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Eurozone leaders meet to decide Greece's fate

BRUSSELS (AP) — Bailout discussions between the Greek finance minister and his skeptical counterparts in the 19-country eurozone will resume Sunday after breaking up following more than eight hours of talks without any apparent breakthrough that will secure the country's future in the euro.

During talks on Saturday, Greece clearly failed to give what its creditors in the eurozone have been demanding — iron-clad proof that it can deliver on its promises to implement tough austerity and reform measures in return for billions more in rescue money.

"We had an in-depth discussion of the Greek proposals and the issue of credibility and trust was discussed," Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the eurozone's top official, said on leaving the meeting.

The talks will resume at 11 a.m. local time (0900 GMT), just a few hours before the European Union's 28 leaders are meant to descend on Brussels for a summit that has been billed over the past week as Greece's last chance to convince creditors that it deserves more financial help.

"It's still very difficult but work is still in progress," Dijsselbloem said.

The pressure was on Greece all Saturday even after the country's parliament passed a harsh austerity package that it hopes will lead to a three-year bailout. Over and over in Brussels, finance ministers and top officials of the eurozone said the same thing — we don't fully trust you to make good on your promises.

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Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde, second left, prepares to spe …

A European official present at the discussions, when asked what more needed to be discussed when ministers reconvene Sunday, said "everything."

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to talk publicly, said ministers wanted "more specific and binding commitments" and that the Greek government's proposals were "too little, too late."

Assuaging those concerns is the task facing Euclid Tsakalotos, who has been Greek finance minister for barely a week, following the resignation of his outspoken predecessor Yanis Varoufakis.

But he needs to do it as Greece desperately needs the money to avoid a financial collapse. Greece's banks, according to some accounts, have barely enough cash in their vaults to see the country through the week.

Greece's banks have been shuttered for the best part of two weeks and daily withdrawals from ATMs have been limited to a paltry 60 euros. The economy is in freefall and the country faces big debt repayments in coming weeks.

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Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde, center, arrives for a meetin …

Early on Saturday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cleared one hurdle. Lawmakers in the Greek parliament overwhelmingly backed a package of economic reforms and further austerity measures, in the hope that it would convince European creditors to back a third bailout of the country. Greece has made a request to Europe's bailout fund for a 53.5 billion-euro ($59.5 billion) 3-year financial package but many officials in Brussels put that figure much higher.

Still, the measures proposed, which include changes long-demanded by creditors, such as changes to pensions and sales taxes, weren't enough to unlock an agreement in Brussels. Following months of deteriorating relations, creditors are demanding firm legislative action to back up the proposals at the very least.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who has taken a hard line on Greece over recent months, said the Greek government will have to do a lot more than just say it wants to reform if it's going to get more money.

"We will definitely not be able to rely on promises," he said. "We are determined to not make calculations that everyone knows one cannot believe in."

Schaeuble was clear in who he blamed for the current crisis. He put that firmly on the shoulders of the radical left Syriza government that was elected in January on an anti-austerity prescription. The "hopeful" economic situation regarding Greece at the end of last year has been "destroyed by the last months."

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Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde, second left, arrives for a m …

Finland is perhaps taking the hardest line of all. Reports out of the country said the coalition government was balking at further assistance for Greece.

The eurozone ministers have to give their blessing to Greece's bailout request to the European Stability Mechanism. Traditionally, eurozone ministers agree by mutual consensus, though in exceptional circumstances a unanimous vote may not be needed.

Greece has received bailouts totaling 240 billion euros in return for deep spending cuts, tax increases and reforms from successive governments. Though the country's annual budget deficit has come down dramatically, Greece's debt burden has increased as the economy has shrunk by a quarter.

The Greek government has made some form of debt relief a key priority and will hope that a comprehensive solution will involve European creditors at least agreeing to delayed repayments or lower interest rates.

Tsipras has made much of the need for a restructuring of Greek debt, which stands at around 320 billion euros, or a staggering 180 percent or so of the country's annual GDP. Few economists think that debt will ever fully repaid. Last week, the International Monetary Fund said a restructuring was necessary for Greece.

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Menelaos Hadjicostis and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this story. Matti Huuhtanen in Helsinki, Finland contributed to this story.

16 DISTURBING 9/11 Facts the Masses NEED to Know – Part 3 – DON’T MISS THIS ONE! ONE DAY PEOPLE WILL WAKE UP! AND THIS VIDEO MIGHT DO IT ~J

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — When Army Sgt. Patrick Hart decided a decade ago that he would not serve in the war in Iraq, he expected to follow the same path as thousands of American war resisters during the Vietnam era and take refuge across the border.

But after five years of wrangling with the Canadian immigration system, he came back to the U.S. — and ended up in a military prison.

The country that once welcomed war resisters has developed a much different reputation during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan: Supporters say no U.S. soldier who has sought legal residence in Canada, either as a refugee or on humanitarian grounds, has been successful.

"Nobody's won," said Hart, a Buffalo native who exhausted his legal options then turned himself in to the Army, was court-martialed for desertion and sentenced to two years in prison.

There are an estimated two dozen U.S. military members still waiting out their fate in Canada, and the resisters' movement is seen as nearing a crossroads. With a national election three months away, supporters are hopeful for a Liberal Party victory and more sympathetic stance toward American military exiles, but bracing for the possibility Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper wins re-election.

Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau has not committed to letting the resisters stay, but many are buoyed by his family history. It was his father, Pierre Trudeau, who while prime minister during the Vietnam War said Canada should be "a refuge from militarism."

"Why not do it again? It's only a couple of dozen people," said Michelle Robidoux, spokeswoman for the War Resisters Support Campaign in Toronto, which has been lobbying members of Parliament.

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FILE - In this July 14, 2008, file photo, members of the War Resisters Support Campaign hold a demon …

After a flurry early on, between 2004 and 2006, it's been at least four years since any known residency requests have been filed, Robidoux said.

Besides Hart, at least three other soldiers who were deported or left Canada have been sent to prison: Pfc. Kim Rivera, a mother of five, was sentenced in 2013 to 10 months; Spc. Clifford Cornell of Mountain Home, Arkansas, received a one-year term in 2009, and Pfc. Robin Long of Boise, Idaho, was sentenced in 2008 to 15 months.

Some deserters face court-martial but the majority are discharged on less-than-honorable terms. Army officials said more than 20,000 soldiers have deserted since 2006.

Canada's immigration laws have tightened since the Vietnam War, the support campaign said, giving U.S. soldiers few options other than to try for refugee status based on the fear of persecution if made to go home.

Government guidance issued to immigration officers in 2010 requires them to consult supervisors on U.S. military cases and spells out that desertion is a crime that may render those who've left the military as criminally inadmissible to Canada.

"Military deserters from the United States are not genuine refugees under the internationally accepted meaning of the term," Citizenship and Immigration Canada spokeswoman Nancy Caron said in an emailed statement. "These unfounded claims clog up our system for genuine refugees who are actually fleeing persecution."

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FILE - In this Aug. 30, 2012, file photo, war resister Kim Rivera, who fled the U.S. military in ord …

It's a strikingly different stance from what Bruce Beyer saw when he found a safe haven in Canada and spent five years there after refusing induction into the Army during the Vietnam War.

"The word is definitely out in the anti-war community that going to Canada is not beneficial," said Beyer, of Buffalo, who returned to the United States in 1977 and has publicly supported the current resisters.

Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board does not track claim types and could not provide the number of claims made by American soldiers, spokesman Robert Gervais said. He said each case is decided on merits.

Robidoux estimated the number of claims filed at 45. She said about two dozen soldiers remain in the country while appealing decisions or pursuing other action. One of them, Rodney Watson, has sought sanctuary in a Vancouver church for nearly six years to avoid a second tour in Iraq.

Both Watson and Hart spoke out publicly against the war after arriving in Canada, and Hart believes his lengthy prison sentence was a direct result. Prosecutors sealed their desertion case against him with clips from anti-war rallies that captured him saying he had no plans to return.

Hart finally did, he said, after deciding with his wife, Jill, that it would be best for their son, now 13, to leave Canada on their own terms.

"We had kind of run the course of legal action to stay there, so we were pretty much just sitting there waiting for a deportation order to come down," said Hart, who was released from the prison complex at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 2013 after serving 15 months.

Hart left his Fort Campbell, Kentucky, base in 2005, a month before he was to be sent to Iraq and after serving nearly a year in Kuwait in 2003. He now lives in Florida and is pursuing a nursing degree, helped by the G.I. Bill. He is seeking to have his bad conduct discharge — a step up from dishonorable — upgraded to other than honorable.

"Up until the second part of the Iraq War, I was pretty much a model soldier," said the sergeant, who had hoped his more than 10-year record would work in his favor upon his return, "but they didn't see it that way."

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Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report from New York.

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This story has been corrected to say conflicts in Iraq, not Iran, in third paragraph.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Nearly 15 hours after a riot at a Northern California prison, guards found a missing inmate sawed nearly in two, with his abdominal organs and most chest organs removed, his body folded and stuffed into a garbage can in a shower stall a few doors from his cell.

Details of the gruesome May killing at the medium-security California State Prison, Solano, are laid out in an autopsy report obtained by The Associated Press under a public records request.

The grisly discovery raises obvious questions about the prison's security: How could such a gruesome killing happen inside a locked facility with security and surveillance? How could someone obtain weapons sharp enough to dissect a body? And why did it take so long to uncover?

Homicides are distressingly common in California prisons. More than 160 inmates have been killed in the last 15 years, and the state has one of the nation's highest inmate homicide rates. Yet the death of 24-year-old Nicholas Anthony Rodriguez stands out.

Rodriguez's missing organs are "still part of the investigation" at the prison in Vacaville, 40 miles southwest of Sacramento, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton said Friday.

No one has been charged with killing Rodriguez, an Oakland man who was serving an eight-year robbery sentence from Alameda County. However, Thornton said his cellmate, a 46-year-old man serving a life sentence for a Los Angeles County murder, is considered the only suspect and is being held in segregation. Thornton said she couldn't say how the homicide was carried out or concealed since it's still being investigated.

"It just blows my mind, because officers are looking in on inmates all the time," said Christine Ward, executive director of the Crime Victims Action Alliance. "Unfortunately, we know that there are drugs, there's alcohol, there are weapons. As much as the officers can police that, we know we've got the toughest, the baddest, the most violent criminals in our state prison and unfortunately some of the most cunning prisoners in there as well. They are going to find ways to do that."

Rodriguez's body was discovered around 9:30 p.m. May 4, 14½ hours after inmates were ordered locked in their cells following a brawl between 58 inmates in his housing unit. Three prisoners and one correctional officer were injured in the fight, and Thornton said an inmate-made weapon was recovered. She declined to describe it.

Despite the riot and resulting investigation, Rodriguez was not discovered missing until a head count at 4:30 p.m. Thornton said officials initially assumed he had escaped.

Investigators are looking into whether the riot was created to conceal the slaying or allow someone to move the body.

"It's very difficult to cover every contingency with the limited staff that we have," said Chuck Alexander, president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association that represents most prison guards.

"This kind of thing at Solano, sad to say I predict it's just a precursor," he said.

He noted a 2011 California law that keeps lower-level offenders in county jails, leaving state prisons to hold the most violent criminals. Changes in prison policies, meanwhile, mean more dangerous offenders are being housed in lower-security prisons like medium-security.

Rodriguez had alcohol in his system and was dead before he was eviscerated, killed by blows to the head that left him with a deep star-shaped wound on his forehead among his multiple skull fractures, cuts and other wounds, according to the May 27 autopsy report conducted by the Solano County Sheriff coroner's office.

His mother, Maria Rodriguez of Oakland, said she has been given no details about what happened. She said she had not seen the autopsy report but said that she knew her son's body was badly injured.

"When I saw my son ... at the funeral, he was so bad in the face," she said in a telephone interview. "I called them last week, and they say they're going to tell me in two weeks or in three weeks, but right now we don't got nothing."

This August 8 2014 photo provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows inmate Nicholas Anthony Rodriguez, who was killed in California State Prison, Solano, in Vacaville, Calif., this past May. An autopsy report reveals that Rodriguez' body was cut apart and most of his major body organs removed, prompting an investigation of whether a riot by dozens of prisoners was used to cover up the homicide.(AP Photo/California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.)

BRUSSELS (AP) -- A summit of eurozone leaders reached a tentative agreement with Greece on Monday for a bailout program that includes "serious reforms" and aid, removing an immediate threat that Greece could collapse financially and leave the euro.

Nine hours after a self-imposed deadline passed, the leaders announced the breakthrough early Monday.

If the talks had failed, Greece could have faced bankruptcy and a possible exit from the euro, the European single currency that the country has been a part of since 2002. No country has ever left the joint currency, which launched in 1999, and there is no mechanism in place for one to do so.

For three days of negotiations between Greece and its international creditors, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras held out for a better deal to sell to his reluctant legislature in Athens this week, even though financial collapse is getting closer by the day.

A breakthrough came in a meeting between Tsipras, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and EU president Donald Tusk. Details were not immediately available.

The breakthrough came after the threat of expulsion from the euro put intense pressure on Tsipras to swallow politically unpalatable austerity measures because his people overwhelmingly want to stay in the eurozone.

Greece has requested a three-year, 53.5 billion-euro ($59.5 billion) financial package, but that number grew larger by the tens of billions as the negotiations dragged on and the leaders calculated how much Greece will need to stay solvent. The creditors are demanding tough austerity measures in exchange for Greece's third bailout in five years.

Early Monday, a Greek official said the key sticking points were the involvement of the International Monetary Fund in Greece's bailout program and a proposal that Greece set aside 50 billion euros ($56 billion) worth of state-owned assets in a fund for eventual privatization.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the negotiations, said any agreement would provide quick help for Greek banks from the European Central Bank. Without it, they risk running out of money this week.

The negotiations began Saturday with a meeting of finance ministers. The heads of state convened mid-afternoon Sunday and were still negotiating at dawn Monday.

The deal on the table appeared to include commitments from Tsipras to push a drastic austerity program including pension, market and privatization reforms through parliament by Wednesday, and from the 18 other eurozone leaders to start talks on a new bailout program.

Sunday's four-page discussion paper put to eurozone leaders and obtained by The Associated Press spoke of a potential "time-out from the euro area" for Greece if no agreement could be found.

It highlighted the increasing frustration of European leaders during five months of fruitless talks with Greece.

"The most important currency has been lost: that is trust and reliability," Merkel said.

Tsipras insisted his government was ready to clinch a deal.

"We owe that to the peoples of Europe who want Europe united and not divided," he said. "We can reach an agreement tonight if all parties want it."

Hollande insisted it was vital to keep Greece in the euro and said in the event of a departure, "it's Europe that would go backward. And that I do not want."

Greece has received two previous bailouts, totaling 240 billion euros ($268 billion), in return for deep spending cuts, tax increases and reforms from successive governments. Although the country's annual budget deficit has come down dramatically, Greece's debt burden has increased as the economy has shrunk by a quarter.

The Greek government has made getting some form of debt relief a priority and hopes that a comprehensive solution will involve European creditors at least agreeing to delayed repayments or lower interest rates.

Greek debt stands at around 320 billion euros ($357 billion) — a staggering 180 percent or so of the country's annual gross domestic product. Few economists think that debt will ever be fully repaid. Last week, the International Monetary Fund said Greece's debt will need to be restructured.

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Menelaos Hadjicostis and John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels contributed to this story.