A picture of an armed sheriff moving through an American home after an eviction due to a mortgage foreclosure was named World Press Photo of 2008 on Friday.

Jury members said the strength of the photo by American Anthony Suau for Time magazine was in its opposites -- it looks like a classic war photograph, but is simply the eviction of people from a house.

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"Now war in its classic sense is coming into people's houses because they can't pay their mortgages," jury chair MaryAnne Golon said.

Fellow juror Akinbode Akinbiyi said: "All over the world people will be thinking: 'This is what is happening to all of us'."

The news agency Agence France-Presse won the Best Spot News Photo category with an image of post-election violence in Kenya and also the People In The News Singles category with an image of tribal conflict in western Kenya.