23+DEC

 **** __Plan to Move Guantánamo Detainees Faces a New Delay__ **** By CHARLIE SAVAGE Rebuffed by skeptical lawmakers when it sought finances to buy an Illinois prison, the Obama administration is unlikely to close the Guantánamo Bay prison until 2011 at the earliest.

**** __Latino Leaders Use Churches to Push Census Bid__ **** By JULIA PRESTON A nationwide drive urging Latinos, especially illegal immigrants, to participate in the census is focusing on evangelical churches.

****MONTHS TO LIVE**** **** __Weighing Medical Costs of End-of-Life Care__ **** By REED ABELSON Ronald Reagan U.C.L.A. Medical Center is confronting a hard truth: it’s difficult to know which critically ill patients will benefit from its high-intensity approach. 

By ELISABETH MALKIN Gunmen killed four relatives of a sailor who died last week in a special forces assault that killed a top drug lord.
 *  **** __Revenge in Drug War Chills Mexico__ ****

**** __Abbreviating Christmas in Iraq__ **** By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS For Christians in Iraq, this will be a year of canceled celebrations because of threats by extremist groups to bomb churches.

**** __Kyrgyz President Blamed in Homicide__ **** By CLIFFORD J. LEVY Gennadi Pavlyuk, a politically active former editor, was bound and thrown from a window while on a visit to a neighboring Central Asian country. ||  **** __History Made, Mayor-Elect Focuses on Local Issues__ **** By ABBY GOODNOUGH Newton, Mass., is the first municipality in the country to elect a black president, governor and, with Setti Warren’s victory last month, mayor.

**** __Court Wants Boy in Brazil Sent to U.S.__ **** By KIRK SEMPLE A ruling by Brazil’s Supreme Court put an American father one step closer to being reunited with his 9-year-old son.

**** __Half Tuition or Less for a Law School’s Second Class__ **** By TAMAR LEWIN The University of California’s law school at Irvine announced that the 80 students chosen for the second entering class will get privately financed scholarships for all three years. **** __No Perk Too Small for Top Fliers__ **** By MICHELINE MAYNARD As once-elite tiers get crowded, airlines are providing even more rarefied ones, with more perks, for the biggest spenders among their customers.

**** __Tax Credit Gives a Lift to Housing__ **** By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ A downward revision to 2.2 percent growth from 2.8 percent in the U.S. was partly because shoppers did not spend as much and construction was weaker than first thought.

**** __Nice Home. Where’s the Rest of It?__ **** By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF The practice of stripping and selling items from homes slated for foreclosure appears to be worse in boom-and-bust regions.