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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.

The poppy crop in Afghanistan has hit record levels, a sign that the drug trade there continues to rise. That's according to the latest numbers from a United Nations report out today. The U.S. warns that a boost in opium production will provide more money for Taliban insurgents.

As NPR's Tom Bowman reports, those rising numbers come despite billions of dollars spent to eradicate the poppy plant.

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The UN, as well as private charitable groups, are deploying an army of humanitarian aid workers to the areas hardest hit by the typhoon and the need is massive. Agencies say they will need millions to rebuild. Many of us want to know, how can I help? Should I send money, clothes and to whom? Will it reach the people who need it the most?

We're joined now by Bob Ottenhoff of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy to offer some practical guidance. Hi there, Bob. Welcome to the studio.

ROBERT OTTENHOFF: Hi. Thanks for having me.

Scotland Yard says it believes a British spy whose naked, decomposing body was found padlocked inside a gym bag in a bathtub three years ago, probably died accidentally.

Gareth Williams, 31, was working for Britain's MI6 spy agency when his body was found at his home in August 2010.

Last May, a coroner concluded that Williams was probably murdered, but on Wednesday London Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt told reporters that the death was "most probably ... an accident."

Updated Nov. 14 at 10:30 a.m. ET.

It's hard to imagine what would happen when, in the wake of destruction, lights go dark and cellphones become useless. For many inhabitants of the Philippines this past week, that was reality.

Hunger can make people emotional, that's for sure. Some people get "hangry" when their blood sugar levels drop and their irritability rises. Others get greedy.

But new research suggests that we may have another, innate response to hunger: a desire to encourage others to share what they have.

Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines on Friday, packing winds of close to 200 mph. Haiyan, known as Yolanda in the Philippines, devastated the city of Tacloban and the surrounding areas. At the time of impact, it was being called the "strongest tropical cyclone on record."

Toronto's City Council voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to call on Mayor Rob Ford to take a leave of absence after he admitted to purchasing and using illegal drugs.

In a final plea before the vote, Ford apologized to Council members, acknowledging that "I really 'effed up.' "

The vote came after a tumultuous afternoon chronicled in our original post, which we pick up here:

-- Mayor Rob Ford has admitted to purchasing illegal drugs in recent years, while also insisting that, "I am not an alcoholic ... I am not a drug addict."

Wrecked infrastructure is making it hard for Filipino Americans to find out the status of family members affected by Typhoon Haiyan. Host Michel Martin speaks with Jessica Petilla, a Filipino doctor in New York who has immediate family in the hard hit province of Leyte.

As an aid worker, Jessica Alexander worked in Rwanda, Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Haiti, but don't call her a hero or a saint. Alexander tells Michel Martin about why she wanted to challenge perceptions of aid workers in her new book, Chasing Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid.

The amount of land under opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is at a record high, the United Nations said in a report released Wednesday.

Opium production in 2013, meanwhile, rose 49 percent over 2012, according to the 2013 Afghanistan Opium Survey. The country is the world's No. 1 poppy producer.

Israel, Haaretz

The latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have come under threat after Israel's housing minister said his office would start long-term planning to build more than 20,000 homes in a particularly sensitive area near Jerusalem.

The move by Housing Minister Uri Ariel immediately drew fierce criticism from the Palestinians, with President Mahmoud Abbas threatening to call off the talks with Israel that began in the summer.

Relief workers are trying to get more food, water and medicine to survivors of Friday's typhoon in the central Philippines. Two more airports have opened in the region and the U.S. military is installing equipment so that relief flights can land at night. Tacloban was the worst hit city.

Sachin Tendulkar, arguably the greatest modern cricket star, prepares to play the last match of his career in India on Thursday. Commentator Sandip Roy explains why Tendulkar matters so much to the sport.

Private entrepreneurs are attempting to offer low-cost, for-profit schools to some of the poorest families in the world. One school in Kenya promises a high quality education for just $5 a month. Some education advocates, however, say private, for-profit schools undermine already struggling public education systems in the developing world.

Some of the destruction from Typhoon Haiyan was not purely the result of the storm's huge force. Among the leading Asian economies, the Philippines regularly ranks as the most corrupt. Robert Siegel talks with Steven Rood, who runs the Asia Foundation's office in Manila, about how the nation's infrastructure problems, laid bare by the storm, relate to graft and corruption.

China's Communist Party wrapped up a four-day meeting Tuesday that could herald big changes for the nation's economy. The meeting carries the soporific title The Third Plenary of the 18th Central Committee. But historically, a third plenary has meant transformational reforms.

Robert Siegel talks to Richard Brennan, World Health Organization director of emergency risk management and humanitarian response, about the geographic challenges of sending humanitarian aid to Typhoon Haiyan victims.

The town of Tacloban on the island of Leyte in the Philippines was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan. The scene at the airport there was chaotic as the Philippine and U.S. military delivered food and aid workers and residents rushed to board planes headed back to less-damaged Manila .

Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi own four wildly popular London restaurants and have authored runaway best-selling cookbooks for omnivores and vegetarians alike.

Sports officials from cycling's governing body and the World Anti-Doping Agency will meet this week to discuss an in-depth review of doping among cyclists. But WADA's chief says that one topic that's not likely to be reviewed is Lance Armstrong's lifetime ban, which he calls "done and dusted."

WADA president John Fahey made that comment Tuesday in South Africa, where officials are meeting for the World Conference on Doping in Sport.

Secretary of State John Kerry is back in Washington to defend the proposed nuclear deal with Iran to skeptical members of Congress. He and his colleagues from other major powers failed to reach a deal with Iran during talks over the weekend in Geneva. Iran blames France's hard line for blowing up the deal, though Kerry has tried to downplay that.

Two U.S. crewmembers seized last month from a ship off the coast of Nigeria have been released by their pirate captors, the State Department said Tuesday.

The captain and engineer from the U.S.-flagged C-Retriever, a 222-foot offshore resupply, were abducted on Oct. 23 when gunman boarded the vessel.

Fifteen countries in the Caribbean are seeking reparations from their former colonial masters for the lasting harm slavery has had on their countries. Host Michel Martin talks about the effort with Jermaine McCalpin from the University of West Indies in Jamaica.