Awwal 14, 1432 H/Feb 17, 2011, SPA -- Germany's defense minister has made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan amid controversy at home over allegations that he plagiarized parts of his doctoral thesis, as AP reported. The Defense Ministry said Thursday that Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was visiting troops in northern Afghanistan but declined to give further details. In a written statement Wednesday, Guttenberg dismissed as «absurd» the allegations of plagiarism first reported by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. However, the minister said he is willing to check whether there were any omissions or errors among the 1,200 footnotes in the 475-page thesis.
