Germany accuses Moroccan of helping plan Sept. 11 attacks

BERLIN — The Germans have… Germany accuses Moroccan of helping plan Sept. 11 attacks

BERLIN — The Germans have issued their first indictment relating to the Sept. 11 plot, alleging that Mounir el Motassadeq, a student at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg, helped prepare the U.S terrorist attacks.

Officials are withholding details for a day, but last week the country’s top federal policeman told Knight Ridder Newspapers there were indications that the Moroccan student, who has been detained for a few months, had trained at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and helped the plotters move around money.

In an interview last year, Motassadeq denied any knowledge of the plot.

By Daniel Rubin

Senator demands Rumsfeld make case for U.S.-Iraq war

WASHINGTON — The senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee called publicly Wednesday for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to present the administration’s case for invading Iraq to the panel.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., in a letter to committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said, “there appears to be a gap in the facts possessed by the executive branch and the facts possessed by the legislative branch.”

Warner’s call for testimony before Congress adds to a chorus of reservations voiced by prominent Republicans about the wisdom of the administration’s bellicose policy toward Iraq.

By James Kuhnhenn and Jodi Enda

Palestinian-ethnic comedian denied gig with Jackie Mason

A comedy club here canceled a comedian of Palestinian descent as an opener for Jackie Mason this week because of the comedian’s take on Arab-Israeli relations and because he violated protocol about pre-show publicity, according to Mason’s manager.

Mason, a Jew who uses Jewish subject matter in his comedy, closes a three-night stint Thursday at Zanies Comedy Club.

Ray Hanania, who uses his Palestinian ethnicity plus his marriage to a Jewish woman, in his comedy routine, was scheduled to perform a 10-minute opening act for Mason.

But Mason’s manager contacted Zanies on Tuesday, the first of Mason’s three scheduled nights, and asked that Hanania be replaced, according to Mason and the spokeswomen for the club.

By Joseph Sjostrom

Asian-American studies minor to be offered at University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota has Chicano studies, African-American studies, American Indian studies and even American studies, but it does not have Asian-American studies. That is why Josephine Lee jokes “we’re kind of the last food group, as it were.”

Lee and several other faculty members — working these last four years as the Asian American Studies Initiative — will score a victory this fall: Courses for the first time will count toward an anticipated new minor in Asian-American studies, which will be offered through the American studies department.

It is, they say, one step toward an independent Asian-American studies program, which exists at no college or university in Minnesota.

By Kristina Torres

Medical school applications down nationally, standards up

(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES — Primary applications to medical schools have declined nationally from 46,965 in 1996 to 34,859 in 2001, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The organization is still collecting data for 2002.

The official statistics for the 2002-2003 school year have not been released, so no one is absolutely sure how many applications there were nationally.

“It would be unlikely for medical school applications to go up this year, but it is possible,” William McClure, professor of neurobiology, said.

The continuous drop in the number of medical school applications since 1996 is the product of many factors. “Law school applications, grad school applications are a piece of cake,” she said. “Medical school applications are a year and a half.”

Medical, dental and veterinary schools have two restrictions that no other grad programs have. They cannot accept transfer students, and the number of spaces available per class is not very flexible, McClure said. This may also be a reason why people tend to see other graduate school programs.

“We lost a lot of people to business schools over the last five years,” he said. He is disappointed in losing good students who may have been excellent health care professionals, he said.

Another possible deterrent from medicine is the growing involvement of health insurance in physician care.

“There is a perception that insurance companies are involved in invading the independence of managed care,” said Robert Tranquada, emeritus professor of medicine and public policy. This perception among older generation doctors may be “leaking” from the profession to potential younger physicians.

As with most higher education applications, the standards for grades have risen. Nationally, the average matriculated applicant had a GPA of 3.45 in 1992; in 2001, the average was 3.6.

By Denise Oshodi

Daily Trojan (U. Southern California)