Police searching for a missing man from Jersey have issued a fresh appeal for witnesses.

Adrian Lynch, 20, was last seen in Jersey in the early hours of 5 December after his work Christmas party.
Jersey Police issued details of four men they want to speak to who may have more information.
Emergency services have been searching near where Mr Lynch was last seen in St Lawrence, St Mary and St John.
Police said they wanted to speak with a man about 40 years old with white hair seen hitch-hiking nearby at about 03:00 GMT on 5 December.
Two other men between 20 and 30 years old, described as "noisy", were also hitch-hiking in the area. Another man, described as thin with dark hair and wearing a brown suit, was seen at about 01:30 GMT.


Barnes & Noble has unveiled a customised version of an existing Samsung tablet as a replacement for the Nook HD+, which it manufactured itself.

The US book chain is marketing the device as the "first-ever full-featured Android tablet optimised for reading", based on its inclusion of pre-installed Nook apps and homescreen shortcuts.
However, its screen is lower resolution than Kobo's Android-powered Arc 7HD.
One analyst said it would be an "uphill struggle" to sell the new device.
"There is growing consumer apathy to this growing class of low-cost tablets," said Ben Wood, from the tech consultancy CCS Insight.
"Although there is the Nook angle on this, it goes into the melting pot with numerous other tablets that will appear in this price point as we run up to Christmas.
"Amazon has pretty much locked out the market in reading-focused tablets anyway, the only thing I'd applaud here is the fact that Barnes & Noble has gone to Samsung, which can give it scale and quality."
The advantage that the 7in (17.8cm)-screened Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook has over Amazon's Fire tablets is that it can easily access the Google Play marketplace. Amazon's tablet uses a proprietary store with fewer apps available.
Costing $179 (Â£107), the new Nook is also cheaper than the Kindle Fire HDX and Kobo Arc 7HD.
However with only 216 pixels per inch, text will appear less sharp on its screen. Likewise, magazines and movies sold from the included Nook Newsstand and Nook Video apps will present less detail than similar purchases on either the two other Android machines or Apple's bestselling iPad Mini, which also has its own dedicated ebook store.
Even so, one market watcher said the tie-up still made business sense. Samsung should benefit from the exposure of having its machine promoted in Barnes & Noble's stores and website, while the retailer gets to cut its costs after posting a $47m (Â£28.2m) net loss for its last financial year.
"It's very hard to make money out of mobile devices," said Ian Fogg, from the IHS consultancy.
"But by having this partnership, Barnes & Noble can have its own content and services pre-installed so that they are not just front-of-mind but also front-of-eyes for consumers.
"If it wants to get its apps used on other people's devices it has to persuade people to install them instead of a Kindle app or another competitor - that visibility is very important."
At the moment the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook is only available in the US.
Barnes and Noble will continue to sell e-ink readers, including the Nook GlowLight, which was launched in the UK earlier this month.


Five-star Rangers swept aside Alloa Athletic at Recreation Park to underline their early advances under manager Mark Warburton.

James Tavernier supplied the first of a series of lethal finishes against part-timers the Ibrox side only managed to beat once in five outings last season.
Michael Chopra equalised, but a Martyn Waghorn penalty soon restored the lead.
Jason Holt and Kenny Miller killed the game before half-time and the latter added his own second late on.
The thumping victory took Rangers to the top of the Scottish Championship table.
A mere two games have been played and they are only ahead of Queen of the South and Dumbarton on goal difference.
But the signs are there that this Ibrox side could dominate the division in a similar fashion to the Hearts one that left their Glasgow rivals trailing in their wake last term.
Under Ally McCoist, Kenny McDowall and Stuart McCall, Rangers had struggled to overcome Alloa and much was made of their dislike of the artificial surface at Recreation Park.
Successor Warburton promised no excuses this time and there was no need for them as his restructured team quickly found their feet in the Clackmannanshire sunshine.
Tavernier has been a revelation since his summer purchase from Wigan Athletic and the right-back provided another thundering finish into the top corner after being played in behind the defence by Nicky Law - the Englishman's third goal in four games.
The lead only lasted three minutes as Chopra was found by a Graeme Holmes chip over the visiting defence to apply the kind of lethal volleyed finish that reminded onlookers of the 31-year-old striker's days with Newcastle United, Cardiff City, Sunderland and Ipswich Town.
Thoughts turned to December, when Alloa came from two goals down to defeat Rangers in the Petrofac Training Cup semi-final.
However, there was to be no sting in the tail for the Wasps this time as Holmes spoiled his earlier work by barging Holt to hand Waghorn the opportunity to restore the lead from the penalty spot within another two minutes.
Lee Wallace had a quiet game in his first as Rangers' official new captain, but it was the left-back's low drive, spilled by goalkeeper Andy McNeil, that allowed Holt further involvement with a goal of his own from close range.
When Tavernier found Miller to finish from similar range shortly before the break, the game was effectively over.
The interval was time for Alloa boss Danny Lennon to switch to a less vulnerable formation, but the damage was done.
Rangers were by now in second gear and could afford some showboating from the midweek arrival from Tottenham Hotspur, Nathan Oduwa. They also had two goals disallowed and still managed a further goal-line finish from Miller in the closing minutes.
Warburton's side march on to bigger challenges while Lennon, whose side lie bottom without a point, was left to wonder how long it will take his 14 new signings to gel.
Alloa manager Danny Lennon: "You could certainly see the gulf between the clubs today, but what the biggest message for the players today was that they've got to have more belief, they've earned the right to compete in this league but what we have to do is compete better than what we showed today."
Match ends, Alloa Athletic 1, Rangers 5.
Second Half ends, Alloa Athletic 1, Rangers 5.
Foul by Nathan Oduwa (Rangers).
Colin Hamilton (Alloa Athletic) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt blocked. James Tavernier (Rangers) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked.
Corner,  Rangers. Conceded by Jason Marr.
Foul by Kenny Miller (Rangers).
Colin Hamilton (Alloa Athletic) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Goal!  Alloa Athletic 1, Rangers 5. Kenny Miller (Rangers) right footed shot from the left side of the six yard box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by James Tavernier.
Attempt missed. Kenny Miller (Rangers) header from the centre of the box misses to the right following a set piece situation.
Corner,  Rangers. Conceded by Burton O'Brien.
Kenny Miller (Rangers) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Dougie Hill (Alloa Athletic).
Nathan Oduwa (Rangers) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Connor McManus (Alloa Athletic).
Attempt missed. Nathan Oduwa (Rangers) right footed shot from the centre of the box is just a bit too high.
Attempt missed. James Tavernier (Rangers) left footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the left.
Nathan Oduwa (Rangers) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Kyle McAusland (Alloa Athletic).
Attempt missed. James Tavernier (Rangers) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left.
Substitution, Alloa Athletic. Aron Lynas replaces Graeme Holmes.
Foul by Danny Wilson (Rangers).
Michael Chopra (Alloa Athletic) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Rob Kiernan (Rangers) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Michael Chopra (Alloa Athletic).
Substitution, Rangers. Dean Shiels replaces Nicky Law.
Substitution, Rangers. Nicky Clark replaces Martyn Waghorn.
Substitution, Rangers. Nathan Oduwa replaces Barrie McKay.
Corner,  Rangers. Conceded by Dougie Hill.
Attempt blocked. James Tavernier (Rangers) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Danny Wilson (Rangers) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Isaac Layne (Alloa Athletic).
Substitution, Alloa Athletic. Isaac Layne replaces Geoff Mitchell.
Foul by James Tavernier (Rangers).
Colin Hamilton (Alloa Athletic) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Nicky Law (Rangers).
Graeme Holmes (Alloa Athletic) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Martyn Waghorn (Rangers).
Jason Marr (Alloa Athletic) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt saved. James Tavernier (Rangers) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner.


Northern Ireland's new finance minister, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, said he wants the executive to have greater power to borrow money.

"It is the ability to remove the shackles of London on our ability to make the correct decisions that we would like," he said.
However, Ulster Unionist Philip Smith argued that this was not the solution.
The draft framework for a new Programme for Government will go out to public consultation later.
On Thursday, the new executive met for the first time and agreed the document. It will be published at midday on Friday and the consultation process will run into the summer.
Speaking on BBC Northern Ireland's The View, Mr Ó Muilleoir said the executive did not currently have enough "flexibility" around its budget.
He said he had spoken to the chief secretary at the Treasury department on Thursday and had asked for an urgent meeting.
"We need the right, as an executive, to borrow money and London should not be able to prevent us from doing that," he said.
"The second argument is the austerity budget, cutting the budget, cutting the bloc grant, heaping maximum pain on the poor is not helping the economy, it's counter-productive."
The executive currently has a borrowing facility known as the Reinvestment and Reform Initiative.
It allows borrowing of up to £200m a year, up to a ceiling of £3bn.
There are also additional borrowing powers which relate to the funding of a civil service redundancy scheme and shared education and housing.
He said he wanted the power to borrow money to invest in new homes.  Another priority would be the expansion of Londonderry's Magee campus at Ulster University.
However, Mr Smith, whose party has gone into opposition at Stormont, along with the SDLP, said he opposed borrowing more money.
"We already have, as a region, higher per capita debt than Scotland and now we discover that we are going to try and increase that debt to try and fill the hole in finances," he said.
"Certainly, our role as an opposition will be to be constructive, but also to hold these guys to account. The first ministers talked about this being an executive of delivery. We will be looking to see where the delivery is."
Education Minister Peter Weir, DUP, told The View that the executive would want to take a collective decision on "how best we can finance issues".
"We want to ensure whatever resources we have, we get the best bang for our bucks," he said.
In Northern Ireland's new executive, eleven out of 12 posts have been shared out between the two biggest parties, the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin.
The executive was formed after independent unionist MLA Claire Sugden was appointed as justice minister.


Somerset enjoyed the better of their pre-season friendly draw against Glamorgan at Taunton after rain washed out the first day.

The visitors struggled to 132 for eight declared after Somerset had reached 211 for eight.
Jacques Rudolph (32, retired) and Nick Selman (25) added 57 before a collapse, with Owen Morgan's 37 the other main contribution.
Peter Trego top-scored for Somerset, retiring on 46.
Ex-Glamorgan all-rounder Jim Allenby claimed three for 18.
Glamorgan begin their county championship campaign at Northamptonshire on Friday, 7 April.
Australian fast bowler Michael Hogan and South African batsman Colin Ingram are expected to feature later in the pre-season campaign.
Fast bowler Timm van der Gugten is in line for the season opener next month after suffering a shoulder injury while diving in the field while playing for the Netherlands last month.
Glamorgan are also hoping to tie up the signature of South African fast bowler Marchant de Lange before the season starts with the deal still depending on visa issues.
Glamorgan: J Rudolph (capt), N Selman, D Lloyd, K Carlson, A Donald, C Cooke, C Meschede, O Morgan, A Salter, L Carey, J Murphy, R Smith.


A university which is embroiled in a row between its two most powerful boardroom figures has paid a law firm more than £150,000 in seven months.

Plymouth University chief executive Wendy Purcell is currently suspended and chairman William Taylor "stepped aside" as each faces a separate investigation into their conduct.
The BBC can reveal that since March, £153,135 has been paid to law firm Veale Wasbrough Vizards (VWV).
The university is yet to comment.
It is not known if the firm is working on cases other than the matters involving Prof Purcell and Mr Taylor.
Documents seen by the BBC reveal that in June VWV was paid £27,091 for "advice relating to vice chancellor in relation to Wendy Purcell".
Prof Purcell was placed on leave in June. The university has not given a reason for her suspension.
Mr Taylor, a retired judge, is facing a separate investigation into allegations of sexual harassment. He "categorically denies" the allegations.
The allegations were made in July by Prof Purcell on behalf of a number of women.
A senior barrister was appointed by the university in August to support its investigation into the allegations against Mr Taylor.
Sources: HEFCE report and BBC News


Indian Railways' decision to introduce "flexi fares" on three premium train services has been met with anger on social media.

Authorities announced that only the first 10% of tickets for its Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto express services would be held at current prices.
Thereafter fares will jump by 10% for every 10% of berths sold, subject to a cap of 1.5 times the basic fare.
Many have criticised the move as a poorly disguised fare hike.
A railways spokesman told the BBC that the move was "experimental" and they would take passenger feedback into consideration.
The state-run Indian Railways, the third largest network in the world, operates more than 12,000 passenger trains, carrying some 23 million people daily.
However, the heavily subsidised service operates under massive losses.
In 2014, it lost $5bn in its passenger operations.
The three premium services are in high demand as they cover most of the country and are faster and more comfortable than regular trains.
Critics say the new fare structure is likely to make many train journeys more expensive than flights on India's low-cost airlines, many of whom cover the same routes in a fraction of the time.
The issue dominated conversation on Twitter on Thursday with #SurgePricing trending for much of the morning.
There was overwhelming anger at what was seen as a policy that would primarily have an impact on the middle class and the poor.
Many had tweeted at the Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu and the prime minister, requesting them to reconsider.


Robert Wang was hoping to make it easier for people to make a decent meal, but didn't expect his new product to attract a cult following.

Last summer on Amazon Prime Day, the online retailer's global 24-hour annual sale event, one of the top-selling products in the US was a multi-function electric cooker.
The item in question is called the Instant Pot, and more than 215,000 of them were snapped up in the US on that single day.
The fact that this countertop appliance was outselling TVs and tablets may come as a surprise to many people, but not to its legions of dedicated fans, who express unabashed adoration.
"If you look at the Amazon reviews, one common word is 'love'," says Mr Wang.
"Americans are very open with their emotions. Love is all over the place. Another one is that 'Instant Pot changed my life'.
"That's actually rewarding to us - understanding that we have created value for society."
First available to buy in 2010, the Instant Pot has become a veritable craze, a success built through social media word-of-mouth instead of traditional TV or print advertising.
Today, the official Instant Pot Facebook group is nearly 398,000-people strong, and there are thousands of other online enthusiasts. Fans share recipes online and tips for making everything from soups, stews and chilli, to poached eggs, popcorn and cheesecake in the appliance.
Mr Wang says that from the beginning the intention was to let the product speak for itself, and build up sales thanks to customer recommendations rather than pay for advertising.
He describes this as the "build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door" marketing strategy.
The Instant Pot is the brainchild of Mr Wang and his friend Yi Qin, who are both veterans of the Canadian technology sector. Mr Wang had worked for the now-defunct telecoms group Nortel, while Mr Qin had been employed by Blackberry.
They were brainstorming ideas for a new project in 2008 and realised people were searching for the same solution they were - a way to cook healthy meals for a family quickly and affordably.
That was when their attention turned to kitchen appliances and rebooting the pressure cooker.
They came up with the idea for the Instant Pot, which is a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer, saute pan, yogurt maker, warming pot all-in-one unit.
Together with three other partners, they set up a business called Double Insight in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, and the first version of Instant Pot was born in 2010.
"We have tried to automate cooking as much as possible and tried to simplify the cooker," says Mr Qin, who is the firm's vice president of product management. "One press of the button can cook the meal for the family."
The product was, however, not an immediate success. Mr Qin says that one problem was the "stigma" surrounding one of the Instant Pot's main functions: the fact that it can be used as a pressure cooker, which had long since fallen out of favour in North American kitchens.
"Most people have some concept of urban legends of exploding pressure cookers in their grandmother's kitchens," says Mr Qin.
He says they addressed the issue by making product safety a design priority, and making the Instant Pot as foolproof to use as possible.
Thanks to word of mouth, sales were growing well by 2013 when Amazon started to sell the product, and sales shot up further.
"Amazon is a very practical company," says Mr Qin. "They didn't approach us until they saw that the [upward sales] trend had already formed."
The online buzz surrounding the Instant Pot has been helped by food bloggers enthusiastically talking about the product, and sharing recipes, with their followers.
Some of these bloggers buy their own Instant Pot, while Double Insight gives the cookers to others to test out.
Laura Pazzaglia, from website Hip Pressure Cooking, says that she is not surprised by the gadget's success.
"Everybody who has an Instant Pot, they tell three friends about it," she says. "If you keep going like that, obviously you can't help but succeed."
Today Double Insight remains a small business with just 25 employees, contracting out the manufacture of the product to a factory in China.
While the Instant Pot is facing increasing competition from rival products made by much larger appliance companies such as Breville and Black & Decker, Ms Pazzaglia says that Instant Pot's early start and vast online following gives it an edge.
Zeynep Arsel, associate professor of marketing at Montreal's Concordia University, says that the Instant Pot resonates with the trend towards healthy but uncomplicated food, and is boosted by "a textbook perfect buzz marketing campaign".
She adds: "Cooking is a social and emotional practice that creates a lot of meaning in our lives.
"So a product that takes centre stage in cooking practices also creates a sense of attachment by being an agent in our social and emotional lives."
With the Instant Pot now on to its fourth iteration, its design development has been led by feedback and ideas submitted by users. With prices starting from $80 (Â£65) for the most basic model, the top-of-the-range $180 version can be controlled remotely via your mobile phone.
"This is not so much an Instant Pot story per se, this is every user's story," says Mr Qin. "Whenever you have an Instant Pot product, you have a story to tell."


Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis has warned global suppliers not to artificially inflate their prices because of the fall in the pound.

It is his first public comments since supplier Unilever tried to raise the cost of popular items such as Marmite due to a weaker currency.
The UK's biggest retailer briefly halted online sales of Unilever's goods.
Mr Lewis said price rises needed to be "justified".
He agreed there were inflationary pressures, but he said multi-national companies should not increase prices just to reassure investors.
Mr Lewis pointed out that such businesses presented results in both constant and current exchange rates to take account of currency volatility.
"The only thing we would ask of companies that are in that position is they don't ask UK customers to pay inflated prices in order that their reporting currency is maintained," he said.
"They don't do that for countries outside of the UK."
Unilever had argued price rises were necessary to cover higher import costs even though Marmite was being manufactured in the UK.
Mr Lewis, who worked for Unilever for 28 years, quickly reached an agreement with his old employer, but the terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
The pound has fallen by about 16% against the dollar since the UK voted in June to leave the EU. It has also fallen to a lesser extent against the euro.
A weaker pound pushes up the price of imported goods, although it also makes UK exports cheaper for foreign buyers.
Last week, Sainsbury's chief executive Mike Coupe said multi-national suppliers should shoulder some of the burden caused by the fall in the pound because their profitability was greater than UK supermarkets.
Price sensitivity has caused problems for other well-known manufacturers.
Fans of Toblerone bars complained bitterly last week when they realised the manufacturer had spaced out the triangular chunks in some of its confectionery.
The product's makers, Mondelez International, said it had reduced the weight of the 400g bar to 360g and the 170g bars to 150g, but it had kept the packaging the same.
Mondelez said the move was down to a rise in the cost of ingredients and production. However, it linked it to the rise of the Swiss franc in 2015 rather than Brexit-linked exchange rate concerns.
The company said it was a choice between changing the look of the bars or raising the price.
Walkers and Birds Eye have both said they are set to raise the prices of some items following the drop in the UK exchange rate since June's EU referendum.


Super Rugby will revert to a 15-team format from next season, with three current sides set to be cut.

Governing body Sanzaar has not confirmed which sides are to be cut but South Africa will lose two teams, with Australia losing one side.
The competition expanded to 18 teams in 2016, when South Africa's Southern Kings, Argentina's Jaguares and Japan's Sunwolves joined.
Jaguares and Sunwolves will retain their places for 2018.
They will be joined in the 15-team structure by all five current New Zealand teams, four from Australia and four from South Africa.
The sides will again be split into three conferences, down from four, with Sunwolves moving into the Australia conference, while Jaguares will play in a South Africa conference made up from the remaining teams in the two current Africa conferences.
The South Africa and Australia rugby unions will decide which teams to cut from the competition.
"Naturally we understand that there will be some very disappointed franchises but the tournament's long-term future and the economic reality of the business at present is something that had to be addressed," said Sanzaar chairman Brent Impey.
"The decision to retain the Sunwolves is linked directly to Sanzaar's strategic plan for the future.'
"The potential for growth of the sport in Asia off the back of the establishment of the Sunwolves and the impending Rugby World Cup in 2019 is significant."
The Australian rugby union players' association (RUPA) said it was "incredibly frustrated and deeply disappointed" that the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) had agreed to axe one of their clubs.
"Having signed Australian rugby up to a competition which reduced local content, diluted tribalism and disrespected fans with its lack of integrity, ARU have now agreed to a new model which has protected the expansion teams in Argentina and Japan at the cost of one of our own," said RUPA chief executive Ross Xenos.
"It is tomorrow's players, coaches and fans who will now pay the price for this strategic mismanagement. This decision will be the catalyst for an irresponsible human cost without any genuine remedies to the real strategic issues that the game faces."
The Super Rugby competition initially expanded to 15 teams from 2011, with the addition of Australian side Melbourne Rebels, having previously been named Super 14 from 2006 to 2010.


A speed-reading 10-year-old has finished the new Harry Potter story in just 59 minutes.

Toby L'Estrange, from Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, was asked by a firm for its first review of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts I & II.
Toby said he can read 400-page books in under two hours, after his speed-reading expert grandmother taught him.
His verdict on the book was that it is a "very complicated story", giving it six out of 10.
He completed it within the hour after the book was downloaded to his e-reader, just after midnight on Sunday.
The latest instalment of the Harry Potter stories is the script of a new original story by JK Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne.
Also written as play, it enjoyed a West End gala opening on Saturday to coincide with the release, where JK Rowling praised fans for keeping the stage show's secrets since previews started in June.
The story takes place several years on from the end of the last Potter book, when Harry is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father-of-three.
"It's a really good story. It's a very complicated story," Toby said.
"It happens in different times, so it's really helpful if you know all the other books and characters quite well (I do - and so does any other true Harry Potter fan).
"When I first started it was really difficult to know what was happening because everything was mixed up, but then it all got quite exciting - and a bit (a bit!) clearer.
"And I think you're going to love it."


Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a pardon for a soldier convicted of manslaughter for killing a wounded Palestinian.

Elor Azaria, 19 at the time, shot Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, 21, in the head while he was lying immobile on a road.
A military court convicted the soldier after dismissing his assertion that the Palestinian still posed a danger.
The case has divided Israeli opinion. Azaria, a sergeant, will be sentenced next Sunday, Israel's military says.
There have been rallies to support the soldier, but top military figures say his actions do not reflect the values of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
Mr Netanyahu issued his call on Facebook, writing: "I support giving Elor Azaria a pardon."
"This is a difficult and painful day for all of us - and first and foremost for Elor and his family, soldiers and for the parents of our soldiers, and me among them."
In March, the prime minister called Azaria's family to express sympathy for their predicament.
He joins some other members of the governing coalition in calling for a pardon, including right-wing Education Minister Naftali Bennett.
But centre-left politician and former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the verdict should be accepted.
"Only that way can we stop the bleeding within Israeli society since the event occurred and reunite around the military and Israel as a state of laws, whose army is outside political discourse."
President Reuven Rivlin said he could only deal with the issue of a pardon once the judicial process had run its course.
The incident took place in Hebron in the occupied West Bank on 24 March.
Sharif and another 21-year-old Palestinian, Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier before troops opened fire on them, wounding Sharif and killing Qasrawi.
Footage of the scene several minutes later, filmed by a Palestinian and released by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, shows Sharif alive, wounded and now unarmed.
A soldier, identified as Azaria, is then seen cocking his rifle and fatally shooting Sharif in the head from several metres away.
Israel-Palestinians: Blame and bitterness keeping peace at bay
In their indictment, prosecutors said Azaria "violated the rules of engagement without operational justification as the terrorist was lying on the ground wounded and represented no immediate threat for the accused or others who were present".
Delivering the verdict on Wednesday, the panel of three military judges rejected Azaria's defence that he shot Sharif because he continued to pose a threat.
He had told the court that he believed there might be a suicide belt under the Palestinian's jacket.
The judges, who took two-and-a-half hours to deliver their verdict, noted that Azaria's commanders had testified that he did not mention the same concerns when they questioned him immediately after the shooting incident.
The judges also cited another soldier, who told military investigators that Azaria had said during the incident: "They stabbed my friend and tried to kill him - he deserves to die."
Azaria told the court that he did not recall having any such conversation, but the head of the judging panel, Col Maya Heller, described him as an "unreliable witness".
"His motive for shooting was that he felt the terrorist deserved to die," she said.
A spokesman for Azaria's family said evidence proving his innocence had been ignored. "It was like the court was detached from the fact that this was the area of an attack," he said.
The soldier's mother, Oshra, shouted at the judges: "You should be ashamed of yourselves."
The defence team has said it will appeal against the verdict. Manslaughter in Israel carries a maximum 20-year term.
Sharif's father Yusri said Azaria deserved a life sentence. Sharif's uncle, Fathi, told Haaretz that the decision to try him for manslaughter rather than murder was "a perversion of justice and of the court".
Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who expressed support for Azaria before taking office in May, said the verdict was "difficult" and that the defence establishment would "do everything it can to assist the soldier and his family".
But he also called on the public to respect the court's decision.
Sari Bashi, Israel advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, described the verdict as "a positive step toward reining in excessive use of force by Israeli soldiers against Palestinians".
The shooting happened during a wave of knife, gun and vehicle ramming attacks by Palestinians or Israeli Arabs in Israel and the West Bank that has killed at least 42 people since September 2015, according to the Israeli authorities.
Human Rights Watch said on Monday that video footage or witness accounts raised serious questions about many of the more than 150 instances in which Israeli forces have fatally shot Palestinians during attacks or attempted attacks on Israelis.


The Forth Road Bridge is to be closed until the new year because of structural faults, Transport Minister Derek Mackay has said.

The bridge has been closed since midnight with initial guidance saying it would be shut for at least 24 hours.
The minister has now said it would need at least three weeks to repair the bridge and safety was "paramount".
He said a full travel plan was being prepared, including extra trains and buses and possibly a ferry.
Early on Friday morning, 11-mile tailbacks were reported approaching the Kincardine Bridge, the alternative route across the Forth from Fife to Edinburgh.
Heavy congestion was reported on the same routes on Friday evening.
At a media conference, engineers said a 20mm-wide crack in a truss under the southbound carriageway close to the bridge's north tower could not have been predicted and happened quickly.
They said continuing to allow traffic to use the bridge would "increase the risk of causing extensive secondary damage to the structure".
Follow our Scotland Live page for regular updates
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The troubles of the Forth Road Bridge
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The fault was not on the bridge during the last inspection in May and was only spotted on Tuesday. Officials said the shear fault was discovered in the most difficult area of the bridge to access.
Bridge operator, Amey, said it was an "unprecedented situation".
Traffic Scotland has said all current and planned roadworks on the diversion routes for the bridge have been removed to reduce congestion.
A dedicated hotline is to be set up to help commuters while the bridge remains closed for three weeks.
Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell said: "The closure of the Forth Road Bridge until the new year is a very serious development which will have a major impact not just on local communities and travellers but on the wider Scottish economy.
"I met today with Fife Council and we discussed the impact the closure will have on the local area.
"While this is a devolved responsibility of the Scottish government and they now have the task of ensuring that all possible measures are taken to minimise the disruption during the bridge closure, the UK government stands ready to assist in any practical way we can."
The transport minister said he anticipated the 51-year-old bridge, which is due to be replaced by a new crossing in about a year, would be open for commuters returning to work in January.
Mr Mackay said there would be about a week of further inspections and two weeks to carry out the repairs.
He said the work was weather-dependent and it was difficult to predict exactly how long it would take.
The minister said additional rail, ferry and park-and-ride facilities are to be put in place.
Emergency service vehicles will still be able to use the bridge when responding to 999 calls.
Mr Mackay said "We are aware of the potential economic impact, for strategic traffic in the east of Scotland and on people living in local communities.
"This is an unprecedented challenge in the maintenance of the Forth Road Bridge. On balance following advice from engineers and independent experts, the full closure is essential for the safety of the travelling public and to prevent further damage to the structure of the bridge."
While ministers anticipate reopening the bridge to traffic, one expert cautioned there was a possibility only public transport would be allowed on the bridge in future.
Mack West, chairman of the Institution of Civil Engineers (Ice), told BBC Radio Scotland's Newsdrive programme: "I think there's a possibility that there will be restrictions on the existing bridge and it's likely that it may be restricted to public transport usage and cycling."
Rob Shorthouse, ScotRail communications director, said they had managed "so far" to increase the train capacity between Glenrothes and Edinburgh by about 25%, from 81 journeys a day to over 100 to help relieve congestion.
He said: "This is a really difficult set of circumstances because services are busy.
"All the trains that we have got are out there on the network.
"So, because this is such a national priority we are looking right across Scotland to see where we can move some capacity."
A Stagecoach spokesman said: "Stagecoach has on Friday operated a number of extra buses between Fife and Edinburgh and will continue to do so, wherever possible, to provide extra capacity to enable customers to travel by public transport rather than driving, helping to alleviate traffic congestion in the affected areas.
"Customers are able to use both Ferrytoll Park and Ride and Halbeath Park and Ride sites in Fife to leave their cars and take the bus to Edinburgh."
An NHS Fife spokesman said: "Any potential effect on patients and staff is currently being assessed and we are exploring the provision of accommodation and transport, where necessary, to ensure we continue to provide high quality care."
A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: "Ambulances will continue to travel across the Forth Road Bridge when responding to emergencies.
"Arrangements are being made to maintain ambulance transport of non-emergency patients to appointments using alternative routes and hospitals, as appropriate."
He added that local teams were working with partners at NHS Fife, Tayside, Lothian and Forth Valley to mitigate any potential disruption to services for patients.
The southbound carriageway of the bridge has been shut since the discovery of steelwork defects during inspections on Tuesday.
Since then engineers have identified eight other parts of the bridge where similar problems could be encountered.
The decision to close the bridge completely was taken late on Thursday after the latest reports indicated the faults were more serious than had earlier been thought.
Traffic volumes have increase dramatically since the bridge's opening in 1964, shortening its projected lifespan.
Concern about corrosion of the main suspension cables, first confirmed more than a decade ago, prompted ministers to order a new crossing.
A new Â£1.4bn Queensferry Crossing over the Firth of Forth is due to open in December next year.
Forth bridge to be shut until new year


The departure of manager Remi Garde after less than five months in charge is the latest desperate episode in a story of chaos and crisis that will soon end in Aston Villa's relegation.

Garde's exit is just another piece of the wreckage piling up around Villa Park as they lie hopelessly adrift at the foot of the Premier League with 16 points from 31 games, 12 points from the safety of 17th place with only seven matches left.
The Frenchman follows chief executive Tom Fox and sporting director Hendrik Almstadt out of the club.
Villa's demise is a shocking tale of mismanagement that is taking the club into the Championship with no guarantee of a swift return - and Garde leaves after an ignominious and short reign.
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When Garde was appointed to replace Tim Sherwood on 2 November, he came with a glowing reference in a rare public utterance from owner Randy Lerner.
Lerner said: "Remi arrived with honesty, humour and a steely sense of what it will take for Aston Villa to be what it is meant to be - hard working, tireless, creative and unwilling to concede."
Hollow, almost ironic words now as Garde leaves with only two wins and 12 defeats from 20 games, that 10% win ratio the lowest for any Villa manager who has been in charge for at least 15 games, even worse that the 18.4% for Alex McLeish, who won only seven of his 38 games.
For all Lerner's supportive words, Garde can rightly point out the backing was not there when it mattered, namely when not a single player was signed in the January transfer window at a time of desperation as Villa's fate already looked sealed.
Garde was hopeful of doing deals for Seydou Doumbia, the CSKA Moscow striker who ended up on loan at Newcastle United, and a move for Croatian goalkeeper Lovre Kalinic also failed to materialise. It sealed his fate.
His spirit was soon sapped and Garde's body language and rhetoric has taken on the air of a defeated man in recent weeks.
Whether Garde was given a fair chance is open to debate but it can be added to the list of ill-fated decisions by Villa's hierarchy.
Villa's decline has been coming for years - although this season the pace has changed from a stroll towards the abyss into a Usain Bolt-style dash towards the drop.
It can be traced to the shock walkout of manager Martin O'Neill just days before the start of the 2010-11 season. Since then, the club's story has been a tale of managerial instability, poor appointments and a seemingly inevitable march towards the Championship.
They finished ninth that season under Gerard Houllier but his reign was short-lived. He stepped down in June 2011 after only nine months as he needed time to recuperate from heart problems that had troubled him the previous season.
Since then the graph makes grim reading. In the past four seasons Villa have finished 16th, 15th, 15th and 17th - if the danger signs were there they have not been heeded despite being written in large red numbers.
The appointment, in June 2011, of Alex McLeish - the man who had taken fierce rivals Birmingham City into the Championship while winning the League Cup the previous season - was a PR disaster and was symptomatic of the erratic, sometimes inexplicable, decision-making under Lerner.
The longevity - or lack of it - of the managers brought in by Lerner also shows the drift and decline being suffered at a club that has all the infrastructure to be a Premier League superpower, with a magnificent stadium perfectly situated right off the M6, rich history with a European Cup win in 1982 and a huge fanbase in the second city.
Since O'Neill's departure after 152 Premier League games, Houllier lasted just 33, McLeish a full season of 38, Paul Lambert a relative lifetime of 101 before Tim Sherwood's tumultuous 23 matches, which at least included the sideline of an FA Cup final appearance last season, albeit a 4-0 thrashing by Arsenal.
There has also been a talent drain away from Villa Park since the summer of 2009 - although Villa have almost always received top dollar in exchange.
Powerful statements, such as the £18m deal for Sunderland's Darren Bent in January 2011, have been rare, with most of the other heavy traffic travelling the other way.
Gareth Barry left for Manchester City for £12m in June 2009 and was joined by James Milner in a £26m deal in August 2010. Ashley Young went to Manchester United for £17m in June 2011, while Stewart Downing went to Liverpool for £20m in July 2011.
And only last summer, main goalscorer Christian Benteke joined Liverpool for £32.5m and captain Fabian Delph was another off - to Manchester City for £8m - mostly good business financially but not necessarily the actions of a club high on ambition.
Ex-England manager Graham Taylor, a former Villa boss who continues to live in the area, told BBC Sport: "I am like a lot of the supporters - I can't believe what I'm watching. I don't know where it is going to end other than in relegation and it doesn't mean to say it will be the signal for automatic promotion back either.
"I have never known it so low at Aston Villa. Both the club and its supporters are at such a low ebb.
"Somewhere along the line the feeling around the club, with the owner wanting to sell and not being able to, has crept into the dressing room. It is like a slow death in football terms.
"For me there are too many non-football people running football clubs in this country and one of those is Aston Villa."
Villa's American owner is a distant and disconnected figure - rarely seen at games and still searching for a buyer for the club after putting it on the market 20 months ago.
He has become increasingly unpopular as Villa remain rudderless, that white flag of Premier League surrender effectively being waved since the inaction and inertia of that January transfer window.
Lerner has been shuffling Villa's boardroom around, inviting quips about deckchairs and the Titanic - and Villa fans will need to see hard evidence of progress before they regard it as anything else.
West Midlands businessman Steve Hollis is now chairman, while former FA chairman David Bernstein and ex-Villa striker and manager Brian Little have joined a revamped board. Former governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King is also a director while former FA executive Adrian Bevington has been working with the club.
Lerner's presence remains a problem, however, because he clearly wants to sell, but the lack of takers means he is stuck in a loveless marriage at a club for which he once had such high ambitions.
Lerner agreed his purchase of the club from Sir Doug Ellis for £64m in August 2006 and estimates of his current asking price range from between £150m to £200m, but there are no potential buyers in sight and relegation will surely drive away any big-money interest.
"When you have owners who are looking to sell and the results on the pitch aren't going well, it leaves a distaste about things," added Taylor.
"The owners at the moment haven't been able to sell and I don't think, particularly with the threat of relegation, that they are going to get the money they're asking. Would a potential buyer risk a lot of money on a club in the Championship? I don't think so."
So it seems, through thin and thin, Villa's fans and Lerner are currently stuck with each other.
BBC Sport's Pat Murphy: "Remi Garde is the latest manager to feel let down by Lerner. No-one would've blamed Garde if he'd walked out when the January transfer window closed after he'd been promised new signings when he was appointed in November.
"But Garde ended up lumbered with the same squad that got Tim Sherwood the sack in October.
"Lerner must take major responsibility for Villa turning from relegation sleepwalkers into headlong dashers towards the rocks.
"When he took over in 2006, he accomplished many good, well-intentioned things, exuding respect for the club. Above all he was ABDD - Anyone But Deadly Doug - but Lerner has achieved the improbable feat of making many Villa fans realise that the old boy wasn't so bad after all.
"At least 92-year-old Sir Doug Ellis still turns up at matches, home and away. The absentee Lerner's made it clear for a long time that he wants out.
"Putting the club up for sale in May 2014 was a serious misjudgement. He was counselled against it by several close advisors but many billionaires have an obdurate streak - how else to justify hiring the former Birmingham manager McLeish, amid great scepticism and hostility?
"Why else has Lerner ruled out giving a press conference since May 2010? He is an articulate, voluble man but sees no need to communicate with the supporters via the media, other than occasional banalities via the club's press office.
"Once the club was on the market, with a failure to secure a quick deal, the impression has solidified of drift, inertia and delusion that it will all come right soon enough. Lauding Villa's enviable history, stadium and status while the roof's falling in is just averting the eyes to reality.
"It was a major failing not to have experienced footballing nous on the board until Bernstein and Little (the latter in an advisory capacity) were recently brought in.
"In nine years in charge, Lerner has got through four chief executives and six managers and counting - three of those in 2015, hardly the acme of stability. He and his cohorts may coo over increased commercial turnover and promising revenue streams, but that means nothing to the fans.
"Lerner cannot be held totally responsible for the current mess, but the key appointments he has sanctioned in recent years have not improved results on the field. As the Sicilian proverb notes, the fish rots first at the head."
There is never a good season to get relegated - but with vast riches about to float into the Premier League as a result of a new TV rights deal next season, a departure now will be acutely painful in football and financial terms.
The Premier League announced the new deal, worth a record £5.136bn, in February, a 71% rise on the last agreement.
It means that even the club that finishes bottom of the Premier League in 2016-17 will pocket £99m and the champions will earn more than £150m, even before additional fees are paid to clubs that stage more TV matches than others.
The vast majority of the Premier League clubs could break into the top 30 richest in the world as a result - Villa are now destined to miss out.


People have been warned not to use drones near Swansea Bay during the Wales Airshow.

The two-day event got underway on Saturday, and includes a Red Arrows display , a Typhoon Eurofighter and the Tigers Parachute Display Team.
Organisers are reminding people it takes place in restricted airspace and that drones are "strictly prohibited".
An estimated 100,000 people were expected to see the show on Saturday, organisers tweeted.
Anyone found using drones within six miles (9.6km) of the bay will have them confiscated, they said in a statement.
The use of drones, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned aircraft systems (UASs), is restricted in the UK under Civil Aviation Authority rules and regulations.
Infringing restricted airspace carries a potential court fine of Â£2,500 and a prison sentence of up to five years.
Thousands of visitors are expected to flock to the airshow, after last summer's event attracted about 200,000 visitors.


New lessons on the dangers of concussion have been made available to all schoolchildren in Northern Ireland.

The lessons are part of the "Recognise and Remove" campaign for schools on the risks associated with head injuries.
They can be accessed online at the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) website.
The campaign was launched following the death of Benjamin Robinson from Carrickfergus in a rugby match in 2011.
The 14-year-old was allowed to carry on playing despite suffering from concussion.
His parents had argued he should have been taken off the pitch, after being momentarily knocked out during the game.
While most attention has been focused on rugby, Benjamin's father, Peter, said there were risks beyond the rugby pitch.
"We teach swimming, we teach road safety, and concussion can happen anywhere," he said.
"Rugby is probably leading the way when it comes to dealing with concussion, but it can happen in any sport.
"It doesn't even have to be in the sports environment, so it's vital that everyone knows the signs and symptoms."
Mr Robinson was at the launch of the lessons at Lagan College in Belfast, as were representatives from the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), Ulster Rugby, the Irish Football Association (IFA) and Ulster Hockey.
The lessons are not compulsory, but Education Minister John O'Dowd said that it was important they were widely used.
"In extreme cases, lives could depend on this, and we want young people to know that they are not letting the team down if they feel they cannot continue," he said.
"The coach should also not be under pressure to make sure a young person stays on the pitch.
"The best thing to do if someone has a head injury is that they sit the rest of the game out."
The Principal of Lagan College, Amanda McNamee, said it was vital to be prepared.
"It's something we've seen not only on the sports pitch, but when children are playing and moving around at the school," she said.
"We become the parents of the children during the school day when they're in our care, so it's important that we don't put children unduly at risk and we are making sound decisions based on information we have been given."


Staff at Japanese electronics firm Fujitsu are to take further strike action in the UK as part of a dispute over cuts to jobs and pensions.

The union Unite said the company, which announced 1,800 job cuts in October, was "keeping them in the dark over its plans for the future".
Members will strike for 24 hours on 13 and 24 April and two days on 20 April. It follows four other days of action.
The firm has a range of businesses in the UK, employing 14,000 people.
Workers in Crewe, Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Stevenage, Wakefield, Warrington, Basingstoke, Belfast, Birmingham and Bracknell will be involved.
Ian Tonks, Unite national officer, said: "The way Fujitsu is treating its workforce and keeping them in the dark over its plans for the future is beyond contempt.
"This is a workforce that has worked hard to make Fujitsu in the UK highly profitable, yet their reward is job cuts and pension reductions, while the company frustrates Unite's attempts to minimise compulsory redundancies."
Announcing the cuts last year, Fujitsu said it was part of a "transformation programme" within the company and not linked to Brexit, although Fujitsu chairman Masami Yamamoto said last May the firm would reconsider its investments in the UK if it left the European Union.
Fujitsu has not commented on the strike announcement.


More than 40 labour and human rights groups have urged Thailand to end a project to recruit prisoners to work on fishing boats.

In a letter to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha they said the project would not address the problems in the fishing industry and posed a serious threat to prisoners' rights.
Thailand is the world's third-largest seafood exporter.
Its fishing industry has been suffering from a labour shortage.
More than 300,000 people work in the industry. Many are illegal migrants from neighbouring countries who are often subject to ill-treatment.
The lack of manpower has fuelled human trafficking.
"Simply replacing vulnerable migrant workers with released prisoners will not solve the abusive working conditions and many other problems present in the Thai fishing industry," the letter says.
Last December the Thai labour ministry announced it would send consenting prisoners who had less than a year of their sentence left to go and work on fishing boats.
On Wednesday the ministry added it was not sending current inmates to sea but that a pilot scheme was intended to help ex-prisoners find work, while also addressing the labour shortage and fighting human trafficking.
As a result, more than 170 prisoners were now working on fishing boats in Samut Sakhon province west of Bangkok, it added.
The warning by rights groups comes as Thailand is trying to boost its record in fighting human trafficking ahead of a US deadline to show improvement.
In its annual report on human trafficking last June, the US state department downgraded Thailand to the lowest status for not fully complying with minimum standards for its elimination.
The Prime Minister, Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha, has acknowledged the complicity of some Thai authorities in smuggling people and forcing them to work in the fishing industry.


Booker Group, Britain's biggest cash-and-carry wholesaler, is to buy local grocery chains Londis and Budgens.

Booker has said that it will pay £40m to Ireland's Musgrave Retail Partners for Londis' 1,630 convenience stores and Budgens' 167 franchise outlets.
Londis and Budgens have struggled to maintain their share of the British grocery market amid a supermarket price war.
They chalked up a combined operating loss of £7.4m in 2014.
"The grocery market in Great Britain is experiencing fundamental and permanent structural change, with intense competition and a deflationary environment," said chief executive Chris Martin of Musgrave Group.
"Given these challenging market dynamics, we carefully evaluated all of the possible options for our [British] business."
Musgrave has owned Londis and Budgens since 2002.
Booker said that access to its supply chain and economies of scale are expected to boost Londis and Budgens' financial performance.
"We anticipate that the acquisition will be earnings neutral in the first complete year of ownership and earnings enhancing thereafter," said Booker.
Completion of the acquisition depends on the approval of the Competition and Markets Authority.
As well as announcing the deal, Booker also reported its full-year results, with pre-tax profits rising 14% to £138.8m.
Shares in Booker jumped on news of its results and the planned acquisition. By mid-morning they were up more than 10% at 167.70p.


Skipper William Porterfield scored a century as Ireland beat the United Arab Emirates by 85 runs in Thursday's one-day international in Dubai.

Opener Porterfield was out for 100 after striking one six and eight fours in a 116-ball innings.
Kevin O'Brien hit 69 and his wicketkeeper brother Niall 33 as Ireland were dismissed for 270 with three balls of the 50 overs remaining.
Rohan Mustafa top-scored with 43 as the UAE were all out for 185.
Spinner George Dockrell claimed three wickets with two each for Peter Chase and Andrew McBrine.
The sides meet again in another one-day game on Saturday and then Ireland travel to Greater Noida in India for nine matches against Afghanistan across three different formats.
"It is great to start the tour with a win, as the pitch was doing a bit early on," said Warwickshire batsman Porterfield.
"After losing a couple of wickets, we showed great character to rebuild, and we had a few really good partnerships in the middle.
"Kevin O'Brien did a great job for us, although we would have liked a few more runs in the last 10 overs and that would have given us a great all-round batting performance."


More than 200 people have been prosecuted since a new revenge porn law came into force in England and Wales last year, a Crown Prosecution Service report on crimes against women shows.

The director of public prosecutions said the cases were part of a trend of crimes committed through social media.
The use of the internet to control and threaten victims was rising, she said.
Domestic abuse and sex offences make up 18.6% of CPS cases, with prosecutions and convictions at record levels.
The CPS's annual Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) report, which also incorporates data on abuse and sex offences against men and boys, has been produced since 2007.
So-called revenge porn often involves an ex-partner uploading sexual images of the victim to cause the victim humiliation or embarrassment.
It became an offence to share private sexual photographs or films without the subject's consent in England and Wales in April 2015 , with a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment.
The CPS report said 206 people were prosecuted for disclosing private sexual images in the first year of the offence.
It did not specify the number of cases referred to prosecutors.
However, Freedom of Information responses to the BBC from 31 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales showed there had been 1,160 reported incidents of revenge pornography from April 2015 to December 2015.
The responses showed some victims were as young as 11 but 61% of reported offences resulted in no action being taken against the alleged perpetrator.  Among the main reasons cited by police include a lack of evidence or the victim withdrawing support for any action.
In the year 2015-16, ending in March:
Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders said changes in the way sexual offences are prosecuted had helped improve conviction rates.
She said she had doubled resources in specialist units handling rape and serious sexual offence cases, and that prosecutors received detailed training.
"Today a rape, domestic abuse, sexual offence or child abuse case is more likely to be prosecuted and convicted than ever before," she added, but there was "still more to be done to ensure all victims receive the service they deserve."
Ms Saunders said technology had created a "new landscape for controlling, sexually-motivated or other forms of inter-personal offending".
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We're working very hard with prosecutors and with social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook to make sure that we understand exactly how social media might be used but we also understand how we might extract the evidence from social media."
By Danny Shaw, Home Affairs Correspondent
Although this category of offences, Violence against Women and Girls, includes crimes against men and boys, the vast majority of victims are female.
In years gone by, their allegations were often not taken seriously; violence in the home was treated as "just a domestic" with police reluctant to get involved; prosecutions weren't considered or were abandoned too readily unless the case was clear-cut.
These figures, however, together with a series of new criminal offences, provide evidence of real change in the justice system, with the CPS more willing to prosecute than ever before.
The question is - do they and the police have sufficient staff to cope with the workload? At a time of scarce resources there's a risk of burn-out.
Rachel Krys from the End Violence Against Women coalition welcomed the report, but said: "The majority of women and girls subject to these crimes do not report them to the police, and the specialist services which support them are fighting for survival."
Polly Neate, chief executive of Women's Aid, said the rise in prosecutions and convictions was because "survivors of domestic abuse are starting to have more confidence in the criminal justice system.
"However, we know that much more work is still needed, particularly in understanding of the nature and impact of coercive control."
Rebecca Hitchin from the charity Rape Crisis said some sexual offence victims may still be reluctant to come forward through a fear of not being believed or because of a "potential for backlash" from family and peers.
She said a lengthy and complicated prosecution process could also discourage victims from coming forward.
Revenge porn became a specific offence in Scotland in April when the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm Act came into effect, and was made a crime in Northern Ireland in February through the amendment of an existing law.


David Miller made a 6,000-mile journey by helicopter, plane and car to get to Glamorgan's T20 match with Leicestershire... but did not bat!

But the South Africa batsman said it was "great" to be part of the club's T20 Blast quarter-final win over Leicestershire.
Miller lined up in Cardiff some 27 hours after leaving Potchefstroom, where he played for South Africa A.
"It was great to be here, but I didn't do much," Miller told BBC Wales Sport.
Miller will now remain in the UK for Finals Day at Edgbaston on 2 September.
He had originally signed for six group games, played a huge part in their successful campaign, and was brought back for the knock-out stages, despite facing an overnight dash from his home country.
"I'm going to write that one down for the record books," Miller said of his mammoth race against the clock.
"I didn't know when the four-day game [in South Africa] was going to finish so it was up in the air, but it was relaxed in the end.
"Captain Jacques Rudolph's pretty well connected so he organised a helicopter which took me 25 minutes to get to Johannesburg instead of two hours, and I had a pretty nice flight."
But Rudolph welcomed Miller's presence even without contributing directly.
"If you're in the opposition and you see him on the team list, it will give you a headache and that was part of the plan," he confirmed.
"His energy in the field, his attitude and commitment to Glamorgan have been fantastic, and he'll stay with us until Finals Day."
Miller played in the 2012 Finals Day at Cardiff for Yorkshire, when he was man of the match scoring 72 not out in their defeat by Hampshire.
"It's always nice to be on the big stages of semi-finals and finals, the guys have been playing great cricket and I've been welcomed back," he added.


Professional footballers can perform dozens of headers during a match, and hundreds more over a week's training - adding up to tens of thousands of blows to the head over their career.

Scientists now say that repeated blows to the head from headers may be linked to long-term brain damage.
The research examined the brains of six players renowned for headers - all of whom developed dementia in later life.
Here, players and coaches share their reactions.
Ian St John, who played for Liverpool between 1961-71, says six of his teammates - from a group of about 16 players - now have Alzheimer's.
"For people of my vintage, I would say all the facts that we have got, stand up," he told the Victoria Derbyshire programme.
"And I don't know why the FA and the PFA have covered this up for years.
"I talked about it to the PFA a couple of years ago, and their answer was: 'Well, women get dementia, so therefore it's not an industrial injury'. Which is a load of nonsense isn't it?
"I don't know about today's light ball, but in our era, heading that heavy ball day in and day out - not just at matches but training as well - the lads know at this stage of their lives we're either dying or have dementia.
"The footballs that we've been heading for years are causing this, but they're [the FA] in denial about it.
"How many goalkeepers have got dementia over the years? If they did a survey, it would be interesting if the answer was none, which means that the goalkeeper - the only guy on the field who is not heading the ball on the field - is OK."
Former England striker Kevin Davies says contact sportsmen know there's always going to be a risk, but more research needs to be done.
"I'm well renowned for heading the ball and we used to get all the stats back - during the game it can be between 25 and 40 times.
"When you start to look at the numbers in terms of professional players, the amount of contact they have with the ball - if you look at my career, 800 career games, and then you take into training, the numbers start to stack up and it could be anywhere between 10,000 and 50,000 times that you're heading the ball.
"The ball has changed a lot, the training methods have changed a lot now.
"[Previously] you'd see some sessions where you were hurling balls at defenders and it was a bit scary at the time - I think that has changed a lot and the style of football has changed a lot but there needs to be more research with the new footballs."
Gordon Smith, former Scottish Football Association chief executive, says he expects youth football to ban headers.
"Certainly, I know, I'm an ambassador of the Scottish Youth FA in Scotland and they're looking at it because they understand what's happened in America regarding the banning of kids heading the ball from 11 downwards.
"I see football at the younger level and because now the game has changed from 11-a-side up until they're 12 years old to seven-a-side games, the ball is very rarely ever in the air. The kids aren't heading the ball as much as they used to - there's no doubt about that.
"And the secondary aspect of it is that from Ian [St John's] day, the ball has improved a lot - they were very, very heavy. I think a lot of the damage was done because of those types of balls. And people were doing a lot of heading backwards - there's no doubt about it.
"I think that ban [on young players heading] will come to this country soon. I would say that from 12 years downwards there should definitely be no heading the ball at all.
"You can imagine sometime in the future they might be a scenario where each player has to sign a disclaimerâ€¦to say that if I'm playing football I am taking this risk."
Nathan Sargeson, lead football coach with Little Lions football club in East Lancashire, says children rarely perform headers.
He says: "The latest footballs that are used have come a long way and the technology around the ball - where it's more synthetic leather, rather than the solid leather casing.
"But it's like Kevin [Davies] said; in grassroots football you don't see a lot of kids heading the ball - it's really how much is done at training.
"Obviously you've got to limit that amount and think about it - and obviously with the findings and the studies, you've got to take it all into account."


Millions of Indians are celebrating Christmas throughout the country.

With 24 million followers, Christianity is India's third-largest religion. Christians comprise 2.3% of the country's population.


France's PSA Group, maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars, is in talks about taking over General Motors' (GM) loss-making European business Opel.

PSA, which already works with GM in Europe on several projects, said a takeover was  among "numerous strategic initiatives" being considered.
Any deal would involve Opel's UK arm Vauxhall, which employs 4,500 staff at plants at Ellesmere Port and Luton.
Unite union leader Len McCluskey said he wanted urgent talks with GM.
"My priority now is to speak to General Motors to seek immediate assurances for the UK plants and this loyal workforce.
"I'll also be seeking urgent conversations with the government, because everything must be done to secure our world-class automotive industry," he said.
In addition to the employees at Vauxhall's manufacturing sites, the company said that 23,000 people worked in the retail network and 7,000 in its UK supply chain.
An Opel takeover would see GM exit UK and Europe, while transforming PSA Group into Europe's second-largest carmaker - behind VW - with a 16% share of the European market. Renault-Nissan is currently Europe's second biggest carmaker.
The French state holds a 14% stake in PSA, as do the Peugeot family and Chinese firm Dongfeng Motor.
"PSA confirms that it is exploring a number of strategic initiatives with GM with the aim of increasing its profitability and operating efficiency, including a potential acquisition of Opel," said spokesman Bertrand Blaise.
However, the company added "there can be no assurance that an agreement will be reached".
GM also said that "there can be no assurance that an agreement will be reached".
In December 2013, GM sold its 7% stake in PSA for Â£250m, after plans to make cost savings from co-operating on a number of projects were not as successful as envisaged.
That failed experiment led PSA to seek a bailout from the French government and Dongfeng.
In 2009, after GM's bankruptcy the US car giant came close to selling German-based Opel, but changed its mind in order to retain a strong presence in Europe.
The PSA announcement comes a week after GM reported a loss of $257m from its European operations last year.
That was the 16th consecutive loss-making year for GM in Europe, bringing its cumulated losses on the continent since 2000 to more than $15bn.
Mr McCluskey said he was "really disappointed" with how the news of the talks emerged after the GM president gave him personal assurances at the end of last year that there would be no surprises when it came to the future of the UK plants.
He told the PA news agency: "While this has come out of the blue, we are absolutely determined - UK plants will not be allowed to close.
"I have no intention of allowing GM to walk away from our plants and workers - so my message to the workers at Luton, Ellesmere Port and the tens of thousands in the wider supply chain is this, remain strong and stay united.
"The UK and the EU are among GM's biggest markets - if they think that they can walk away from dedicated workers and loyal consumers without a care, they need to think again."


Another delay in developing a rapid transit system linking east and west Belfast has been criticised by SDLP MLA John Dallat.

The Department for Regional Development (DRD) says the project has now been pushed back to August 2018.
Mr Dallat said: "This is yet another setback in the pursuit of a modern transport system fit for purpose.
"On this occasion we do not have a minister to answer questions or explain what has led to another delay.
"This announcement, coming amid yet another political crisis, suits those responsible for the mess, but who have been left virtually unaccountable by the impending collapse of the executive.
"The minister would be serving this community better if he was present to explain this latest cop-out in a departmental project managed entirely by civil servants," he added.
DRD secretary Peter May said he recognised this was "going to be a disappointment" but said he wished to stress the delay did not relate to the "current political difficulties" or the resignation of the regional development minister.
"Severe budget pressures remain on the department and there is still uncertainty about the position for future years," he said.
"Continued uncertainty has meant that the programme has not been able to commit resources in the original time frame."
Mr Dallat said that in this instance, Translink was not to blame because "this is a project where the total responsibility lies with the DRD".
"They have failed and must now come before the committee to explain the reason for this delay," he said.
"The rapid transport system is a poor substitute for a proper dedicated cross-city rail system but at the least it was a beginning, now we need to know when the beginning will be."
The rapid transport system was originally due to begin operating by autumn 2017.


Daniel Craig has had surgery to repair a knee injury sustained while filming scenes for the new James Bond film.

Eon Productions said he had had a "minor procedure" in New York during a break in production over Easter.
A spokeswoman denied reports the 47-year-old had missed several days of filming on the 24th Bond film, Spectre.
"During a scheduled break, Daniel Craig had arthroscopic surgery to repair his knee injury. He will rejoin production on April 22nd at Pinewood," she said.
Filming on Spectre began at Pinewood Studios, in Buckinghamshire, last December, and has since moved to Rome and Mexico.
It is Craig's fourth outing as the secret service agent, and follows the success of 2012's Skyfall, which made $1.1 billion (Â£737 million) worlwide.
The film features Christoph Waltz plays a character called Oberhauser - which, in the novels, is the name of Bond's former skiing instructor. However, it has been rumoured the actor will be revealed as Bond's old nemesis, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Blofeld was the "number one" in Spectre, an international crime syndicate which last featured in the Sean Connery-era films.
The shady organisation also counted the metal-handed scientist Dr Julius No and eyepatch-wearing Emilio Largo amongst its villainous ranks.
Spectre will be released on 6 November, 2015.


Theresa May is holding talks with EU Nato members as she attempts to build alliances ahead of Brexit.

The prime minister arrived in the Maltese capital Valletta with a message that Europe must increase its defence spending, following her talks about the future of Nato with Donald Trump.
The UK is one of the few alliance members to meet pledges to spend a minimum of 2% of GDP on defence.
Mrs May will also pledge UK help with the EU migrant crisis post Brexit.
She will argue that she wants a "new, positive and constructive" relationship with the EU after Brexit - and will use one-to-one talks with German chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy to promise the UK will remain a "reliable partner".
She is also expected to stress that a strong EU is in the interests of the UK.
Mrs May's visit comes two days after MPs voted to allow her to get Brexit negotiations under way.
She is expected to have an informal "brush by" with Malta's prime minister, Joseph Muscat, who told the BBC's World Service that while he wants a "fair deal" for the UK after Brexit, it must be "inferior" to full EU membership.
"No one wants the UK economy to suffer, I think this is a lose-lose situation," said Mr Muscat, whose country holds the rotating European Council presidency.
While he says he expects a transitional deal for Britain will be agreed quite easily, he stressed: "Now, in my book if you're not part of the single market, that is an inferior deal. But maybe for the British government if you're not part of the single market but get to control your borders that's a superior deal."
By John Pienaar, BBC deputy political editor
Britain's strategic ambition to act as a bridge between Europe and the United States long predates Brexit, but it has now become a central component of the government's hopes of keeping and building influence in the world.
Theresa May will tell EU leaders of her particular achievement - as Downing Street sees it - in drawing a promise of a 100% commitment to Nato from Donald Trump, following earlier indications that his commitment to the Western alliance was wavering.
But pressing for higher defence spending looks like a tough ask.
And her hopes of becoming a bridge - or honest broker - between the EU and the US won't be easily fulfilled either.
Mr Trump is no supporter of the EU - he favours nation-to-nation relationships.
He's also mentioned the German leader Angela Merkel in the same breath as Vladimir Putin in discussing future relations, and the French President Francois Hollande has urged EU leaders to stand up to him.
Like much of the prime minister's post-Brexit mission, this strategic ambition is more easily conceived than carried out.
Mrs May was the first foreign leader to visit the Trump White House and she will use the European Council summit to tell Nato members they need to increase their spending on defence.
Mr Trump had previously called the transatlantic alliance "obsolete", but Mrs May will tell EU leaders that at talks in the US last week, he confirmed he was "100% behind Nato".
But while close trade and strategic ties with the Trump administration are central to Downing Street's plans for Britain after Brexit, relations between the White House and European leaders are already strained, after the US ban on refugees and visa holders from a number of mainly Muslim countries.
Speaking at a joint press conference in Washington with President Trump last Friday, Mrs May said the burden of spending within Nato should be more "fairly shared".
Nato estimates for 2016 show that only five alliance members - the US, UK, Greece, Poland and Estonia - will spend a minimum of 2% of national output (GDP) on defence, which is the target.
However, Swedish foreign minister Margot WallstrÃ¶m told the BBC her country, which is an EU member but not a full Nato member, will not commit to the 2% target.
"No... We'll put together a parliamentary commission that will look into this and decide what priorities there should be on defence spending in the future," she told Radio 4's Today.
She also dismissed the suggestion President Trump could be brought on board by European countries if they committed to that 2% target, adding: "That means you will have to reduce other types of spending, so you'll always have to make a political choice.
"I really think we should invest in building peace and making sure that we have a political situation in Europe and the world that reduces the tensions and creates better chances for peace."
Mr Trump has said that Nato allies are over-reliant on the US and has questioned whether the US should defend any alliance partner, under Article 5, if so many of the 28 Nato members are not paying their way.
But Ms WallstrÃ¶m said: "Sometimes it's an advantage of not being a member of Nato - we decide for ourselves. We decide also our own spending and budget."
Mrs May is expected to depart from Valletta after morning discussions, leaving the remaining EU leaders to discuss plans for a summit in Rome in March and the future of the EU.


Spain has agreed to extradite to Colombia a former Farc rebel accused of carrying out 300 forced abortions on women fighters, some of them underage.

Hector Arboleda Albeidis Buitrago, who has Spanish nationality, was detained in Madrid in December 2015.
He will face trial in Colombia for murder, attempted murder and abortion without consent.
Mr Arboleda Buitrago had been working as a nurse with no medical training, Colombian prosecutors say.
On Friday, Spanish authorities gave the green light to a Colombian justice minister's request and agreed to hand him over to a court in Bogota.
His arrest in 2015 formed part of an investigation relating to 150 cases involving former Farc fighters who said they had been forced to terminate their pregnancies.
Known as "The Nurse", Mr Arboleda Buitrago is accused of taking part in most of those abortions.
Colombian authorities said the procedures were carried out in filthy conditions, with no medication, on women who were often in their final months of pregnancy.
They added that the women came from indigenous communities and should have been protected during their pregnancies and should have been relieved of their duties as Farc officers.
Female rebels were compelled to have abortions so as not to undermine their fighting ability, although the left-wing rebels have denied this in the past, saying that contraception was made available.
In an interview with the BBC in 2015, one female rebel in Bogota said that she had been forced to have five abortions. She said that women in the organisation were expected to fight, and those who were allowed to have babies considered themselves lucky.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc, after the initials in Spanish) are Colombia's largest rebel group.
They were founded in 1964 as the armed wing of the Communist Party and follow a Marxist-Leninist ideology.
Their main founders were small farmers and land workers who had banded together to fight against the staggering levels of inequality in Colombia at the time.
While the Farc have some urban groups, they have always been an overwhelmingly rural guerrilla organisation.
In November 2016, the Colombian government and the Farc rebel group announced a second peace agreement after an initial deal was rejected.
The conflict up to this point had lasted more than five decades and resulted in about 260,000 deaths, with millions of people displaced.


Gloucester have signed former Australia Under-20 prop Cameron Orr, while front row Paddy McAllister has agreed a new contract with the Premiership club.

Orr, 21, is English qualified and came through Waratahs' academy before playing for Australian National Rugby Championship side Greater Sydney Rams.
He has played two junior world rugby championships for Australia Under-20s.
Belfast-born McAllister, 26, joined Gloucester in 2015 and made 17 appearances for the club last season.
"We're delighted with [McAllister's] progression over the past 12 months and we are excited to see him develop further," director of rugby David Humphreys told the club's website.
Orr added: "I've watched a fair bit of Premiership rugby on the television back home and it looks to be a really competitive league.
"I've also been told that Gloucester will be playing quite a few local derbies, which sounds great."
Long-serving loose-head prop Nick Wood left the Cherry and Whites in June after 15 years with the side.


An appeal for information about a man who has not been seen for a year has been made by police.

Damion Vernon, 32, of Bridlington, East Yorkshire, was last seen on 8 December 2014 and reported missing a day later.
He left a Vauxhall Corsa in Sycamore Street in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and has not returned home.
There is no suggestion of criminal activity and the case is to be kept open as a long-term missing person enquiry, said Humberside Police.
Officers investigating the case completed "all lines of enquiry" in June and nothing new has materialised since then, the force said.
Ch Insp Matt Baldwin said: "The past year has been an extremely difficult one for the family as, not only has Damion not returned home, his mother died in May."
He said officers had spoken to more than 200 people about the disappearance and carried out searches of the route that Mr Vernon, of Headlands Close, Bridlington, may have taken on the day he disappeared.
Images from CCTV have been watched and a search of a 35-mile (56km) stretch of the River Calder carried out but "every avenue has drawn a blank", Ch Insp Baldwin said.
The appeal has asked for anyone with information to come forward.
Mr Vernon is described as white, 6ft (1.8m) tall, with a slim build and light brown hair.


Feyenoord won the Dutch Super Cup despite having a goal ruled out by the video assistant referee (VAR) in bizarre circumstances.

With Feyenoord leading 1-0, Vitesse forward Tim Matavz appeared to be fouled inside the box but referee Danny Makkelie did not stop play.
Feyenoord broke quickly and scored but Makkelie used VAR to award the penalty to Vitesse and rule out the goal.
Vitesse equalised from the spot but went on to lose 4-2 on penalties.
Former Liverpool goalkeeper Brad Jones was Feyenoord's hero in the shootout, saving the first two spot kicks.
The match had finished 1-1 in normal time, with Jens Toornstra putting Feyenoord ahead inside the first 10 minutes and Alexander Buttner converting the controversial penalty.
VAR can only review incidents relating to goals, red cards, mistaken identities and penalties.
The technology can be used while the ball is in play, but not while either team is in an attacking position.


Some struggling GP surgeries in England will be allowed to fail and close, according to a leaked document.

A letter from an NHS England official to managers and GPs in one region suggests vulnerable practices could be left to "wither by the system".
The note, seen by the BBC and Pulse magazine, claims NHS England is no longer able to "continue supporting practices irrespective of their ability… to transform appropriately".
NHS England denied this was the case.
A spokesman for the British Medical Association said it was "unacceptable" that some NHS managers believed that some GP practices would be left to close.
A practice may be vulnerable due to:
These are often practices rated by regulators as "inadequate" or "requiring improvement".
It comes as media reports suggest much of a special fund to help struggling GP surgeries has not yet been handed out more than a year after it was unveiled. In June 2015, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced a £10m investment in GP practices in England which were deemed to be vulnerable. This was formally launched by NHS England later in the year.
But last week, the medical publication Pulse reported that barely any of the fund had reached GPs.  Managers administering the fund in each area were said to be still identifying which vulnerable practices would qualify for the support.
NHS England did not deny the report, though a source said the organisation was "working through its local teams to ensure the funding available through the vulnerable practice programme is fully committed to named individual practices by the end of October".
Around 800 out of a total of 8,000 practices are deemed by NHS England to be in the vulnerable category. The criteria include a high number of patients per GP and an "inadequate" or "requires improvement" rating by the regulator, the CQC.
NHS chiefs said the aim was to provide support for practices under pressure and to ensure patients had continued access to high quality care.
In April 2016, NHS England announced an extra £16m for this year for a so-called "practice resilience programme", with another £24m in subsequent years.
This pool of money was also aimed at shoring up struggling practices and was part of the GP Practice Forward View unveiled by the head of NHS England Simon Stevens.
But a letter sent by Paul Twomey, medical director of the NHS England North Yorkshire and Humber area team, to local GPs and health officials in August suggests a harder line stance.
In it he says: "The message we need to communicate to general practice is the GP Practice Forward View must be about transformation and in that sense is not like a pilot."
He goes on to express his belief that local health leaders will understand that "vulnerable practices must either transform and deliver a quality service or be allowed to fail and wither by the system. We are no longer in a position to continue supporting practices irrespective of their willingness or ability as a provider to transform appropriately."
Dr Richard Vautrey from the British Medical Association's GP committee said this approach was unacceptable.
He called on the government to deliver the funding immediately and "deter a mindset amongst managers that some GP practices can be allowed to disappear".
An NHS England spokesperson said: "Rising patient demand is placing GPs under more pressure and that is why we are reversing the historic under-investment in general practice through a wide-ranging action plan, backed with half a billion pounds to support struggling practices.
"This includes a four-year, £40m programme for helping the GP surgeries facing the most difficulties and further practical measures to stabilise general practice for the future."
References to surgeries and practices being "allowed to fail" comes at a sensitive time in the debate about the state of NHS primary care in England.
There has been a steady stream of surgery closures and recruitment problems. GPs complain of a growing and sometimes intolerable workload.
Last month 2,000 patients were left without a GP after a surgery was closed in Nottingham following an "inadequate" regulatory rating. They were advised to contact other surgeries nearby.
In July, an Oxfordshire doctor's surgery announced it would close because it claimed changes to the national GP contract made it "financially unviable" and two partners were due to retire. This week, a North Yorkshire practice said it would close in the New Year.
NHS England, while promising to boost the share of the overall NHS budget going to general practice, has encouraged doctors to pool resources by forming "super-partnerships" and federations.
Improving out-of-hours access and working more closely with community health services are also on the task list for GP groups. The underlying message is that more efficient ways of delivering care at a time of stretched resources are required.
NHS chiefs are under pressure to find efficiency savings and a multitude of smaller practices might not be the best use of resources.
But the danger is that a process of modernisation and consolidation involving surgery closures could leave patients in some areas unable to get a GP appointment.


This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to three women - Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen.

They were recognised for their "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".
Mrs Sirleaf is Africa's first female elected head of state, Ms Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist and Ms Karman is a leading figure in Yemen's pro-democracy movement.
"We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women achieve the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society," said Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland in Oslo.
Reading from the prize citation, he said the committee hoped the prize would "help to bring an end to the suppression of women that still occurs in many countries, and to realise the great potential for democracy and peace that women can represent".
German Chancellor Angela Merkel - deemed by Forbes the world's most powerful woman - called the award a "wise decision".
But Mrs Sirleaf's main rival in polls this coming Tuesday, Winston Tubman, told the BBC she did not deserve the prize and was a "warmonger".
Mrs Karman heard of her win from protest camp Change Square in the capital Sanaa, where she has been living for several months calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to stand down.
She was recognised for playing a leading part in the struggle for women's rights in Yemen's pro-democracy protests "in the most trying circumstances" and is the first Arab woman to win the prize.
As the head of Yemeni organisation Women Journalists without Chains, Mrs Karman has been jailed several times.
Mrs Karman told BBC Arabic she was dedicating it to "all the martyrs and wounded of the Arab Spring" - the wave of unrest which has swept the Middle East and North Africa in the past year - and to "all the free people who are fighting for their rights".
Mr Jagland said the oppression of women was "the most important issue" in the Arab world and that awarding the prize to Ms Karman was "giving the signal that if it [the Arab Spring] is to succeed with efforts to make democracy, it has to include women".
Mrs Sirleaf, 72, who had been widely tipped as a winner, said the award was "for all Liberian people" and a recognition of "many years of struggle for justice".
She was elected in 2005, following the end of Liberia's bloody and ruinous 14-year civil war.
Upon coming to office, the US-educated economist and former finance minister - known as Liberia's "Iron Lady" - pledged to fight corruption and bring "motherly sensitivity and emotion to the presidency".
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - President of Liberia
Tawakul Karman - Yemeni pro-democracy activist
Leymah Gbowee - Liberian peace activist
Profile: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Profile: Leymah Gbowee
Profile: Tawakul Karman
Mrs Sirleaf is standing in Tuesday's election, having previously said she would only hold the presidency for one term.
Her rival Mr Tubman denounced the award, saying she had "brought war here".
She had initially backed the rebels of Charles Taylor - currently on trial for war crimes in The Hague.
Although she has apologised, Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended that she be barred from holding public office for 30 years.
"I did more to stop the war than she did because she was for continuing the war," Mr Tubman said.
"Now that the war has stopped she wants to continue on top of the country as though she is some liberator. She is not."
He told AFP news agency the timing of the award was "provocative".
But Archbishop Desmond Tutu and U2 singer Bono welcomed Mrs Sirleaf's honouring, with Mr Tutu telling AFP: "Woo hoo. She deserves it many times over. She's brought stability to a place that was going to hell."
Her compatriot Ms Gbowee was a leading critic of the violence during the Liberian civil war, mobilising women across ethnic and religious lines in peace activism and encouraging them to participate in elections.
In 2003 she led a march through the capital, Monrovia, demanding an end to the rape of women by soldiers.
The Nobel Committee said she had "worked to enhance the influence of women in West Africa during and after war".
Ms Gbowee told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme: "I am confused. I am humbled. This is the first time in the 39 years of my life that I am out of words.
2010 - Liu Xiaobo - Chinese dissident lawyer
2009 - US President Barack Obama
2008 - Martti Ahtisaari, former Finnish president
2007 - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), former US vice-president and environmental campaigner Al Gore
2006 - Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank
2005 - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its president, Mohamed El Baradei
Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo still in jail
"This is a victory for women rights everywhere in the world. What could be better then three women winning the prize?
"This is the recognition that we hear you, we see you, we acknowledge you."
The women will share the $1.5m (Â£1m) prize money.
The BBC's world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge says that the Nobel Peace Prize originally recognised those who had already achieved peace, but that its scope has broadened in recent years to encourage those working towards peace and acknowledge work in progress.
The Nobel committee received a record 241 nominations for this year's prize - among the individuals and groups believed to have been put forward were the European Union, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and key cyber dissidents in the Arab Spring movement.


An Egyptian court has sentenced an author to two years in jail after sexually explicit extracts from his novel were published in state media.

The case was filed by a private citizen who complained that the passage caused him distress and heart palpitations.
The author, Ahmed Naji, was initially acquitted but prosecutors appealed, leading to this sentence.
High-profile Egyptian writers defended Naji in court, saying the ruling was an attack on free speech.
A prominent columnist expressed outrage over the case on Sunday, accusing President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi of running a state no different from the Islamist rule of the man he toppled as leader, Mohammed Morsi.
"Your state and its agencies, just like those of your predecessor, hate intellectuals, thought and creativity and only like hypocrites, flatterers and composers of poems of support and flattery," Ibrahim Eissa wrote in the al-Maqal daily.
President Morsi was ousted in 2013 amid mass street protests and accusations he was concentrating power in the hands of his Muslim Brotherhood party.
The chapter from Naji's novel The Use of Life appeared in the state-run literary review Akhbar al-Adab.
The newspaper's editor was ordered to pay a fine. Naji can appeal.


Republic of Ireland striker Jonathan Walters has been ruled out of Saturday's Euro 2016 clash against Belgium because of an Achilles injury.

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The Stoke City forward, 32, limped off after 64 minutes of Monday's 1-1 Group E draw with Sweden in Paris.
Walters has not trained since and his absence for the Belgium game was confirmed on Friday.
West Brom midfielder James McClean, Walters' replacement against Sweden, is expected to start in Bordeaux.
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Belgium - ranked second in the world - lost 2-0 to Italy in their opening game.
Italy, who beat Sweden 1-0 on Friday to seal their progress into the last 16, take on the Republic in Lille next Wednesday.
"He thinks he is going to be able to make the Italian game," O'Neill said of Walters on Wednesday.
Wes Hoolahan's opener for the Republic against Sweden at the Stade de France was cancelled out by a Ciaran Clark own goal.
"If that performance doesn't lift you, nothing will," said O'Neill.
"We will have to show the same attitude again, go and compete and be strong on the ball."
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A lorry became stuck after hitting a railway bridge in Norfolk.

The top of the vehicle struck the bridge on the A149 Cromer Road, North Walsham, at about 09:20 BST.
Engineers from Network Rail were called to assess the damage to the bridge and trains were temporarily prevented from using it.
Abellio Greater Anglia said normal service was resumed at 10:47, after the lorry had been removed. Trains were delayed by up to 10 minutes.
The road was also closed in November when a lorry hit the bridge.