Word: africas
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...overall body plan that looks more ancient than that. "It's not identical to Australopithecus," Jungers says, "but it resembles it in limb proportions, the shape of the bony pelvis, the hands." Adds paleoanthropologist Donald Johansen, who discovered the Australopithecus Lucy: "It is a possibility they got out of Africa earlier than we ever thought. If they were isolated on an island and didn't have gene flow from other populations, it would make sense that they retained ancient features like small stature and small heads...
...South Africa goes to the polls Wednesday in an election billed as the most important since Nelson Mandela led his nation to overthrow apartheid 15 years ago. How so, when the result - a landslide for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and the election of its leader Jacob Zuma to the presidency - is barely in doubt? Here's TIME's quick question-and-answer guide to South Africa's general election: (Read "Why South Africa's Over The Rainbow...
...easily? Yes, or at least by a comfortable margin. Most opinion polls put its support between 60% and 70% of the popular vote. (It won 66% in 2004.) The lowest prediction gives the party 47% support. But even that figure would still make it by far South Africa's largest party. Its nearest rivals - the Democratic Alliance and the Congress of the People, which split from the ANC late last year - rarely score more than 15% each in any survey...
...result is almost assured, why so much interest? Three reasons. First, South Africa is Africa's economic and political heavyweight. What happens in South Africa affects all Africa and is often seen as a weather vane for the continent. In particular, the ANC is the most prominent of Africa's liberation movements - the revolutionary parties that overthrew white or colonial rule. Its success or failure in adapting from the demands of fighting a revolutionary war to the demands of competing in a free and fair democracy - requiring less a transition than a total reinvention - has wide implications for Africa, even...
...outlook for South Africa that bleak? It depends on your time frame. Zuma's checkered career, the behavior of his supporters and the contrast to the iconic Mandela inevitably reflect poorly on him and his party. His victory in deposing Mbeki was first and foremost an internal factional victory and, outside that ANC constituency, his election will not be viewed so positively, either for South Africa or all Africa...