Wow, there sure are a lot of apologists for Reuters in here dancing as hard as they can to excuse something that when caught Reuters itself didn't excuse from the Photog, and Editor. First off, straight from my wife whom is a Graphic artist, and has worked for a Tribune owned paper for going on 20 years, Cropping is in this day and age used primarily for taking out parts of a particular photo that are not relevant to the photos story it is telling, like excess sky, and or other things that will not change the pictures focus. Now you can say that the focus is on the solider, however the man standing off to the right holding the knife is of importance to the photo as well, and would have shown whom the attackers in the story were. Reuters, as I have shown before intentionally alters its photos, and has even allowed itself to be led around by the Hezbollah, Hamas thugs giving only one viewpoint to advance its own agenda.
Those making excuses for them I suspect follow, and agree with that agenda.
j-mac