Cubans awoke on Friday for the first time in half a century with the right to buy new and used vehicles from the state without special permission, but price markups of 400 percent or more quickly dashed most people's expectations. A new Kia Rio hatchback that starts at $13,600 in the United States sells for $42,000 in Havana, while a fresh-off-the-lot Peugeot 508 family car, the most luxurious of which lists for the equivalent of about $53,000 in the U.K., will set one back a cool $262,000.

Friends, relatives and business associates of Tajikistan's president are driving around in cars stolen off Germany's streets, according to the German government. German authorities have been attempting to raise the issue with Tajik officials since at least May, they confirmed Thursday after a German tabloid broke the story.

In Cuba, a ban on imported vehicles has kept the roads full of classic American cars. But those famously vintage-looking streets could get a modern makeover next year. Today, the Cuban government announced it will lift restrictions on imported cars for the first time in 50 years. The country, which has no car factories of its own, will soon open its borders to imported automobiles, vans, trucks, and motorcycles.