U2 have received Portugal's highest honour, the Order of Liberty, for their humanitarian work. As previously reported, the award was made at a special ceremony held ahead of the band's Sunday night concert in Lisbon.
Presenting the award, Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio told the band: "Over the last 25 years you have shown that it is possible to combine the pleasure of artistic creation with civic and humanitarian intervention to help build a better world."
Speaking for the band, frontman Bono said: "It is, of course, for the four of us a great, great honour". He continued by using the event to encourage the people of Portugal to help the needy in Africa. Telling his audience that it was unacceptable for children to go hungry and for 3,000 a day to die from malaria, he said: "If we really believed that an African life was equal to a European life we would not stand by with watering cans while an entire continent was bursting into flames".
U2 are the first non-Portuguese music group to receive the Order Of Liberty accolade.