World Photographs Of The Year

Yesterday we reported that The Independent had collected the prize for Best Use Of Photography in the 1998 Newspaper of the Year Awards; today we celebrate our most powerful photographs from abroad. Often it is not the most obvious images that make a picture: Tom Pilston virtually stumbled across expatriate revellers running along a Hong Kong back street celebrating the handover, while in India citizens throughout the contry were celebrating the 50th anniversary of independence, captured here by Andrew Buurman. Brian Harris was the first to show the world the extent of damage within the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi after the earthquakes, and, on a lighter note, David Rose shared the joy of French acrobats practising near Paris for their epic tightrope crossing of the Thames. Mairi Fraser

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