Gorbachev gets science gong

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has been handed an award for promoting the peaceful use of science and technology. The World Foundation of Scientists gave out the award for Mr Gorbachev's work during the 1980s.

At the ceremony Mr Gorbachev criticised the slowdown of nuclear disarmament.

“We need to go a different way. We shouldn't start a new arms race. Yet the military budgets are growing around the world and in the U.S. they exceed the levels of the cold war. We need to get rid of nuclear weapons,” Mikhail Gorbachev said.

In 1987 Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan signed a milestone agreement between the U.S. and The USSR aimed at eliminating intermediate range nuclear missiles – a goal yet to be reached.

Among the award recipients are Pope John Paul II and Soviet scientist and campaigner Andrey Sakharov.