Everything that's not forbidden will be permitted. Israel tries to turn a negative into a positive by pledging to change the rules governing its Gaza blockade.

The rain on the plains just keeps coming -- making things worse for those in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan already under water.

Where the wild things are. Zoologists uncover wide-scale smuggling of illegal meat from monkeys, crocodiles and rodents at a major European airport.

Gauging the cleanliness of an athletic cup. A Chicago newspaper gives Lord Stanley's Cup a swabbing to see how many germs its many fondlers have left behind.

Let os-prey for her. Her name is Lady and she's a very old bird -- and that's got some worried that she's not long for this nest.

And . . . Supplication for his nation. An English bishop drops the ball on inter-faith footie and pens a couple of prayers for his beleagured World Cup team.

As It Happens, the Monday edition. Radio that regularly appeals to GOOOOOOOOD.

So far, it's only a vague promise. But, for the people of Gaza, it holds out the hope that life might get a little bit easier.

After weeks of mounting international pressure to end the tight control of goods --- and people --- coming in and out of Gaza, the Israeli government has pledged to ease its blockade of the territory.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is the UN Middle East special envoy. He was authorized to broker a deal with the Israeli government. For the record, here is Mr. Blair speaking to the BBC.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is an aid agency that provides support to Palestinians inside Gaza. Chris Gunness is a spokesperson for the agency. We reached him in Cairo.

Just when they thought things couldn't get any worse, they did.

Over the weekend, hundreds of residents of Alberta and Saskatchewan were forced to leave their homes as floods devastated the provinces' southern regions. And today, another storm has hit. Parts of the Trans-Canada highway are washed out and at least four Alberta towns have declared states of emergency.

Karen Hamerton owns the only store in Irvine, Alberta, one of the towns hardest hit by the flood. We reached her at her shop.

Karen Hamerton owns the only story in Irvine, Alberta and that's where we reached her.

People in southern Saskatchewan are also seeing the effects of the rain. In Mainprize Regional Park near Midale, high water levels and downpours have made shorelines unstable.

On Saturday, Danielle Johnson and her two children were walking near the water when the embankment suddenly collapsed on top of them, sweeping her ten-month-old daughter Kate from her arms and burying the child.

Jeff Adams was fishing in the area. Today, he spoke with Garth Materie on CBC Saskatchewan's "Blue Sky." Here's part of that conversation, for the record.

He's been passed around the entire Chicago Blackhawks club -- caressed, man-handled, hugged and kissed. Now, legions of hockey fans are doing the same.

Yes, for an old guy, Lord Stanley sure gets around.

So, when the Cup dropped by the Chicago Tribune newspaper, staff there tried something that had never been done before. They had Lord Stanley swabbed for germs.

James Janega is a manager at the paper. We reached him at his office.

Well, that's the end of the first period of As It Happens. The news is next. But we'll be back in just a few minutes with these stories:

Fowl language. An avian expert argues that all that washing of oil-covered birds may be all for naught.

Taking extra precautions. A South African doctor invents a female condom that prevents AIDS -- and helps ward off rapes as well.

And . . . The beati-ful game. An English bishop tries to recruit the Almighty to help out his team at the World Cup.

Stay tuned. I'm CO.

And I'm BE.

Hello again, I'm CO.

And I'm BE. This is As It Happens, Part Two.

Coming up:

An unwanted side effect. Pharmacists in Winnipeg become the targets of theft by addicts hooked on OxyContin.

And . . . Class dismissed. Remembering Irwin Barker, the Canadian comedian known as "The Professor."

Those stories are still to come on As It Happens.

Sometimes you pray for world peace. But at other, more desperate, times, you might find yourself appealing to a high power for a slightly more personal favour.

Last month, we spoke to the Right Reverend Nick Baines, Bishop of Croydon in England. He was so moved by the spectacle of the World Cup that he penned a set of poems aimed to capture the spirit of the tournament -- claiming that the prayers were for all those participating and that "God is not partisan."

Well, after a dismal start to England's World Cup campaign, Bishop Baines has dropped his non-denominational stance and has penned two new prayers specifically for his national team. We reached Bishop Baines today in Winnipeg.

Let it not be said that As It Happens isn't cerebral enough.

Last Friday, we spoke to neuroscientist Ian Suk, who had studied the strange lump in God's neck in Michaelangelo's fresco, Separation of Light from Darkness, at the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. Doctor Suk concluded that the lump was, in fact, an extra brain.

That brought a whole new strain of neuro-logic to our e-mail inbox.

Tore Nielson from Montreal wrote:

"The first evidence of such hidden brain anatomy -- in this case a complete sagittal view of the human brain -- was reported by F.L. Meshberger in 1990 in a different Sistine Chapel fresco, entitled The Creation of Adam. It appears that Dr. Suk is unaware of this earlier pioneering work or he would most certainly have mentioned it.

A sad footnote to this story, for me -- and probably why I remembered it -- is that I had observed exactly the same brain resemblance (that Meshberger reported on) several years earlier, while I was dining with my wife in a Montreal restaurant.

It was obvious from a large reproduction of The Creation of Adam on the wall of the restaurant. I pointed out the brain shape to my wife (who is also a neuroscientist) but, alas, I attributed it to artistic license taken in the copying of the original. So I never followed it up."

That e-mail was from Tore Nielson in Montreal.

But it's not just that brains that can appear in depictions of God -- of course, as we know, depictions of the Almighty can occur in pictures of all sorts of things.

Just ask Talback.

Six hundred thousand pounds of bushmeat. That's how much game, from animals like monkeys and crocodiles, zoologists have concluded pass through one of Europe's busiest airport each year.

They spent seventeen days alongside customs officials at Charles de Gaulle airport, keeping a tally of the illegal, exotic meats smuggled into Europe from West Africa.

Anne-Lise Chaber, from Britain's Royal Veterinary College, led the study. We reached her in Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates.

It's a disturbing yet heroic image we've seen all too often -- concerned rescue volunteers washing birds who've ended up covered in oil after a spill. But the sad reality is that many of those birds will not survive.

Brian Sharp is an avian ecologist who studied bird survival rates in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and he says not much has changed since then. We reached him in Portland, Oregon.

Every twenty-six seconds a woman in South Africa is raped. It's an appalling statistic from a country that has one of the highest rates of rape in the world.

A recent study found over a quarter of South African men report having raped a woman. And those are just the ones who admit to it. The same study suggests the only way to stop the country's endemic sexual violence is by creating the kinds of long-term cultural changes that take generations to take effect.

Or you could simply try the anti-rape device developed by Sonnet Ehlers. She's a doctor in Kimberley, South Africa and that's where we reached her.

And, please be advised: this interview discusses male and female anatomy, specifically in the context of rape. Some listeners may find this content disturbing.

In Winnipeg, pharmacists are paying the price of addiction.

In the past few years, the city has seen a surge in the number of OxyContin addicts. But in the past few weeks, they've also seen an increase in armed robberies. Since May, six pharmacies have been robbed of the pain medication and there appears to be no end in sight.

Jim Rondeau is Manitoba's minister of healthy living, youth and seniors. We reached him in Winnipeg.

She's a grand old opsrey -- old being the operative word.

Lady lives at the Loch of the Lowes wildlife reserve in Perthshire, Scotland and she's twenty-five-years old. That may be young for human, but it's ancient for an osprey.

Lady has fans around the world, watching what may be her final days via webcam.

Robert Potter is with the Scottish Wildlife Trust and he's the manager of the reserve where Lady lives.

We reached him at Loch of the Lowes.

The comedian Irwin Barker had a nickname -- The Professor. Not just because he had taught at the University of Alberta and the University of Manitoba. It was also a tribute to the clever way he would craft a joke to make it just right.

Irwin Barker died today of a rare form of cancer.

Irwin Barker was born in Winnipeg. With his thought-provoking comedy, he soon became one of Canada's top stand-up comedians and a respected comedy writer. He appeared many times at the Montreal Just For Laughs festival -- and at pretty much every other comedy fest in Canada.

He was part of a team which travelled to Afghanistan in 2007 to entertain Canadian troops for a TV special called "Stand-up in Kandahar." He worked as a staff writer for CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes and The Rick Mercer Report. He also appeared regularly on CBC Radio's The Debaters.

Irwin Barker wasn't afraid to talk about his personal fight with cancer in his stage act. After his diagnosis three years ago, he joked that his doctor had given him twelve months to live -- but that his lawyer said he could get it down to eight.

Here's Irwin Barker from an appearance at the Winnipeg Comedy festival.