Latest African people Stories
Collaboration by University of Pennsylvania and Cornell UniversityPeople who identify as African-American may be as little as 1 percent West African or as much as 99 percent, just one finding of a large-scale, genome-wide study of African and African-American ancestry released today.An international research team led by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University has collected and analyzed genotype data from 365 African-Americans, 203 people from 12 West African...
 A team of experts in biomechanics and physiology that conducted experiments on Oscar Pistorius, the South African bilateral amputee track athlete, have just published their findings in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Some of their previously confidential findings were presented to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland in May of 2008. Other findings are now being released for the first time.A portion of the team's findings had been presented at the CAS to...
A 10-year study of African population genetics has determined the continent is the most genetically diverse in the world, researchers said Thursday. The team headed by Sara Tishkoff, a geneticist at the University of Pennsylvania, determined that modern humans evolved in southern Africa on the border between Namibia and South Africa. They left the continent by way of East Africa at about the midpoint in the Red Sea. The research team collected data from 14 African populations, four...
An international team of researchers has reported the largest-ever study of genetics in Africa that helps pinpoint where human evolution began.The 10-year study combined efforts from African, American, and European researchers who studied 121 African populations, four African American populations and 60 non-African populations to uncover more than four million genotypes.Teams were looking for patterns of variation at 1327 DNA markers. They discovered that about 71 percent of the African...
A French-led study has plotted African pygmies' ancestry, determining the pygmies' ancestors and neighboring farmers separated about 60,000 years ago. The researchers at the Pasteur Institute said all African Pygmies living in Central Africa descend from a unique population who lived around 20,000 years ago. Pygmies are characterized by a forest-dwelling hunter-gathering lifestyle, distinctive cultural practices and physical traits, especially short stature. Two groups of Pygmy populations...
All African Pygmies, inhabiting a large territory extending west-to-east along Central Africa, descend from a unique population who lived around 20,000 years ago, according to an international study led by researchers at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. The research, published April 10 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics, concludes that the ancestors of present-day African Pygmies and farmers separated ~60,000 years ago.Pygmies are characterized by a forest-dwelling hunter-gathering...
Despite the great cultural, physical, and genetic diversity found amongst the numerous West Central African human populations that are collectively designated as "Pygmies," a report published online on February 5th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, finds that they diverged from a single ancestral population just about 2,800 years ago. The new study is the first to reconstruct the history of the numerous forest-dwelling pygmy populations, who make their livings as...
The U.S. government Tuesday dropped charges against five Guantanamo detainees without prejudice, meaning they could be reinstated. Chief military prosecutor Col. Lawrence J. Morris said supervising lawyers had asked the Pentagon to withdraw the charges, The New York Times reported. The cases had been handled by Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, who resigned saying he didn't think he military tribunal system was fair. Morris said Vandeveld's departure played no role in the decision. No specific...
South Africa's parliament Thursday appointed Kgalema Motlanthe, deputy president of the African National Congress, as the country's interim president. Motlanthe was sworn in and succeeds outgoing President Thabo Mbeki, who stepped down at the request of the ANC, CNN reported. Motlanthe, who has roots in the country's labor movement, will serve as interim president until next year's general elections, scheduled for April. Mbeki resigned Sunday amid claims of political interference in a...
Text of report by UK-based Zimbabwean news website Zimdaily.com on 20 September [Unattributed report: "Mbeki To Address Nation Sunday"] South African President Thabo Mbeki will address the nation after a special cabinet meeting Sunday [21 September], the government said, after Mbeki on Saturday [20 September] said he would accept calls for his resignation. "There will be a cabinet meeting tomorrow afternoon (Sunday) and then the president will speak to the nation at 7.30 p.m. (1730 gmt),"...
