If Py_OptimizeFlag is false then always evaluate assert conditions, don't
test __debug__ at runtime. Closes SF patch #548833.
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index a0ae51e..9363694 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@
Core and builtins
+- The assert statement no longer tests __debug__ at runtime. This means
+ that assert statements cannot be disabled by assigning a false value
+ to __debug__.
+
- A method zfill() was added to str and unicode, that fills a numeric
string to the left with zeros. For example,
"+123".zfill(6) -> "+00123".