German minister quits amid plagiarism scandal

Germany's defense minister quit Tuesday amid persistent allegations that he plagiarized parts of his doctoral thesis, depriving Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc of a man long rated as the country's most popular politician.

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, 39, said he had decided to go "not just because of my faulty doctoral work" but because the persistent focus on it threatened to overshadow duties such as overseeing a major overhaul of the German military and troops' deployment in Afghanistan. (AP)