Desmond Tutu receives US award

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States has given a prestigious award to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu.

The retired archbishop is an important figure in South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle. The U.S. State Department presented him on Friday the 2008 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding. It carries a $50,000 award.

Tutu says he is accepting the honor on behalf of the "many who have often been faceless, anonymous."

The Fulbright prize was created in 1993 in the name of a mid-20th Century senator who advocated American involvement abroad.

Past recipients include former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Czech leader Vaclav Havel and former South African President Nelson Mandela.