World Press Photo Award for Reuters: Canada wins

Canadian photographer Finbarr O'Reilly won the World Press Photo of the Year award Friday for the Reuters news agency with the image of a child's hand pressed against his mother's mouth at an emergency feeding clinic in the hunger-struck nation of Niger .

Photo: World Press Photo Award for Reuters: Canada wins

The photo, which the jury described as having "everything beauty, horror and despair," took one of photojournalism's most prestigious prizes out of more than 80,000 images submitted by professional photographers from 122 countries. The photo was taken in Tahoua, northwestern Niger , on Aug. 1, 2005 .

Reuters also won in the Spot News Singles category, with Lebanese photographer Mohamed Azakir taking the top prize for a photo of a car bomb explosion in Beirut on Feb. 14. In all, 63 photographers from 25 nations won awards.

Getty Images and The Associated Press won the most prizes overall in the competition, with eight and seven awards, respectively. Reuters won three awards, as the Photo of the Year was also a winner in the People in the News Singles category, where it took second place. The winner in that category was Dutch photographer Sven Torfinn's photo of relatives mourning the death of a young girl at a refugee camp in Congo .

In a statement, jury chairman James Colton said O'Reilly's photo stood out among all the photos in the competition and "has haunted me ever since I first saw it." He said it was "simple, elegant and moving." The jury was comprised of 12 members, plus chairman Colton , Sports Illustrated's photo editor.

The AP's Ben Curtis of Britain won the top award in Spot News singles with a photo of street violence during Togo 's presidential elections, with second place going to another AP photographer, Tomas Munita of Chile , for a photo of the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake in October.

The AP also won in General News Singles, with U.S. photographer David Guttenfelder's photo of a father and his son in a field hospital in Muzaffarabad , Pakistan , taken on Oct. 30.

Getty was strongest in sports, winning four separate awards, including U.S. photographer Donald Miralle, Jr., who topped the Sports Action Stories category. Getty also won the top award in the General News Stories category for Israeli photographer Uriel Sinai's shot of the evacuation of Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip in August.

The Arts and Entertainment winners had a ballet theme, with South Africa 's Shayne Robinson topping the singles category for PhotoWire Africa and The Globe and Mail with a photo of a ballet class in Alexandra Township , South Africa ; and Asa Sjostrom of Sweden winning in the stories category with a photo of a ballet school in Moldova .

In Nature Singles, Italy 's Massimo Mastorillo won the top award with a photo of Lhoknga beach in Banda Aceh , Indonesia , after the devastation of the tsunami. Britain 's Kieran Dodds won in Nature Stories for the Herald/Evening Times with a picture of fruit bats at Kasanka National Park in Zambia , reports the AP.

N.U.