THE winners of the 56th World Press Photo of the Year 2012 have been announced, with images of war, sport and wildlife dominating the shortlist.

Malaysian photographer Wei Seng Chen scooped the top prize in the Sports Action Single category with his image of a bull race (above main) in Indonesia. Paul Nicklen of Canada won the Nature Stories prize for his shot of emperor penguins (below left). Italian Fabio Bucciarelli came second in the News Stories category with his photo of a Free Syrian Army fighter (below right).

The overall winner was Paul Hansen, with an image of two Palestinian children killed in a missile strike being carried to their funeral. The contest drew 103,481 entries by 5666 photographers from 124 countries.