WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush announced on Monday that Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Cuban dissident Oscar Elias Biscet would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian award.

Johnson-Sirleaf, the first woman elected president in Africa, was recognized for helping heal a country torn by civil war and expanding freedom.

Biscet was honored for championing "the fight against tyranny and oppression" in Cuba despite being persecuted and imprisoned for his beliefs, the White House said.

Other medal recipients, who will be honored at a White House ceremony on November 5, were Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker; Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute; civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks; Henry a former Republican congressman from Illinois, praised by the White House for being a"powerful defender of life" and an advocate for a strong national defense; Brian Lamb, co-founder the C-SPAN cable network; Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird," which helped focus the country on the struggle for equality.