Around the world

ASSASSINATION: A Haitian lawmaker was found shot to death inside his car early Friday amid growing concerns about the political climate as the country prepares for June elections, diplomats said in Port-au-Prince. Political analysts said it was not immediately clear if the killing of Eric Lamothe, who represented the northern town of Fort Liberte in Haiti's Chamber of Deputies, was politically motivated.

Across the nation

NO PRISON: A boy who prosecutors say bought a pizza for some homeless people, then shot and killed a man who had reached for an extra slice, pleaded guilty to murder in a deal that will keep him from having to go to prison. Under the deal reached Thursday in Miami, Chaffee Suarez, 14, will spend at least a year in a psychiatric hospital, then will face 20 years' probation.

NO MERCY: Nearly half of Americans surveyed said Susan Smith, the woman who confessed to drowning her two young sons, should be executed if found guilty, a People magazine poll released Friday found. A national sampling of 1,033 adults conducted by the ICR survey group found that nearly 50 percent believed Smith should go to South Carolina's electric chair, while only 33 percent opposed that.

In Washington

NO BLOCK: Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens Friday refused to issue an emergency order blocking Chi-cago's ban on the sale of spray paint to curb graffiti. Led by Rust-Oleum Corp. and The Sherwin-Williams Co., a group of paint manufacturers said the ban interferes with interstate commerce and therefore violates the Constitution.

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