Nation and World briefs for July 8

Greece comes back to the table with skeptical creditors, but without clear proposals

BRUSSELS (AP) — Frustrated and angered eurozone leaders gave Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras a last-minute chance Tuesday to finally come up with a viable proposal on how to save his country from financial ruin.

Overcoming their surprise when Tsipras failed to present them with a detailed plan, the leaders reluctantly agreed to a final summit Sunday, saying that could give both sides an opportunity to stave off collapse of the struggling but defiant member nation.

Underscoring the gravity of the challenge, European Union President Donald Tusk decided to call all 28 EU leaders to Brussels instead of only the 19 eurozone members, because, for the bloc, it “is maybe the most critical moment in our history.”

French President Francois Hollande agreed. “It’s not just the problem of Greece — it’s the future of the European Union” that’s at stake, he said.

“We’ll see if on Sunday this issue will be solved once and for all,” Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said.

NTSB: 2 aboard small plane killed when it collided with F-16 fighter jet over South Carolina

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (AP) — An F-16 fighter jet smashed into a small plane Tuesday over South Carolina, killing two people and raining down plane parts and debris over a wide swath of marshes and rice fields.

Two people were aboard the smaller Cessna, which was completely destroyed, and both died, National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson said. The pilot of the F-16 ejected and “is apparently uninjured,” he said. A press release from Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter said the pilot, Maj. Aaron Johnson from the 55th Fighter Squadron, was taken to Joint Base Charleston’s medical clinic for observation.

The fighter jet crash-landed into woods around the privately owned Lewisfield Plantation, an estate dating to 1750.

“We heard the plane crash. And then we took off from where I was at, I guess I was about a half-mile from it, when we saw a cloud of smoke,” said Leo Ramsey, who’s worked at the plantation for about 30 years.

He and two other co-workers went out to the flaming spot where the jet had crash-landed into some of the wooded acreage around the plantation, Ramsey said. They found burning metal, splintered trees and a crater where the empty jet crashed, he said.

Cosby accusers claim vindication, while some of his Hollywood friends reserve judgment

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — While many of Bill Cosby’s accusers feel vindicated by his decade-old admission that he gave at least one woman quaaludes before sex, some of his Hollywood friends are reserving judgment, saying the testimony doesn’t prove he committed a crime.

The testimony, unsealed Monday by a federal judge, reignited the furor that erupted last year, when dozens of women came forward to accuse the comedian of sexual assault over the past four decades. Many said Cosby drugged and raped them.

“I never thought I would be validated or vindicated in this,” said Joan Tarshis, of Woodstock, New York, who accused Cosby of drugging and attacking her when she was breaking into comedy writing in 1969.

“I mean, it’s turned my life around 180 because now all the people that haven’t believed me or us have come out, most of them, and said, ‘We were wrong.’”

The testimony came from a deposition in a 2005 sexual abuse lawsuit brought against Cosby by a former Temple University basketball team employee, Andrea Constand. The case was settled on confidential terms, but it was the first in a torrent of lawsuits that have shattered Cosby’s good-guy image as wise and understanding Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” in the 1980s and ’90s.

Pope urges Latin Americans to channel urgency of independence into spreading the faith

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Pope Francis urged a crowd of more than 1 million people Tuesday to channel the same urgency that brought Latin America its independence from Spain into spreading the faith on a continent where Catholicism is losing souls to evangelical movements.

Francis used his final Mass in Ecuador to appeal for the missionary church that he long has championed. He issued the call from Quito’s Bicentennial Park — an apt location given that Ecuador was where the first cries of independence against Spanish rule arose in Latin America in 1809.

Francis told the gathering, estimated by the Interior Ministry to be more than 1 million, that in a world divided by wars, violence and individualism, Catholics should be “builders of unity,” bringing together hopes and ideals of their people.

“There was no shortage of conviction or strength in that cry for freedom which arose a little more than 200 years ago,” he said. “But history tells us that it only made headway once personal differences were set aside.”

He urged Latin Americans to channel that same purpose into spreading the faith. Latin America counts 40 percent of the world’s Catholics, but the church is losing out to Protestant evangelical ministries that have focused on the continent’s poorest communities with real-life guidance on employment and education.

Subway suspends ties with spokesman Jared Fogle after raid following arrest of foundation head

ZIONSVILLE, Ind. (AP) — FBI agents and Indiana State Police raided the home of Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle on Tuesday, removing electronics from the property and searching the house with a police dog, two months after the then-executive director of Fogle’s foundation was arrested on child pornography charges.

FBI agent Wendy Osborne said the agency was conducting an investigation in Zionsville, an affluent Indianapolis suburb, but wouldn’t say whether it involved Fogle or describe the nature of the investigation.

Subway said in a statement that it is “very concerned” about the raid, which it believes “is related to a prior investigation” of a former employee of the Jared Foundation, an organization founded by Fogle to raise awareness about childhood obesity. Subway did not immediately say whether that employee was former foundation executive director Russell Taylor.

The company had removed references to Fogle from its website by late afternoon and issued another statement, saying the two “have mutually agreed to suspend their relationship due to the current investigation.”

“Jared continues to cooperate with authorities and he expects no actions to be forthcoming,” the company said. “Both Jared and Subway agree that this was the appropriate step to take.”

Senators criticize US policy to combat Islamic State militants

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing blistering criticism from Republican senators, Defense Secretary Ash Carter acknowledged on Tuesday that the U.S. has only 60 trainees in a program to prepare and arm thousands of moderate Syrian rebels in the fight against Islamic State militants.

“That is a small class,” Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “This is the number that got through a very vigorous vetting and selection process that we have. … We expect that number to improve.”

Sen. John McCain, chairman of the committee and a persistent critic of Obama’s foreign policy, wasn’t convinced.

“I got to tell you that after four years, Mr. Secretary, that is not an impressive number,” McCain, R-Ariz., said in one of several testy exchanges with Carter and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

So far, Congress has approved $500 million to train Free Syria Army fighters. The Associated Press reported last month that the number of trainees involved in the program at bases in Jordan and Turkey had dropped below 100, with dozens of recruits fleeing the program.

SC Senate advances bill to remove Confederate flag; GOP still seeks to preserve some symbol

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Senate gave its final approval Tuesday to removing the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds, but across the hall in the House, Republicans quietly sought a way to make a last stand to preserve some kind of symbol honoring their Southern ancestors at the Statehouse.

The House was scheduled to begin debate Wednesday on the bill to take down the flag and its pole and send the banner to the state’s Confederate Relic Room. Gov. Nikki Haley and business leaders support the proposal.

To stress the chamber’s unity after Tuesday’s 36-3 vote, senators invited the widow of their slain colleague Clementa Pinckney to the floor. She stood just inside the door in a black dress, only a few feet from her husband’s desk, which was draped in black cloth with a single white rose on top. Every member stood as she entered and later walked up to her, offering condolences.

After the flag was pulled off the Statehouse dome 15 years ago, it was called a settled issue. The banner was instead moved to a monument honoring Confederate soldiers elsewhere on the Capitol grounds.

But the flag debate swiftly gained urgency last month after Pinckney and eight other black people were fatally shot at a historic African-American church in Charleston. A white gunman who police said was motivated by racial hatred is charged in the attack.