Bob Dylan to receive America's highest civilian honour  Singer
will be awarded presidential medal of freedom for 'significant
impact on American culture' over five decades Bob Dylan in 2012
Presidential sweet … Bob Dylan to receive medal of freedom at
White House. Photograph: Chris Pizzello/AP  Just weeks before
his 71st birthday, Bob Dylan is to be awarded with America's
highest civilian honour, the presidential medal of freedom.
Dylan, who released his first album 50 years ago in March 1962,
was one of 13 people chosen for the award. He was praised by the
White House as being among "the most influential American
musicians of the 20th century", for "his rich and poetic lyrics"
and for work that has "had considerable influence on the civil
rights movement of the 60s and has had significant impact on
American culture over the last five decades".  Other recipients
will include novelist Toni Morrison, Madeleine Albright, the
first female secretary of state, physician and epidemiologist
William Foege, and astron