NY Times awarded three Pulitzer Prizes

The New York Times, the United States' paper of record, won prizes for international reporting covering the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and for feature photography documenting the spread of the deadly disease. The paper also won a prize for an investigative report on the influence of lobbyists.

The coveted public service journalism prize was awarded to The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina for its reporting on domestic violence. The Guardian and The Washington Post won the same award last year for their revelations of spying by the US National Security Agency.

Meanwhile, the photography staff at the St. Louis Post Dispatch won the breaking news photography award for its coverage of the racial unrest following the shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Brown's death ignited nationwide protests and sparked a debate about excessive police force and US law enforcement disproportionately targeting young black and Latino men.

In the fiction category, author Michael Doerr won the Pulitzer for his World War II novel "All the Light We Cannot See," about a blind French girl and a young Nazi soldier.

The Pulitzer Prizes have been awarded annually by Columbia University since 1917.

An overview of the winners:

- Public Service: The Post and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina

- Breaking News Reporting: The Seattle Times staff

- Investigative Reporting: Eric Lipton of The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal staff

- Explanatory Reporting: Zachary R. Mider of Bloomberg News

- Local Reporting: Rob Kuznia, Rebecca Kimitch and Frank Suraci of the Daily Breeze, Torrance, California

- National Reporting: Carol D. Leonnig of The Washington Post

- International Reporting: The New York Times staff

- Feature Writing: Diana Marcum of the Los Angeles Times

- Commentary: Lisa Falkenberg of the Houston Chronicle

- Criticism: Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times

- Editorial Writing: Kathleen Kingsbury of The Boston Globe

- Editorial Cartooning: Adam Zyglis of The Buffalo News

- Breaking News Photography: St. Louis Post-Dispatch photography staff

- Feature Photography: Daniel Berehulak , freelance photographer, The New York Times

Non-Journalism Awards

- Fiction: "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

- Drama: "Between Riverside and Crazy" by Stephen Adly Guirgis

- History: "Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People " by Elizabeth A. Fenn

- Biography: "The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe" by David I. Kertzer

- Poetry: "Digest" by Gregory Pardlo

- General Nonfiction: "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History" by Elizabeth Kolbert

- Music: "Anthracite Fields" by Julia Wolfe

bw/cmk (AP, AFP, Reuters)