A photo by Deanne Fitzmaurice of the San Francisco Chronicle from the series that won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography April, 4, 2005. Photo by Deanne Fitzmaurice-Sf Chronicle/Reuters

The 89th annual Pulitzer Prizes in journalism, Letters, Drama and Music were announced Monday at the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University in New York.

The Los Angeles Times won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a series of stories exposing deadly medical problems and racial injustice at a major public hospital.

The paper was also awarded a prize in international reporting category for its coverage of Russia's struggle to fight terrorism and improve its economy. It shared this prize with New York-based Newsday, honored for its coverage of Rwanda a decade after the slaughter of Tutsi tribe.

The Wall Street Journal also went away with two Pulitzer prizes,the beat reporting award for its stories about cancer survivors and criticism award for its film reviews.

The New York Times won in the category of national reporting for its stories about a corporate cover-up of responsibility for fatal railway crossing accidents.

The breaking new award went to The Star-Ledger of New Jersey for the paper's coverage of the resignation of New Jersey governor after he announced he was gay.

The Associated Press won for breaking news photography and the San Francisco Chronicle won for feature photography.

Other winners included The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Sacramento Bee.

The awards are given by Columbia University on the recommendation of the 18-member Pulitzer board, which considers nominations from jurors in each category.

                                                                         (Xinhua)

cover-up: an effort or strategy of concealment, especially a planned effort to prevent something potentially scandalous from becoming public（掩飾，隱蔽，掩蓋手段，特別是指為了防止可恥事件公諸于世而作出的精心策劃）