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Chimpanzees are supposed to be the "good" apes, cute and funny, the hairy little people depicted in thousands of films and TV shows. But recent news out of western Africa shows they can be brutally fierce. A chimp attacked and killed a Sierra Leone man who was driving Americans to a wildlife refuge Sunday. Another man lost part of his hand in the attack. Some news reports said a group of up to 20 chimps that had broken out of their enclosures gang-attacked the men, while other stories have pinned responsibility on one animal, possibly a chimp named Bruno, the...

The Socialist Party is trying to pass a parliamentary initiative that includes simians in the category of "people" and, thereby, grant them legal and moral protection. Under the measure, apes would be put on a par with handicapped people. Spain's Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, defended the initiative as the "next logical step in the evolution of Spanish socialism." "The boundary between man and ape is an arbitrary one," said Zapatero. "Many in the human race share a large number of traits with the apes. Where should we draw the line? Why should we draw a line?" Zapatero said...

MADRID, April 26, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Amnesty International is shocked that the governing socialists in Spain have put forward legislation to grant great apes ‘human rights’.  The same government which stripped from unborn human children the right to life and permits destructive research on human embryos, has put forward legislation to grant great apes the rights the rights to life, freedom and to not being tortured, according to a report by Deutsche Presse-Agentur.Environment Minister Cristina Narbona, protested that the government was not giving apes human rights. “We are not talking about granting human rights to great apes,' but about...

How can humans and chimpanzees, who share about 99 percent of the same genes be so different? Scientists in the United States and Australia say changes in the gene expression, not just genes, is a big part of what separates humans from their nearest relatives. Gene expression is the process by which genes are turned on or off. Not all of the estimated 30,000 genes in humans are activated at the same time in every cell. "We think gene expression is a major part of what separates chimps and humans," said Kevin White, an associate professor of genetics, ecology and...

They already use basic tools, have rudimentary language and star in TV commercials, but now scientists have proof that chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than other great apes. Genetic tests comparing DNA from humans, chimps, gorillas and orang-utans reveal striking similarities in the way chimps and humans evolve that set them apart from the others. The finding adds weight to a controversial proposal to scrap the long-used chimp genus "Pan" and reclassify the animals as members of the human family. The move would give chimps a new place in creation's pecking order alongside humans, the only survivor of...

We demand the extension of the community of equals to include all great apes: human beings, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orang-utans. The community of equals is the moral community within which we accept certain basic moral principles or rights as governing our relations with each other and enforceable at law. Among these principles or rights are the following: 1. The Right to Life The lives of members of the community of equals are to be protected. Members of the community of equals may not be killed except in very strictly defined circumstances, for example, self-defense. 2. The Protection of Individual...

One of biggest paradigm shifts in origins in recent years is when genetics and morphological studies began to show that Neanderthals and humans weren’t related. Sure, a lot of Darwin Fundies around here don’t know that because they get all of their science from the talking point lists of their Fundamentalist Leaders. So this is probably a big shock too, science is also showing that man is not related to any hominids including apes. In the groundbreaking book, Who was Adam?, biochemist Fazale Rana examines the scientific research that is overturning Darwinian Fundamentalism. Here, using peer-reviewed research that the Darwin...

THE Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents. Moscow archives show that in the mid-1920s Russia's top animal breeding scientist, Ilya Ivanov, was ordered to turn his skills from horse and animal work to the quest for a super-warrior.

Stalin's mutant ape army Evil science ... Josef Stalin       By JEROME STARKEY SOVIET dictator Josef Stalin ordered his scientists to cross humans with APES to create an invincible breed of Red Army soldiers, secret documents show.  Archive papers say the Kremlin chief demanded his Planet of the Apes warriors be “resilient and resistant to hunger”.He said they should be of “immense strength but with an underdeveloped brain”. He also wanted them to work on railway construction.Labs and ape skeletons have been found in the Black Sea town of Suchumi in Georgia by workmen building a kids’ playground.It...

Durham, NC - Researchers have discovered the first brain regulatory gene that shows clear evidence of evolution from lower primates to humans. They said the evolution of humans might well have depended in part on hyperactivation of the gene, called prodynorphin (PDYN), that plays critical roles in regulating perception, behavior and memory. They reported that, compared to lower primates, humans possess a distinctive variant in a regulatory segment of the prodynorphin gene, which is a precursor molecule for a range of regulatory proteins called "neuropeptides." This variant increases the amount of prodynorphin produced in the brain. While the researchers do...

TAMPA, FL - Park officials at Busch Gardens in Tampa welcomed a new addition Monday; the first gorilla in the park's history was born. The little bundle's 33-year-old mom, Kishina, experienced medical problems while giving birh to the baby gorilla Friday. So the baby was delivered by caesarean section. The father is 9-year-old Cenzoo, a western lowland gorilla. Busch Gardens is now home to seven gorillas.

Democrat honchos, while forever complaining that President Bush has hurt America's image in the world, have themselves been engaged in a systematic campaign to slander President Bush, particularly over foreign policy, consequently undermining America's image in the world.

A gigantic ape standing 10 feet tall and weighing up to 1,200 pounds lived alongside humans for over a million years, according to a new study. Fortunately for the early humans, the huge primate's diet consisted mainly of bamboo. Scientists have known about Gigantopithecus blackii since the accidental discovery of some of its teeth on sale in a Hong Kong pharmacy about 80 years ago. While the idea of a giant ape piqued the interest of scientists – and bigfoot hunters – around the world, it was unclear how long ago this beast went extinct. Precise dating Now Jack Rink,...

Democrats claimed “victory for the American people” Tuesday after the Senate Intelligence Committee agreed to continue an investigation into prewar intelligence claims made by the Republicans, the Senate minority leader said. Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session for more than two hours Tuesday, accusing Republicans of ignoring intelligence that President Bush used before invading Iraq. A phase-by-phase investigation will resume, Reid announced after the secret session. It will be the second stage of a probe that Democrats have been pressing for for a year. An appointed six-member task force — three members...

Congo's "hippies of the forest" apes dying out fast By David Lewis KINSHASA, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Pygmy chimpanzees dubbed "hippies of the forest" for resolving conflicts through sex rather than violence are dying out faster than ever in post-war Democratic Republic of Congo, a conservationist said on Tuesday. Bonobos, the rarest of all the great apes, are being killed in large numbers by bands of gunmen two years after the vast central African country's most recent war officially ended. "In 1980, there were about 100,000 bonobos in Congo. In 1990 there were thought to be 10,000," Claudine Andre, founder...

BRAZZAVILLE, 24 August (IRIN) - Although the government has not publicly declared the Ebola haemorrhagic fever over, medical authorities in the Republic of Congo say they have the situation well under control. They said 10 people died in the April to July outbreak, the fourth since the virus that causes the fever first appeared in the country in November 2001. At the end of the first outbreak in Cuvette-Ouest in April 2002, Ebola killed 42 of the 57 people who were recorded as having contracted the virus, WHO says. During the second outbreak, in the same area, it killed mostly...

Researchers at the Iowa Great Ape Trust are putting eight intelligent bonobos in a human-like living situation to study how culture may emerge. From the Associated Press: The bonobos will be able to cook in their own kitchen, tap vending machines for snacks, go for walks in the woods and communicate with researchers through computer touchscreens. The decor in their 18-room home includes an indoor waterfall and climbing areas 30 feet high... Using a network of cameras and computers, the bonobos can see visitors who ring the doorbell -- and will be able to choose through a computer touchscreen who...

A virus similar to the HIV strain which causes AIDS has passed from apes to humans as a result of eating "bushmeat" in central Africa, an expert has warned. It is not yet known whether Simian Foamy Virus (SFV) is harmful to humans, but there are considerable concerns because this is the same route by which HIV is understood to have entered the human population. Bushmeat - some of which is the flesh of jungle apes including protected species such as gorillas - is eaten by large numbers of people in Africa and has been found on sale in Britain....

Infectious Evolution: Ancient virus hit apes, not our ancestors, in the genesMarch 5 Bruce Bower A vicious virus infected ancestral chimpanzees and gorillas in Africa between 4 million and 3 million years ago. Not only did it kill a great many of these primates, but it also infiltrated the surviving animals' genomes, altering the course of evolution. That's the picture emerging from a new analysis of modern-primate DNA. Around 1.5 million years ago, this virus of the class called retroviruses also infected ancestors of modern baboons and macaques, two African monkeys, reports geneticist Evan E. Eichler of the University of...

Mobile phones kill great apes By Richard Macey March 10, 2005 Every time we buy a high-tech electronic gadget, says Ian Redmond, we may be pushing the great apes closer to extinction. The primatologist, whose mentor Dr Dian Fossey was murdered 20 years ago, providing the inspiration for the movie Gorillas in the Mist, fears the animals may be extinct in 40 years, thanks to poaching and the loss of forest habitats. "Within our lifetime they will be gone, at the current rate of decline," he said yesterday. Mr Redmond, the chief consultant with the United Nation's Great Apes Survival...