ANOTHER GREAT BATCH:

Harper Lee honoured by George W Bush (Iain Gray, 30/10/2007, Daily Telegraph)

George W Bush has announced that Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, is to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honour that can be bestowed upon a civilian.

The medal, established in 1963, is awarded for an "especially meritorious contribution" to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, or for their accomplishments in the areas of culture or "other significant public or private endeavours." [...]

Other recipients of this year’s Presidential Medal of Freedom are:

Oscar Elias Biscet: Cuban anti-abortion and pro-democracy activist

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf: President of Liberia

Gary Becker: Nobel Prize-winning economist

Francis Collins: Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute

Benjamin Hooks: Civil rights leader

Henry Hyde: former House Foreign Affairs committee chairman

Brian Lamb: Visionary television executive