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Summary
President Barack Obama has awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honour, to 16 people who have made a difference in the nation and the world. Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, well known champion of human rights, world renowned physicist and author Stephen Hawking and Mary Robinson, Ireland's first female President and a former U.N. high commissioner for human rights were also honoured. Among the four foreign winners was Bangladesh's Muhammed Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, who pioneered a way to lift people out of poverty through a community banking programme that gives small loans to entrepreneurs with no collateral. President Obama said that these extraordinary men and women make us realize that positive changes can be brought into the world by using ones abilities.
