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Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom has begun shutting off natural gas supplies to Ukraine after a deadline passed for talks over a price dispute. There are fears that the cutoff could affect gas deliveries to parts of Europe at the height of the winter season. In 2006, Moscow cut off supplies to Ukraine and caused a brief disruption in gas supplies to Europe. NPR's Gregory Feifer talks with Steve Inskeep about Gazprom's decision.

The conflict in Gaza presents a challenge for the incoming Obama administration, which already was facing a packed Middle East agenda. Leslie Gelb tells Steve Inskeep that the question now is whether the situation in Gaza will make it harder for President-elect Barack Obama to keep his campaign promises of active peacemaking between the Israelis and Palestinians. Gelb is a former state and defense department official and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Robert Siegel and Melissa Block review listeners' e-mails from Monday's story on bread, fish and ducks in Linesville, Pa. People gather there to toss bread to the carp in a spillway, and there are so many fish that the ducks literally hop, skip, and jump across the fish to get their own slices of bread.

GMAC is the most recent beneficiary of a government bailout. As the financing arm of General Motors, it supplies funding for auto dealers to buy inventory and credit for consumers to buy cars. It is also a major player in the home mortgage market.

This has been a strong year for African music, with two big trends emerging: the continuing integration of African music into the U.S. and European mainstream, as well as the ongoing unearthing of treasures from Afropop's "golden era," particularly the '70s.

In Russia, a State TV contest to name the greatest Russians in history ended Sunday with more than 50 million votes cast. First place went to a medieval prince who fended off German invaders. Second place went to a prime minister who fended off revolutionaries. And, despite gulags, famines and purges that killed millions, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin came in third.

Self-proclaimed "sex kitten" Eartha Kitt, a sultry singer, dancer and actress, has died. She was 81. Her career spanned six decades, from starring on film with Nat King Cole to playing Catwoman on TV's Batman. Kitt won two Emmys. She also was nominated for several Tonys and two Grammys.

As the famous poem puts it, Christmas is when children are "nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads." It's a lovely image. But it does prompt the question: What exactly is a sugarplum? The short answer: It's very good.

George Plimpton was a literary man about town who did it all, from co-founding The Paris Review to boxing (and dribbling and quarterbacking) with the pros. Now, in George, Being George, 200 friends, lovers and rivals detail Plimpton's remarkable exploits.

Filmmaker Ari Folman was a 19-year-old Israeli soldier serving in Beirut at the time of the 1982 massacre of Palestinian refuges. Though he has no memory of the time, he revisits the mission in his new film, Waltz With Bashir, a surreal, animated documentary of the terror.