Modern Man evolved outside Africa?

[not rock pile related] This is from here at Yahoo News:

"The Neanderthal genome revealed that people outside Africa share more genetic mutations with Neanderthals than Africans do. One possible explanation is that modern humans interbred with Neanderthals mostly after the modern lineage began appearing outside Africa at least 100,000 years ago. Another, more complex scenario is that an African group ancestral to both Neanderthals and certain modern human populations genetically split from other Africans beginning about 230,000 years ago. This group then stayed genetically distinct until it eventually left Africa."

To repeat that: people outside Africa are more similar to Neanderthals than they are to people in Africa. That seems somehow significant. Doesn't it suggest that modern man arose outside of Africa? The article's author was resisting that interpretation.