World in brief: Rebels accused of abducting kids

Sri Lanka’s government accused Tamil Tiger rebels on Wednesday of abducting more than 400 underage boys and girls from government- controlled areas this year to be trained as combatants and asked the insurgents to stop the practice.

The government said the rebels had recruited at least 455 underage combatants and the U.N.’s children’s agency, UNICEF, also said insurgents are known to have recruited 539 young fighters this year through Nov. 30.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan denied the charges.

The abduction accusation came after the military said Tamil Tiger rebels kidnapped 16 girls, seven boys and two teachers from a class in eastern Ampara, an area under government control.

TEHRAN, Iran

Leader’s rivals win elections

Opponents of Iran’s ultra-conservative president won nationwide elections for local councils, final results confirmed today.

Moderate conservatives critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a majority of seats in last week’s elections, followed by reformists who were suppressed by hard-liners two years ago.

The vote was seen by some as a sign of public discontent with Ahmadinejad’s stances, which have fueled fights with the West and led Iran closer to U.N. sanctions.

Ahmadinejad’s anti-Israel rhetoric and staunch stand on Iran’s nuclear program are believed to have divided the conservatives who voted him into power. Some conservatives feel Ahmadinejad has spent too much time confronting the West and failed to deal with Iran’s struggling economy.

The voting also represented a partial comeback for reformists – who favor closer ties with the West and further loosening of social and political restrictions under the Islamic government.

THESSALONIKI, Greece

Monks clash over monastery control

Rival groups of monks wielding crowbars and sledgehammers clashed Wednesday over control of a 1,000-year-old monastery in a community regarded as the cradle of Orthodox Christianity, police said.

Seven monks were injured and transported by boat to receive treatment. They were released after several hours, police said. No one was arrested but three monks were banned from re-entering the Orthodox sanctuary of Mount Athos, located on a self-governing peninsula in northern Greece.

Esphigmenou monastery is the scene of a long-running dispute between Orthodox Church authorities and rebel monks who occupy the facility. Both Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, leader of the Orthodox Christian church, and Greece’s highest administrative court have ordered their eviction, but the monks have refused to budge.

The rebel monks vehemently oppose efforts to improve relations between the Orthodox Church and the Vatican.