Thursday, August 13, 2009 WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama Wednesday conferred America's highest civilian honor on 16 examples of unshakeable human spirit, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and British scientist Stephen Hawking.Former Irish president Mary Robinson, screen legend Sidney Poitier and Bangladeshi economist and Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus were also honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a ceremony in the White House."No barriers of race, gender or physical infirmity can restrain the human spirit, and that the truest test of a person's life is what we do for one another," said Obama, as he introduced the 2009 honorees."There are many honors and privileges bestowed on the occupants of this house. But few mean as much to me as the chance to award America's highest civilian medal to the recipients that are here today."Before placing the blue-ribboned medal around the neck of wheelchair-bound scientist Hawking, Obama joked he...
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