PHOTO: US Soldier Pic Wins World Press Photo Prize

Prizes for photos in 2007 were awarded to 59 photographers of 23 nationalities.

An image of an exhausted U.S. soldier in a bunker in Afghanistan by Britain's Tim Hetherington for Vanity Fair magazine won the top World Press Photo prize for news photography on Friday.

Judges described the photo as an image that shows "the exhaustion of a man -- and the exhaustion of a nation".

"We're all connected to this. It's a picture of a man at the end of a line," said jury chairman Gary Knight.

Prizes for photos in 2007 were awarded to 59 photographers of 23 nationalities.

See the PHOTO GALLERY

Getty Images Inc. won five awards, including top spots in the spot news singles and spot news stories categories for photos of the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, as well as a picture of dead mountain gorillas in the contemporary issues singles category.

John Moore's picture for Getty Images of Bhutto's assassination shows a hazy impression of the moment of the impact of the bomb, with people trying to flee the scene.

Reuters photographers did not win any prizes. Agency rival Associated Press placed in two categories.

With a record 5,019 participants from 125 countries sending in their work, a total of 80,536 images were submitted, the Amsterdam-based World Press Photo organisation (http://www.worldpressphoto.org/?bandwidth=high) said in a statement.