Yoko Ono picks up human rights prize in Berlin

BERLIN (AFP) - Yoko Ono on Friday accepted a German human rights prize for peace activism with her late husband, Beatle John Lennon, as well as her more recent work championing equality for women and gays.

Ono, who will turn 80 in February, picked up the Rainer Hildebrandt Medal at Berlin's Checkpoint Charlie Museum next to the former Cold War border crossing. Wearing a black top hat and trouser suit, she gave a two-fingered peace sign as she thanked the jury.

"I'm very honoured to get this award and I will consider this award as an encouragement to do more work in humanitarian causes," she said. Hildebrandt, who died in 2004, founded the museum to document daring attempts by East Germans living under communism to escape over the Berlin Wall and in protest against the regime's shoot-to-kill policies.

His widow Alexandra handed Ono the prize, which was selected by a jury she said included German President Joachim Gauck, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and former German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher.

(2012-12-15/straitstimes)