Countdown begins to discover where Columbus came from

MADRID (AP) — Was Christopher Columbus really from Genoa, in Italy? Or was he Spanish? Or, as some other theories have it, Portuguese or Croatian or even Polish? A definitive answer to the question of where the famous explorer came from could be just five months away as international scientists on Wednesday launched an effort to read the DNA from his remains and identify his geographic origin. Their findings are to be made public in October. Knowledge of the 15th-century navigator’s early life is scant. Columbus died on May 20, 1506 and was buried in Spain.