Eight photographers from professional and news fields received top honours at
the first Asian Press Photo Contest.
The photographers from six Asian countries are to be awarded in a ceremony
today in Beijing for their depictions ranging from news to sports coverage.
Meanwhile 160 others were also awarded.
The contest, which aims to show the transformation of Asia, is jointly
initiated by China Daily and Asia News Network (an alliance of 14 leading Asian
newspapers including China Daily). It is sponsored by Beijing SJFQ Cultural
Communication Co Ltd.
Some 500 professionals and news photographers around the world submitted more
than 20,000 pictures.
"It is a demonstration of Asia's diverse, vivid, lively and sometimes tragic
series of events," said Pana Janviroj, executive director of Asia News Network
and president of Bangkok-based The Nation.
"The Asian Press Photo Contest is not about just pretty
pictures our mission is to build a bridge between the continent and the rest of
the world with compelling photography," said Wang Yan, chairman of Beijing SJFQ
Cultural Communication Co Ltd.
Workers dismantle a huge ship and carry them off
piece by piece in a Pakistani shipyard. Low security standards, hazardous
working and living environment, failing health of workers and piling ecological
dangers are plaguing one of the world's largest ship- breaking yards in
Pakistan.
Sekiwake Kotooshu (top) pushes Maegashira Miyabiyama
to the ground during a sumo tournament in Kyushu, Japan, on November 16,
2005.
Rescue workers attempt to use a life preserver to
pull up Wei Qing, as he tries to maintain his hold on a young woman who was
nearly swept into Shazikou Bay in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province,
during Typhoon Matsa last August. Wei, a migrant worker who just passed by,
jumped into the sea to save the woman. It took almost 40 minutes for the rescue
operation to be completed.
A boy plays in billows of smoke, which the Bangkok
municipal officer creates to chase away insects, in front of the Government
House in Bangkok, Thailand in March.
A Vietnamese man holds a mini satellitedish as
children watch television in Quan Ba, Ha Giang Province last June. Nearly 12.3
million Vietnamese people, or 14.7 per cent of the country's population, had
access to the Internet at the end of March, up from 14 per cent over the
previous month. The global network also brings benefits to many others living in
remote areas.
A bomb victim who attended a convention against
terrorism in Dhaka, Bangladesh, last August, sits down to relax. She was injured
in an attack and lost some of her toes.
Children smile and flash "peace signs" to a passing
truck carrying US soldiers participating in a search and rescue operation for
victims of the landslide in Baranggay Guinsaugon in the Philippines, in
February. The mudslide killed more than 1,000 residents. The rescue operation
was halted a week later because of the threat of another
mudslide.
People in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province beat
drums, surrounded by red colours last February. Red is a very popular colour in
China, carrying with it meanings of prosperity, good luck and happiness. During
festivals or celebrations, people surround themselves with the colour by wearing
red clothes and decorating their homes with red colours.
(China Daily 06/01/2006 page13)
