LIBERTY MEDAL Afghan leader pledges prize money to orphans

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Hamid Karzai, the U.S.-backed leader of Afghanistan, has pledged his $100,000 Liberty Medal prize to support Afghan children who have been orphaned in the recent conflicts in his country.
Cloaked in a ceremonial hat and a traditional green and purple Afghan cloth, Karzai accepted the Philadelphia Liberty Medal on Sunday at Independence Hall.
"The Afghanistan people have sacrificed terribly to obtain freedom. In the resistance against the Soviet occupation and the fight against terrorism and extremism, we lost nearly 2 million of our people," said Karzai, who thanked the American people for helping Afghanistan gain independence.
"We have paid for it with our lives and we will defend it with our lives," Karzai told several hundred people attending the ceremony, many of them waving small American flags.
Award's history
The award, first presented in 1989, is given each Fourth of July by the nonprofit, nonpolitical Philadelphia Foundation to recognize leadership in the pursuit of freedom.
Last year's medal ceremony was marred when missing bolts and improperly attached ribbons led to the collapse of a giant frame at the July 4 opening of the National Constitution Center. The 650-pound frame toppled in the final moments of the building's dedication ceremony, slightly injuring five people and narrowly missing the guest of honor, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.