nine established players, including Andre Ayew and Dimitri Payet to Swansea City and West Ham."


Britain has been accused of "colossal hypocrisy" after a government report criticised Russia over human rights.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the report was not "objective" and she accused Britain of harbouring "terrorists".
The Foreign Office (FCO) report noted a "crackdown on civil society" and said Russia's actions in Ukraine had led to "severe deterioration" in human rights.
After Russia's comments, the FCO said human rights needed to be protected.
The report, published last week, said rule of law in Russia "remained inconsistent and arbitrarily applied" and raised concerns about increasing numbers of organisations officially labelled "foreign agents" or "undesirable".
It said the human rights situation in Russia got worse in 2015 and was "unlikely" to improve this year.
State-controlled media "overwhelmingly emphasised a pro-government narrative" and a number of independent journalists reported that they had experienced harassment, it said.
"Although space for independent media continued to exist, most notably online, a small number of individuals faced criminal prosecution for posting critical comments," the report added.
It noted a "severe deterioration" in human rights in eastern Ukraine and Crimea due to Russia's actions in Ukraine.
It said the UN had reported "killings, torture and other ill-treatment, illegal detention, and forced labour during 2015" in areas controlled by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Ms Zakharova accused the Foreign Office of calling for "interference" in Russia's internal affairs.
She also said Britain was harbouring "terrorists and those funding their activities" and said the country had failed to prosecute soldiers who committed crimes during the invasion of Iraq.
"This report is, of course, an example of colossal hypocrisy," she said.
She added: "To claim the role of a teacher, you have to have, if not an impeccable, then at least a more or less decent reputation. And London's reputation, to be honest and fair, is badly tarnished."
Responding to the criticism, the FCO said promoting human rights was a "core" part of its work.
A spokeswoman said there was "serious concern about the deteriorating human rights environment" in Russia.
"As long as these concerns exist, we will continue to call on Russia to fulfil their international commitments to promote and protect human rights," she added.