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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish. We begin this hour with growing talk of a cease fire in the fight between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, but at this point, it is still just talk. Officials in Israel and in Egypt, where negotiations are underway, say there is no agreement yet. In the meantime, the fighting has intensified, with more casualties on both sides.

Berlin is known as the "wild boar capital" in Germany, with thousands of the animals roaming its residential neighborhoods. In the past, the city and animal rights activists battled over hiring hunters to kill the streetwise swine, who cause a lot of damage. But with attacks like the one in late October in which four people were injured by a male boar, curbing the wild pig population in the German capital is a growing priority.

With the conflict in Gaza on its seventh day on Tuesday, Egypt dispatched its foreign minister to Gaza City at the head of an Arab delegation. Egyptian officials say a ceasefire deal could be reached soon, but meanwhile the Israeli air strikes and Hamas rocket attacks continued. Anthony Kuhn talks to Audie Cornish.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Russia has a problem with drunken passengers on airplanes. On its national airline, for example, more than 1,000 incidents of disorderly conduct in the past three years, most of them involving drinking. Now, aviation officials are considering drastic measures, as NPR's Corey Flintoff reports from Moscow.

Robert Siegel talks to Aaron David Miller, Vice President at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars who has worked on Middle East policy at the State Department under past Republican and Democratic administrations. Miller points out that while the world is focused on the issue of a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the leadership in the other Palestinian territory, the West Bank, is seeing diminished clout. Milller says the militant approach of Hamas is drawing support from many Palestinians.

The Grand Place in downtown Brussels can be a feast for the senses: the wafting scent of hot waffles, shop windows chock-full of chocolate, exquisite Baroque architecture.

But that's not all you'll find on the quaint cobblestone streets as the city that serves as both the capital of Belgium and the headquarters of the European Union. There's also puke, dog poop, trash, spit, drug addicts, drunks and brawls.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Congolese rebels today captured the city of Goma, as government troops melted away and U.N. peacekeepers stood by. And if that sounds a bit like deja vu, you may be remembering a similar battle on the same ground four years ago, or parts of other wars that have ravaged the eastern part of Congo for nearly two decades now, wars blamed for the deaths of five million over those years, along with a long list of associated crimes including systematic rape, looting and child soldiers.

Calling it the "sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said today that the U.K. is officially recognizing the Syrian National Coalition, Reuters reports.