When it rains, it pours....

France and Germany are leading the push to convince Ireland to hold a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. The UK finally ratified it through Parliament, and the onus has now fallen on them to perusade Ireland to "get with the program" as it were. But the Czech Republic, which has yet to ratify the treaty, has been very vocal in its skepticism that the treaty can be salvaged.

Afghanistan exploded in battle this week. Taliban fighters freed in a brazen jailbreak, after a truck rammed the prison gates in a suicide mission, battled with Afghan and NATO forces. The tide reportedly has turned against the rebels.

Russia, in addition to its increased military presence in the Caucasus, has also begun to increase its presence in Central Asia. Both areas are former Soviet territory. And it places Russia close to the Middle East again.

Russia also warned Israel over a statement that Israel would attack Iran over its nuclear ambitions. Russia has come firmly down in Iran's corner on this issue, having aided them in the construction of nuclear power plants. This is a not-so-veiled threat that Russia will back Iran up if Iran is attacked.

Israel also carried out in mid-May what is seen as a dry run for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilites. It was carried out in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Iran has lashed out heatedly at the threat of an Israeli attack, and made not-so-veiled threats about what their response would be. Iran also, after conflicting statements, again refused diplomatic offers of incentives to end its nuclear program.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamad ElBaradei, himself an Iranian, has said that he will resign from his post should Israel attack Iran. He also has said such an attack would turn the Mideast into a "ball of fire". He says Iran may be persuing nuclear weapons, and if they aren't already, then an attack would push them to do so.

Israel also conducted major military exercises on the ground, reportedly in preparation for operations in the Gaza Strip, or perhaps the West Bank, or even in the north with Syria and Lebanon over the Golan Heights and Shaba Farms. All these scenarios could be possible.

The German magazine Der Spiegel made headlines a couple times this past week, featuring interviews with Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and German intelligence sources regarding Syrian President Bashar Assad. In Olmert's interview, he said he still has no intentions of resigning his post over corruption allegations, and that he is expecting a miracle to save his position. He came close to one, when Arab MK's voted not to dissolve the government, which would end his term. Of course they don't want him out, because he is willing to negotiate (or give it all away), and a new PM might not be.

Assad is reportedly considering ending his support for Iran's nuclear program. This would be a major shift in the close relations betwen the two nations. Spiegel also said that intelligence confirms that North Korea had worked alongside both Iran and Syria to launch a nuclear reactor in Syria that Israel bombed last September. The IAEA will make a long-sought visit to the site of the bombing to investigate.

The pact to let the US remain in Iraq after the UN madate of December 31st is being debated in the Iraqi government. This will decide the future involvement of the US in Iraq. Oil companies have been clamoring to get into Iraq to tap the potentially enormous oil wealth. These will be the first major Iraqi contracts with big Western oil companies since war began.

Nigeria has been dealing with rebel attacks on its lucrative oil industry for a while, and two major attacks this week have the Nigerian government basically declaring war on these rebels. One was a Shell offshore facility, and the other an onshore Chevron pipeline. The attack on the Shell facility has raised a sense of alarm because it was considered too far offshore to be threatened. It is the farthest out that the rebels have yet attacked.

The Mississippi River has continued to rise despite predictions that the worst was over. More levees broke this week, flooding more areas. Volunteers have been sandbagging all along where they can to try and stave off the flow. Runoff from the flood heading downstream is loaded with chemcials from fertilized fields that were flooded, and this will empty into the Gulf of Mexico. When it does, it will create a "dead zone", where sea life will not be able to reside for some time, until the effects are cleared out by nature. This year the zone is probably going to the largest since the Mississippi floods of 1993.

Big stuff is happening but not quite as much as normal. It's just more insidious. This week also didn't seem as crazy as some previous weeks have recently, but that's always a sign of trouble ahead. Between birth pangs? That's how it feels.

When it rains, it pours...I feel a deluge coming on.

Keep looking up!