US envoy apologises to Japan

Tokyo - The US ambassador to Japan, Mr Thomas Foley, apologised for recent US military incidents on the southern island of Okinawa - site of this month's G8 summit. His apology followed a strongly worded Japanese government appeal to tighten discipline among US forces after Sunday's arrest of a US airman for allegedly causing a hit-and-run accident and last week's arrest of a Marine for allegedly molesting a 14-year-old girl as she slept at home. Mr Foley added that US forces in Okinawa had imposed an indefinite late night curfew and a ban on drinking both off and on the bases.