INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

BERLIN

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she wants to work more closely with Libya’s government to curtail illegal migration from Africa to Europe.

The chancellor said in an interview with public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday that she supports training Libya’s coast guard to prevent migrants from risking their lives by trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

Merkel says she also is interested in fostering a “migration partnership” with Niger to inhibit the smuggling of migrants through African deserts on the way to Libya.

Merkel is scheduled to meet in Paris on Monday with her French, Italian and Spanish counterparts, as well as the presidents of Chad, Niger and Libya, for talks on curbing migration. KAMPALA, UGANDA

The United Nations World Food Program says it has reduced food rations for 320,000 refugees living in northwest Tanzania as a result of funding shortfalls.

WFP said in a statement Sunday that it urgently requires $23.6 million to meet the food and nutritional needs of refugees through December. The affected refugees are primarily from Burundi and Congo.

Michael Dunford, the WHO representative in Tanzania, said “further ration cuts will be necessary” if donors do not respond immediately.

WFP says rations were reduced for the August distribution, reaching only 62 percent of the recommended daily intake of 2,100 kilocalories.

The U.N. has also been urging the international community to donate toward supporting over 2 million South Sudanese refugees sheltering in neighboring countries. TEHRAN, IRAN

An attorney for the founder of a mystical, New Age version of Shiite Islam says an Iranian court has sentenced his client to death.

Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei tells The Associated Press that the court sentenced Mohammad Ali Taheri to death on charges of founding a cult.

The lawyer says he will appeal within 20 days.

In 2014 the 61-year-old Taheri was sentenced to death on similar charges but an appeals court later rejected the verdict. He has been in jail since 2011, when a court sentenced him to five years in prison for blasphemy.

In recent weeks, authorities reportedly detained dozens of his followers.

Taheri also has done research on alternative medicine. Iran’s leaders see New Age beliefs as a threat to the principles of Islam.

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON Residents say suspected Boko Haram extremists killed at least 16 people and burned homes in two villages in Cameroon’s north, near the border with Nigeria.

Iya Gana, whose husband was killed in the attack Thursday night, said the rebels entered her village and killed her husband and others. She said they burned down homes and stole vehicles and cattle after killing people in two villages near Mora, in Cameroon’s Far North province, about 12 miles from the border with Nigeria.

Boko Haram extremists have been crossing into and attacking towns in neighboring countries, including Cameroon, that contribute to a regional military force trying to eliminate the insurgency. Boko Haram is blamed for killing more than 20,000 people in their eight-year existence.

VATICAN CITY

Pope Francis is decrying persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and praying they receive “full rights.”

The pontiff said Sunday there was “sad news about the persecution of the religious minority of our Rohingya brothers.”

Thousands of Rohingya are trying to flee into Bangladesh after escalated deadly violence at home.

Last week, Rohingya militants attacked police and border outposts, and security forces responded.

Francis asked the faithful in St. Peter’s Square to pray that God “saves them” and they receive help.

A Myanmar bishop recently said Francis will “most likely” visit Myanmar, while the Vatican has said only a pilgrimage is being considered.

Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi has blasted the Rohingya militant attacks as a bid to undermine efforts to “build peace and harmony in Rakhine state.” ROME

Several thousand asylum-seekers, other migrants and supporters have marched through Rome to protest Italian police’s recent evictions of migrant camps.

Some carried a banner Saturday proclaiming themselves “refugees not terrorists.”

On Thursday, police used water cannons to clear out 100 asylum-seekers, most of them from Ethiopia or Eritrea, from a Rome square.

Authorities had already cleared out most of the 800 migrants who had been squatting in a building near the square since 2013.

Human rights advocates and the U.N. refugee agency protested that the evictions were conducted without warning.

Many asylum-seekers sleep on the streets of Rome for lack of housing.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants rescued at sea have arrived in Italy in the last few years.

Some Italian towns are refusing to take in any more. DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The ruler of the United Arab Emirates has issued a decree that sets the stage for value-added taxes to start being collected in the country beginning in January.

The state-run WAM news agency carried a statement Sunday on the decree issued by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s president and the ruler of oilrich Abu Dhabi.

WAM said the 5-percent tax “is to be imposed on the import and supply of goods and services at each stage of production and distribution, including what is deemed to be a supply.”

All six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council have agreed to begin collecting so-called VAT taxes, though others may begin later than January. The GCC includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

BRUSSELS

The Islamic State news agency Aamaq has claimed the Brussels attacker who assaulted three soldiers with a knife as an Islamic State group soldier.

In a statement Sunday, it said he carried out the Friday evening attack in response to calls to target countries of the coalition that is fighting IS.

Belgian prosecutors have opened an attempted terrorist murder probe after attacker assaulted the soldiers while shouting “Allahu akbar!” — Arabic for “God is great.” He was shot dead by troops.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office said the man was known to police for assault charges but had no previous terror-related offenses. The suspect, a Belgian citizen of Somali origin, was also carrying a fake firearm and copies of the Quran.

IS often claims attacks by people who have no known link to the group. BAGHDAD

The Iraqi military says it has “fully liberated” Tal Afar’s town center from the Islamic State group.

Pockets of resistance remain but the announcement brings Iraqi forces a step closer to taking full control of one of the extremists’ last strongholds in Iraq.

Sunday’s statement says troops have captured all of the town’s neighborhoods but are heading to al-Ayadia district, about 6 miles northwest of Tal Afar, to pursue a group of militants who fled.

Last Sunday, U.S.backed Iraqi troops launched a multipronged operation to retake Tal Afar, a month after declaring Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, fully liberated. Tal Afar is about 93 miles from Syria’s border.

Militants still control the northern town of Hawija as well as Qaim, Rawa and Ana, in western Iraq near the Syrian border.

— The Associated Press