World Briefs

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's parliament impeached a Cabinet minister on Tuesday after he admitted having a fake degree from Oxford University, in a vote widely seen as a defeat for hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The dismissal of Interior Minister Ali Kordan was the first high-profile confrontation between the new parliament and Ahmadinejad. It was seen a vote of no-confidence in the president and a sign that the leader's popularity is tumbling, even with his conservative allies.

The interior minister in Iran is a powerful position in charge of holding elections and local administrations.

During Kordan's confirmation debate, numerous lawmakers argued he was unqualified, some claiming that his Oxford degree was a fake.

HAVANA – Fidel Castro praised Barack Obama Tuesday as smarter and less warlike than John McCain, but stopped short of endorsing either U.S. presidential candidate.

Cuba's former president said he delayed weighing in until the U.S. election day so that no one would say it could be utilized by the candidates in their campaigns.

"Without a doubt, Obama is more intelligent, cultured and levelhead," Castro wrote in state-controlled newspapers. "McCain is old, bellicose, uncultured, of little intelligence and not healthy."

Castro also expressed skepticism about both candidates.

"Worries about the overwhelming problems of the world will not really occupy an important place in the mind of Obama and much less in that of a candidate who, as a fighter pilot, dropped dozens of tons of bombs on the city of Hanoi," he wrote, alluding to McCain's military service.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – GEN. David Petraeus, the new chief of the U. S. Central Command who is credited with turning the tide in Iraq, took a firsthand look at the war in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

With U.S. deaths at an all-time high in Afghanistan and attacks against Westerners on the rise, Petraeus arrived from neighboring Pakistan on his first visit to the region since taking charge of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Petraeus will meet with Afghan leaders and top U.S. military officials, including U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, the head of the NATO-led force. He is in the country to conduct an "initial assessment," said Col. Greg Julian, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan.

Petraeus has been credited for stemming the violence in Iraq, and many expect Afghanistan will see some of the same tactics, such as co-opting local tribal leaders to resist the Taliban.

His stop in Afghanistan follows a two-day visit to Pakistan.