Obama hands out honours.

PHYSICIST Stephen Hawking was among a select band of extraordinary "agents of change" who received America's highest civilian honour.

President Barack Obama joked that he would not try to attempt to explain the British scientist's work as he bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on him.

Mr Hawking joined recipients yesterday including tennis legend Billie Jean King, South African cleric and civil rights activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu, film star Sidney Poitier and former Irish president Mary Robinson at a ceremony in the White House.

Others being honoured included Senator Edward Kennedy, who has been battling brain cancer and was not pre-sentand Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered "microloans" to provide credit to poor people who lack collateral.

Mr Obama, awarding his first presidential medals, also gave a posthumous award to gay rights activist and San Francisco, California, politician Harvey Milk, who was assassinated in 1978.

Reflecting on the recipients, President Obama said: "When cynicism and doubt too often prevail, when our obligations to each other are too often forgotten and when the road ahead can seem too long or hard to tread, these extraordinary men and women, these agents of change, remind us that excellence is not beyond our abilities, that hope lies around the corner."

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STRUGGLE: President Obama presents a medal to Joseph Medicine Crow