Gorbachev honored at 80th birthday bash

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LONDON, March 31 (UPI) -- Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev celebrated his 80th birthday in London at an event honoring "people who have changed the world," organizers said.

U.S. actors Kevin Spacey and Sharon Stone hosted Wednesday's affair and three global entrepreneurs received inaugural Gorbachev Awards at the event, the BBC reported Thursday.

Honored at the Royal Albert Hall event were Tim Berners Lee, credited with inventing the World Wide Web, CNN television founder Ted Turner, and a 25-year-old Kenyan engineer named Evans Wadongo, inventor of a hand-held solar device.

Guests included former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, former British Foreign Secretary David Owen, former Polish President Lech Walesa and Israeli President Shimon Peres.

"If you look at our world now, all of the things that are happening in Egypt, Belarus, Iran and Libya, people are fighting for the very kind of freedoms and access and ability to cross borders that Mikhail Gorbachev did so many years ago ... I suspect that you could draw a direct line to Mikhail Gorbachev and say that's where a lot of this began," Spacey said.