Status of Python threading support (GIL removal)?

[Jure Erznožnik]

See here for introduction:
http://groups.google.si/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/370f8a1747f0fb91

Digging through my problem, I discovered Python isn't exactly thread
safe and to solve the issue, there's this Global Interpreter Lock
(GIL) in place.
Effectively, this causes the interpreter to utilize one core when
threading is not used and .95 of a core when threading is utilized.

Is there any work in progess on core Python modules that will
permanently resolve this issue?
Is there any other way to work around the issue aside from forking new
processes or using something else?