Johnson refuses to apologize for insults

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Tuesday it would take far too long for him to apologize for the "rich thesaurus" of rude comments and insults he has directed at world leaders and others over the years.

Johnson, a former journalist with a talent for trenchant comments that his critics say sometimes tip over into untruth, said his utterances over a three-decade career had often been "misconstrued".

Appointed foreign secretary, to widespread surprise, in a government reshuffle following Britain's vote to leave the European Union last month, Johnson first made his name in the early 1990s as a foreign correspondent in Brussels writing highly colored stories about the EU.