Washington Post wins four Pulitzers

The Washington Post bagged four Pulizter prizes, the top American honour for journalistic exellence, including for their investigative reports on lobbyist Jack Abramoff who returned legislative favours for big donations and on US secret prisons.

The 90th Pulitzer Prizes for journalism, drama and music were announced on Monday by the Columbia University, which gives the prizes on the recommendation of 18-member Pulitzer board. This year, the board did not give any prize for drama.

The Washington Post's Susan Schmidt, James Grimaldi and R Jeffrey were honoured for their investigative report on Abramoff, which exposed Congressional corruption. Other prizes won by the Post included one for explanatory reporting, which David Finkel won for his report on the US attempt to bring democracy in Yemen. Dana Priest won for beat reporting on secret prisons in Washington's counterterrorism campaign. The fourth prize went to Robin Givhan for her writing on fashion.

The Pulitzer for international reporting went to Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley of The New York Times for coverage of China's legal system. The Times-Picayune of New Orleans and the Sun Herald of South Mississippi, newspapers which were hard hit by Hurricane Katrina, were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on the catastrophe even after the deadly storm damaged their offices.

March by Geraldine Brooks won the Pulitzer for fiction, Polio: an American Story by David M Oshinsky for history and American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin won the Pulizter for biography.