Apologies

President Bush inspected the much-criticized Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Friday and reiterated his promise to fix the bureaucratic snafus that led to shoddy living conditions and treatment delays for wounded soldiers -- problems that sparked a shake-up of top-ranking military officials.

Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized to 11 people wrongfully jailed for IRA bombings three decades ago. Members of the Conlon and Maguire families were jailed for 1974 Irish Republican Army bombings in Guildford and Woolwich in England that killed seven people and injured more than 100. The 11 people convicted were subsequently acquitted. "I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and such an injustice," Blair said.

The superintendent of the Las Virgenes Unified School District, whose reference to "slant-eyed" Chinese during a recent public appearance prompted an inquiry by the Japanese American Citizens League, apologized Tuesday night at a Board of Education meeting. In a brief prepared statement, Superintendent Albert D.

It's been 30 years since the last bombs fell during the Vietnam War, and longtime peace activist Peter Yarrow says it's about time that America apologizes. During his first trip to Vietnam this week, the singer-songwriter from the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary said that the war wounds of the United States won't heal until the nation makes amends -- a process he believes should involve helping Vietnamese suffering from the ill health effects of Agent Orange, a defoliant sprayed by U.S.

Congress should apologize to the descendants of slaves, a dozen white members of Congress said, introducing a formal resolution of apology. "This apology is long overdue, but it is never too late to admit we were wrong and ask for forgiveness," said Rep. Tony P. Hall (D-Ohio). Hall sent a letter to colleagues asking all members of the House to sign on as sponsors.

The mayor of Bradbury publicly apologized to residents this week for toting a shredder into City Hall over the weekend to chew city documents into confetti. The incident came on the heels of two city scandals uncovered by gadfly Robert Penney Jr., and it heightened the mistrust of residents in the tiny and affluent San Gabriel Valley city.

Mayor C. Ray Nagin apologized Tuesday for a Martin Luther King Day speech in which he predicted that New Orleans would be a "chocolate" city once more and asserted that "God is mad at America." "I said some things that were totally inappropriate.... It shouldn't have happened," Nagin said, explaining that he was caught up in the moment as he spoke to mostly black spectators, many of them fearful of being shut out of the city's rebuilding.

President Bush apologized for the Secret Service's asking a member of a group of Muslims who came to a White House meeting Thursday to leave, prompting the others to walk out. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush was angry about the incident, calling it a mistake by the Secret Service and "wrong and inappropriate." The Muslim leaders, who were at the Old Executive Office Building for a meeting with Rev.

Long Beach State Coach Seth Greenberg said Friday he has publicly apologized to two New Mexico State students who were removed from a Big West Conference basketball game Jan. 22 at Las Cruces, N.M. University attorneys faxed a letter signed by Greenberg, apologizing to the students, Charles Sallee and Craig Sullivan, who allege Greenberg slandered them and violated their civil rights. They have retained a lawyer.

CBS has apologized to American Indians angered over a Grammy Awards performance by OutKast that featured frenetic dancing, feathers and war paint -- which some called racist and degrading. "We are very sorry if anyone was offended," said Nancy Carr, a CBS spokeswoman in Los Angeles. As the final act of the Grammy telecast Feb. 8, OutKast's Andre "3000" Benjamin and several members of a dance troupe swirled wildly around a green tepee as he sang his "Hey Ya!"