Pulitzer Prize Winner of the Day

Massoud Hossaini has won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for his photo of Tarana Akbari, 12, screaming in fear moments after a suicide bomber detonated a bomb in a crowd at the Abul Fazel Shrine in Kabul on December 6. The photograph made the front pages of the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post the next day. "I was taking pictures and I did want to help," Hossaini said. "But I just saw that the bodies were completely destroyed and I said, 'O.K. I can't do anything for them, so I have to wait for whoever comes.'" Out of 17 women and children from Tarana's family who went to a riverside shrine to mark the Shiite holy day of Ashura, seven died, including 7-year-old brother, Shoaib. "When I could stand up, I saw that everybody was around me on the ground, really bloody. I was really, really scared," Tarana said. More than 70 people died in all, and at least nine other members of Tarana's family were wounded. The attack was the deadliest strike on the capital in three years. A complete list of Pulitzer winners can be found here. [pulitzer.org]