Worldwatch

They Just Won’t Bite
Israeli prison guards say they plan to fire up mouthwatering lamb barbecues in the prison yards this week, to tempt more than 3,000 Palestinian prisoners on a hunger strike. Their grievances: tighter security aimed at cracking down on terror rings coordinated from inside jails, and the Palestinian Authority’s failure to pay stipends to their families. But the prisoners aren’t the only ones refusing to swallow what’s set before them. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat both had their political strategies rejected by supporters last week. The central committee of Sharon ‘s Likud party voted down his attempt to negotiate a new coalition with the Labor Party. Rightists in the Likud want to block Sharon ‘s withdrawal from settlements in Gaza , which Labor supports. Sharon said he’d go ahead with the Labor talks anyway. (Labor leader Shimon Peres didn’t rule out a coalition, but called for new elections and said he’d be a candidate for Prime Minister.)

In a speech to Palestinian legislators, Arafat tried to contain unrest in his own Fatah Party by acknowledging that his administration mishandled rampant corruption. But the next day, when legislators came to his office to remind him to sign

ALOYS NIYOYITA/AP

a series of bills aimed at reining in corruption, Arafat turned them down. “My speech is enough to correct the mistakes,” he said, people who attended the meeting told TIME. Even Arafat’s aides predict he will have a hard time convincing fed-up Fatah reformers not to take their anger to the streets. — By Matt Rees, Jamil Hamad and Aharon Klein

Three Down …
HUNGARY Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy resigned following a rebellion within his governing coalition. The Alliance of Free Democrats, a junior partner with the Socialist Party, withdrew its support after Medgyessy tried to dismiss Economics Minister Istvan Csillag, a Free Democrats member. Medgyessy is the third Central European Prime Minister — after Vladimir Spidla of the Czech Republic and Leszek Miller of Poland — to be forced out since their countries joined the E.U. on May 1. All three were victims, in part, of political battles over spending priorities.

Bound for Trial
BRITAIN Eight British men arrested Aug. 3 — at least two apparently in connection with a suspected plot against U.S. financial institutions — were charged with conspiracy to murder and to carry out terror attacks . They are to appear this week in criminal court. One of the men, Dhiren Barot, was charged with having reconnaissance plans of four suspected targets in the U.S., including the New York Stock Exchange and the IMF in Washington .

Sorry, 100 Years Later
NAMIBIA At a ceremony marking the centenary of the Herero people’s uprising against their colonial occupiers, Germany ‘s development aid minister, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, offered her country’s first apology for the crackdown, in which 65,000 Hereros were killed.

Happy Returns
SWITZERLAND The country will return nearly $500 million to Nigeria, funds allegedly stolen by the late military ruler Sani Abacha. The Swiss previously returned $200 million of the $700 million in his accounts.

MEANWHILE IN SWEDEN …
Udderly Surreal
Rustlers who made off with Modern Cow, a Swedish sculptor’s tribute to pop artist Robert Rauschenberg, sent a videotape to a Swedish paper saying they’ll “sacrifice” it if organizers of the international CowParade exhibition don’t declare it “non-art.” On the tape, two masked figures held power drills to the head of the cow, which once grazed near Stockholm’s Modern Museum — home to Rauschenberg’s Monogram, a stuffed goat daubed with paint, wearing a tire.