NEW YORK - The story of Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy who became the center of an international custody battle, earned prestigious Pulitzer Prizes Monday for the Miami newspaper that reported the drama and a photographer who captured it on film.

The Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism, Letters and Drama and Music are awarded annually at Columbia University in New York.

The staff of the Miami Herald won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting for its coverage of the raid that led to the 6-year-old Cuban child being reunited with his father.

The Pulitzer Board cited the newspaper for its balanced and gripping on-the-scene coverage of the predawn raid.

Herald Managing Editor Mark Seibel said what made the story special was that it took place on the newspaper's home turf.

Usually, you're parachuting into someone else's troubles, he said.

The Pulitzer for breaking news photography was awarded to Alan Diaz of the Associated Press for his picture of the armed agents who seized the boy from his Miami relatives' home in a dramatic predawn raid on April 22, 2000.

I have no way of describing how I feel, Diaz told Reuters after winning the award. A freelance photographer at the time of the raid, Diaz was later hired as a staff member by the AP.

Although the photograph has won other awards, Diaz said he was still surprised it captured a Pulitzer, even though he knew it was a good shot the moment he snapped it. When I took it ... I knew I had accomplished a good photo of the moment that went down, he said.

Elian survived a doomed voyage from Cuba in which his mother and 10 others died. His father wanted him in Cuba but his Miami relatives tried to keep him in the United States.

In other categories, The Oregonian won two of the coveted awards, including the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Journalism.

The Portland, Oregon-based newspaper was cited for a detailed and unflinching examination of systematic problems within the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, including harsh treatment of foreign nationals and other widespread abuses, which prompted various reforms.

Editor Sandy Rowe said the paper's investigation found the INS was holding 20,000 people in a secretive network of jails.

The Oregonian also won in the feature writing category for Tom Hallman Jr.'s profile of a disfigured 14-year-old boy who opted to have life-threatening surgery. It is obviously a very fine day in Portland, Oregon, Rowe said.

OTHER AWARDS GO TO TIMES, JOURNAL

The prize for investigative reporting was awarded to David Willman of the Los Angeles Times for his coverage of unsafe prescription drugs approved by the U.S. government.

My enthusiasm is tempered in no small degree, however, by the fact that a lot of people died unnecessarily, Willman said.

Since his series, the drug Rezulin, suspected in 391 deaths, has been withdrawn from the market, as has the drug Lotronex, which was linked to five deaths, he said.

The prize for explanatory reporting went to the staff of the Chicago Tribune for a look at the U.S. air traffic system.

David Johnston of The New York Times won the prize for beat reporting for his articles on inequities and loopholes in the U.S. tax code, while the national reporting prize went to the Times staff for a series on racial experiences and attitudes.

It was a gamble, and we were all very pleased with it, said Gerald Boyd, a Times deputy managing editor.

The international reporting award was split between Ian Johnson of The Wall Street Journal for stories about China's crackdown on the Falun Gong movement and Paul Salopek of the Chicago Tribune for reporting on political strife and disease in Africa.

The prize for editorial writing went to David Moats of Vermont's Rutland Herald for his editorials on civil unions of same-sex couples, while the prize for editorial cartooning went to Ann Telnaes of the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.

Dorothy Rabinowitz of The Wall Street Journal won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, and the Pulitzer Prize for criticism was given to Gail Caldwell of The Boston Globe.

The prize for feature photography was won by Matt Rainey of The Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey, for photographs of two students burned in a dormitory fire at Seton Hall University.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon and published by Random House won the prize for fiction, and the drama prize was awarded to Proof by David Auburn, 31, from Little Rock, Arkansas, whose play about the struggles of a mathematician's gifted daughter opened on Broadway last year.

The award for biography went to W.E.B. Dubois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963 by David Levering Lewis and published by Henry Holt and Co. Lewis won a Pulitzer in 1994 for the first volume of the biography.

The prize for general nonfiction was awarded to Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P. Bix and published by HarperCollins, and the prize for history was awarded to Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis and published by Alfred A. Knopf.

Stephen Dunn won the poetry prize for Different Hours, published by W.W. Norton & Co., and John Corigliano won the music prize for Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra.

The Miami Herald is owned by Knight Ridder Inc.; The New York Times and the Boston Globe are owned by the New York Times Co.; the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune are owned by the Tribune Co.; The Wall Street Journal is owned by Dow Jones & Co. Inc.; Random House is a division of Bertelsmann AG; HarperCollins is a subsidiary of News Corp. Ltd..