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7 | India THE PEOPLE'S CAR Tata Motors, India's largest automaker, unveiled the $2,000 Nano, the world's cheapest car, on March 23. The 33-h.p. (25 kw) Nano aims to make automotive transportation affordable in a country where a car is beyond most people's budgets. While environmentalists worry about the impact of millions of new cars on Indian roads, Tata argues Nanos could actually clear the air by replacing exhaust-belching motorbikes. The car is expected to hit Indian streets by July.

8 | Pyongyang Journalists Detained Two American journalists have been taken into custody in North Korea and are under investigation for espionage and illegally crossing into the country from China. North Korean officials say Laura Ling and Euna Lee are being treated fairly, although their detainment has raised tensions between Washington and Pyongyang--already at odds over a planned satellite launch that the U.S. says is a covert missile test.

9 | California Medical Marijuana Fight: Up in Smoke? U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder indicated on March 18 that he would not prosecute sellers of medical marijuana where it is legal under state law, reversing the Bush Administration's zero-tolerance policy. A federal judge in Los Angeles has already postponed the sentencing of a convicted marijuana-dispensary operator, asking the Justice Department to further clarify its stance.

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1996 California passes Proposition 215, legalizing medical marijuana

1998 Justice Department sues to stop dispensaries from distributing marijuana

2001 U.S. Supreme Court says distributors who provide marijuana to people for medical reasons violate federal law

2001 Under the Bush Administration, federal agents begin raiding dispensaries and growers in California

2003 Supreme Court says the Federal Government can't prosecute doctors for recommending marijuana to patients

2005 Supreme Court rules that federal agents can arrest people who grow and use marijuana for medical purposes

10 | New Mexico An End to the Death Penalty Governor Bill Richardson, in a last-minute action he called "the most difficult decision in my political life," signed a bill making New Mexico the 15th state to ban capital punishment since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated it in 1976. (New Mexico has executed only one person since then.) Richardson said he was prompted to endorse the ban after visiting the state's death chamber and reviewing death-row exonerations. In 2008, 37 people were executed in the U.S.--the most in the world, after China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International.

[The following text appears within a map. Please see hardcopy or PDF for actual map.]

• States where the death penalty is illegal

• States where the death penalty is legal

• Top five death-penalty states, accounting for 66% of all U.S. executions since 1976

• States with the death penalty on the books but no executions since 1976

(SOURCE: DEATH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER)

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