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Studies prove people of Madagascar came from Borneo and Africa mongabay.com July 8, 2005 Studies released earlier this year found the people of Madagascar have origins in Borneo and East Africa. Half of the genetic lineages of human inhabitants of Madagascar come from 4500 miles away in Borneo, while the other half derive from East Africa, according to a study published in May by a UK team. The island of Madagascar, the largest in the Indian Ocean, lies some 250 miles (400 km) from Africa and 4000 miles (6400 km) from Indonesia. Its isolation means that most of its mammals,...

Agents Go Halfway Around World to Find Fugitive Little Rock, Ark., Lawyer Mar 26, 2004 By Ava Thomas Benson/ Associated Press Writer/ LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Federal agents tracked a lawyer more than 10,000 miles to the island nation of Madagascar, saying he fled after missing a court hearing and bilking investors of up to $3 million. Bobby Keith Moser, 47, was returned to Arkansas on Friday by federal agents and pleaded innocent at an arraignment hearing to fraud, engaging in improper financial transactions and other charges. He faces separate charges in Michigan. Moser and his lawyer declined to...

MORONI (AFP) - A ferry carrying 113 people that went missing at the weekend during a cyclone in north Madagascar "most probably sank", a Comoran government official said. "The boat most probably sank," Transport Minister and government spokesman Houmed Msaidie told AFP, adding that an official announcement to this effect would be made shortly. He explained that the sinking had been reported by two survivors from the ferry. Police in Madagascar said earlier Wednesday that they had questioned two people who said they were on the ferry. Madagascar officials also said the death toll from the cyclone had risen to...

Grenade Attack on US Embassy Officials, BREAKING....

Deadly Flu Outbreak: Is History Repeating Itself?An out-of-control outbreak of influenza which has killed as many as 700 people and felled almost 23,000 victims is ravaging Madagascar and health authorities fear that if the disease is not confined to the huge island it could spread around the world. Madagascar which is larger than France and has a population of 16 million people is located off southeast Africa. World Health Organization (WHO) officials have said that samples taken from victims of the illness have shown it to be Type A influenza, a strain of flu believed to have devastated the world...

Nairobi - The newly founded African Union's (AU) rejection of Madagascar's new leader shows the continent's old guard of rulers may dominate the AU as much as the troubled OAU it replaces, analysts said on Wednesday. The successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) refuses to recognise President Marc Ravalomanana, fresh from victory in a six-month power struggle with veteran ruler Didier Ratsiraka. The AU says Ravalomanana - who rode a wave of popular support after accusing Ratsiraka of cheating in Madagascar's December election - took power unconstitutionally, violating one of the new organisation's key principles. But some analysts...

Heavy fighting in Madagascar The blockades are causing severe hardship Madagascar's long-standing leader Didier Ratsiraka has dispatched his elite troops to fight off an attack from new President Marc Ravalomanana on a north-eastern airport. The BBC's Jonny Donovan in Madagascar says that heavy fighting is continuing on Monday morning after the airport in Sambava was seized by Mr Ravalomanana's forces over the week-end. Mr Ravalomanana's officials have recently threatened to use military force to break the blockades on their stronghold in the capital, Antananarivo. The fighting comes as the Organisation of African Unity prepares to meet to discuss the turmoil...

Try Playing the Name Game with Razafindradriantsimaniry March 10, 2002 10:28 am EST ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (Reuters) - To diplomats, mediators and journalists trying to make sense of politics in Madagascar -- where two men both claim to be president -- getting one's tongue round local names is even more of a challenge. But names such as Razafindradriantsimaniry, Rambeloalijaonah or Andrialemirovason are not deliberately designed to make a news anchor stumble. Stemming from the Malagasy language, which is close to Malaysian, most names on the high plateau of the island, where the capital is situated, carry information about the families...