(Adds Washington Post and Reuters comment) By Karen Brettell NEW YORK, April 7 (Reuters) - The Washington Post won six Pulitzer Prizes on Monday, including the prestigious Public Service award for its reporting on conditions of U.S. war veterans at America's flagship military hospital. The Pulitzer Prize board said the Post won for "exposing the mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed hospital, evoking a national outcry and producing reforms by federal officials." "It's the greatest honor," said Anne Hull, whose work with her colleagues Dana Priest and Michel du Cille won the Public Service prize for the newspaper, part of the Washington Post Co <WPO.N> media group. "We just couldn't let up if we wanted because the first story triggered an avalanche of outcry from wounded soldiers and their spouses and family and it was really them riding us that kept us following the story," she said. The 92nd annual Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism, Letters, Drama and Music were announced at Columbia University in New York City. The Public Service winner receives a gold medal, and winners in the remaining 20 categories receive $10,000. The Washington Post also won breaking news reporting for its coverage of the deadly Virginia Tech college shooting rampage and national reporting for an exploration of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's influence on national policy. The newspaper won for international reporting for a series on private security contractors in Iraq operating outside most of the laws governing U.S. forces, feature writing for a story on a world-class violinist who played in a subway station as an experiment and commentary for columns exploring America's "complex economic ills with masterful clarity." Reuters news agency won its first Pulitzer Prize, taking the breaking news photography category for a picture of a Japanese videographer killed during a demonstration in Myanmar. The picture was taken by photographer Adrees Latif. On assignment in Nepal to cover elections, Latif said he was happy to win the prize for Reuters, but also wanted to take a moment to remember Kenji Nagai, the fellow journalist whose picture he took in his final moments of life. "I'm just really happy that this stands in history and that it reminds people what happened on that day," he said by telephone. Reuters is part of the London-based global news and data company Reuters Group Plc <RTR.L>. BOB DYLAN HONORED The New York Times won in the explanatory reporting category for examining dilemmas and ethical issues that accompany DNA testing and in investigative reporting for stories on toxic ingredients in medicine and other products imported from China. The Chicago Tribune also won for investigative reporting for its exposure of faulty government regulation of toys, car seats and cribs. The Concord Monitor in New Hampshire won in feature photography for chronicling a family coping with a parent's terminal illness, and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel won the local reporting award for stories on the skirting of tax laws to pad pensions of county employees. The Boston Globe won for criticism of the visual arts and Investor's Business Daily won for editorial cartooning. No award was given in the category of editorial writing. Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was given a special citation for his "profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power." The fiction prize went to "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz, while "August: Osage County" by Tracy Letts won the drama category, "What Hath God Wrought" by Daniel Walker Howe won the history section, and "Eden's Outcasts" by John Matteson won the biography category. The poetry prize was shared by "Time and Materials" by Robert Hass and "Failure" by Philip Schultz, while "The Years of Extermination" by Saul Friedlander won for general nonfiction and "The Little Match Girl Passion" by David Lang won the music category. Entrants in the letters, drama and music categories must be U.S. citizens, while in the journalism category entrants can be any nationality but their work must have appeared in a U.S. newspaper. (Writing by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Eric Walsh)
Iraq's President Jalal Talabani (R) speaks with British Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Prentice during their meeting in Baghdad April 4, 2008. Picture taken April 4, 2008. REUTERS/Handout/Iraqi government office (IRAQ). FOR ...
