The New Age Of Extinction

There are at least 8 million unique species of life on the planet, if not far more, and you could be forgiven for believing that all of them can be found in Andasibe. Walking through this rain forest in Madagascar is like stepping into the library of life. Sunlight seeps through the silky fringes of the Ravenea louvelii, an endangered palm found, like so much else on this African island, nowhere else. Leaf-tailed geckos cling to the trees, cloaked in green. A fat Parson’s chameleon lies lazily on a branch, beady eyes scanning for dinner. But the animal I most hoped to find, I don’t see at first; I hear it, though — a sustained groan that electrifies the forest quiet. My Malagasy guide, Marie Razafindrasolo, finds the source of the sound perched on a branch. It is the black-and-white indri, largest of the lemurs — a type of small primate found only in Madagascar. The cry is known as a spacing call, a warning to other indris to keep their distance, to prevent competition for food. But there’s not much risk of interlopers. The species — like many other lemurs, like many other animals in Madagascar, like so much of life on Earth — is endangered and dwindling fast.

Madagascar — which separated from India 80 million to 100 million years ago before eventually settling off the southeastern coast of Africa — is in many ways an Earth apart. All that time in geographic isolation made Madagascar a Darwinian playground, its animals and plants evolving into forms utterly original. They include species as strange-looking as the pygmy mouse lemur — a chirping, palm-size mammal that may be the smallest primate on the planet — and as haunting as the carnivorous fossa, a catlike animal about 30 in. long. Some 90% of the island’s plants and about 70% of its animals are endemic, meaning that they are found only in Madagascar. But what makes life on the island unique also makes it uniquely vulnerable. “If we lose these animals on Madagascar, they’re gone forever,” says Russell Mittermeier, president of the wildlife group Conservation International (CI).

That loss seems likelier than ever because the animals are under threat as never before. Once lushly forested, Madagascar has seen more than 80% of its original vegetation cut down or burned since humans arrived at least 1,500 years ago, fragmenting habitats and leaving animals effectively homeless. Unchecked hunting wiped out a number of large species, and today mining, logging and energy exploration threaten those that remain. “You have an area the size of New Jersey in Madagascar that is still under forest, and all this incredible diversity is crammed into it,” says Mittermeier, an American who has been traveling to the country for more than 25 years. “We’re very concerned.”

Madagascar is a conservation hot spot — a term for a region that is very biodiverse and particularly threatened — and while that makes the island special, it is hardly alone. Conservationists estimate that extinctions worldwide are occurring at a pace that is up to 1,000 times as great as history’s background rate before human beings began proliferating. Worse, that die-off could be accelerating.

Price of Extinction
There have been five extinction waves in the planet’s history — including the Permian extinction 250 million years ago, when an estimated 70% of all terrestrial animals and 96% of all marine creatures vanished, and, most recently, the Cretaceous event 65 million years ago, which ended the reign of the dinosaurs. Though scientists have directly assessed the viability of fewer than 3% of the world’s described species, the sample polling of animal populations so far suggests that we may have entered what will be the planet’s sixth great extinction wave. And this time the cause isn’t an errant asteroid or megavolcanoes. It’s us.

Goa Bans Christmas Beach Parties,Updated

Christmas and New Year beach parties in tourist resorts in the Indian state of Goa have been banned because of security concerns, say the authorities.

No specific details have been given but officials said there was “obviously” a security threat.

The decision follows the attacks in Mumbai last month in which more than 170 people were killed.

The ban will be a major blow to Goa, which relies on the thousands of tourists attending the famous parties.

“Taking into consideration all the aspects, we have decided that beach parties would not be allowed from December 23 to January 5,” Goa chief minister Digamber Kamat told reporters.

He said traditional ceremonies and parties being held in hotels will be unaffected.

Kishan Kumar, Goa’s police inspector general, told Reuters: “Obviously there is a security threat, but we cannot say anything more specific at the moment”.

Security has been tightened around India’s coast following the attacks in November and several foreign governments have advised their citizens against travel to the country.

Goa business leaders said tourism was a “lifeline” and the decision would seriously affect trade.

Nasa Finds ‘Missing’ Mars Mineral

Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has finally spotted rocks on the Red Planet that bear carbonate minerals.

The ingredients needed to make the rocks are very evident, so their absence had been a major puzzle.

One theory to explain the omission is the idea that water on Mars has been too acidic to allow carbonates.

The rocks’ identification now shows these harsh waters have not dominated all parts of Mars – and that is good news for the search for life.

“You want to get an environment that is basically as clement as possible, that’s not difficult to live in,” explained Bethany Ehlmann from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

“It’s difficult to live in a highly acidic environment; it’s difficult to live in a very salty environment. If you have neutral waters then that presents a less difficult environment for microbial life,” she told BBC News.

Weathered rocks

Ehlmann and colleagues have been detailing the discovery here at the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Fall Meeting 2008. A paper explaining their findings is also being published in the journal Science.

The carbonate minerals were detected in a mid-latitude region called Nili Fossae, on the western edge of the Isidis impact basin.

The landscape viewed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is believed to have formed more than 3.6 billion years ago.

Carbonates are produced in the weathering process that sees water with dissolved carbon dioxide re-fashion the original chemistry of rocks. The carbonates – in this case, magnesium carbonate – precipitate out of solution.

On Earth, carbonates are usually associated with great marine sediments like limestone and chalk; although the scientists here stressed the Martian carbonates would look nothing like that.

Life hunt

Previous data from orbiting spacecraft and from the robot rovers on the surface of Mars has revealed salt-rich, acidic waters affected much of the planet in more modern times.

Given that carbonates dissolve quickly in low pH solutions, it is possible that many large carbonate formations created on early Mars may simply have disappeared; and this could explain why it has taken so long to find a carbonate signature.

But the MRO discovery shows that some areas of the Red Planet must have been untouched by these harsher conditions. That makes Nili Fossae an interesting place for future Mars missions to explore.

“If you preserve carbonates on the surface then you know carbon-bearing compounds can survive in some environments on the planet,” said Richard Zurek, the project scientist on MRO.

“That means there are some places we can go and look for evidence for past life – if it ever existed.”

Interestingly, Nili Fossae lost out in the site selection contest to choose the landing location of the next Nasa rover, called the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL).

The vehicle’s launch recently slipped from 2009 to 2011 and the scientists at AGU said it was possible the contest outcome could now be reviewed. However, they also said there would be other opportunities to visit Nili Fossae.

“MSL is not the last lander that we intend to send to the planet. With this diversity of environments, there are many places to explore,” said Dr Zurek.

Swiss Glaciers ‘In Full Retreat’

Swiss glaciers are melting away at an accelerating rate and many will vanish this century if climate projections are correct, two new studies suggest.

One assessment found that some 10 cubic km of ice have been lost from 1,500 glaciers over the past nine years.

The other study, based on a sample of 30 representative glaciers, indicates the group’s members are now losing a metre of thickness every year.

Both pieces of work come out of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

“The trend is negative, but what we see is that the trend is also steepening,” said Matthias Huss from the Zurich university’s Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology.

“Glaciers are starting to lose mass increasingly fast,” he told BBC News.

The retreat is being driven largely by longer melting seasons. The other key factor in glacier health – the amount of winter snowfall to replace ice melt – shows no long-term changes.

The two studies are being presented here at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, the world’s largest annual gathering of Earth scientists.

They are not the first to assess the status of Swiss glaciers but few others can match their scope.

Summer heatwave

In one, Daniel Farinotti and his team tried to assess the total volume of ice in Swiss glaciers -1,500 of them, from the mighty Aletschgletscher (the largest glacier in the Alps) to small ice fields that cover less than three square km.

The research used direct measurements where available, and combined this with modelling to estimate ice volumes for areas that are data-deficient.

The assessment found a total ice volume present in the Swiss Alps of about 75 cubic km by the year 1999 (a baseline for the purpose of the study). It is a bigger figure than previously thought.

“However, 1999 is quite some time ago now, so what we did was try to calculate the volume lost since this baseline; and we estimate a figure of 13% – from 1999 to today,” explained Mr Farinotti.

For 2003, remembered for its strong heatwave across Europe, the team estimates that 3-4% of the volume in Switzerland at that time was lost in that one year alone.

Mr Farinotti said his study highlighted the importance of the largest glaciers as ice reservoirs: more than 80% of the total ice volume is stored in the 50 largest glaciers.

“Aletschgletscher, for example, has about 12% of the area of Swiss glaciers but it contains about a quarter of all ice that is present in Switzerland,” he told BBC News.

“What really matters is how much ice we have in the big glaciers, because the small ones will disappear; that seems clear. For them, it’s just a matter of years. But in glaciers like Aletsch that have a lot of ice, they will be around for decades.”

THE DECLINE OF FOUR SWISS GLACIERS SINCE 1860 The four glaciers here represent a range of types, sizes, locations, and climatic zones. The assessment has now been extended to 30 glaciers Area covered by the glaciers – Aletsch: 83.01sq km; Rhone: 16.45sq km; Gries: 5.26sq km; Silvretta: 2.89sq km Distinct phases of growth (I & III) and strong ice loss (II & IV) are seen within an overall trend for the period which is negative The cumulative mass balance is given in “metres of water equivalent”. Essentially, it records the net thickness change of the glaciers Thickness change over the entire period – Aletsch: -65m; Rhone: -43m; Gries: -97m; Silvretta: -35m

The study by Mr Huss and his team takes a slightly different approach. It considers just a key group of 30 glaciers, representing all sizes, types, and locations.

Again, using a mixture of direct data and modelling, the scientists analysed the mass trends from 1900 to 2007.

Over this period, there is a significant negative trend. It is not linear, however. There are two distinct phases when glaciers gained mass, and even a phase in the 1940s when the glaciers lost mass faster than they do now.

But in general, over the period, there is a retreat; and in the last 30-50 years, the shrinkage has accelerated.

Mr Huss has applied future climate projections to the 10km-long Rhone Glacier, which in Swiss terms is mid-sized.

“Rhone Glacier will have almost gone in 100 years,” said Mr Huss.

“It first retreats not very fast, until about 2050. Then, it retreats really quite fast. It means that most glaciers, the smaller ones, will have disappeared by the end of this century.”

Switzerland’s glaciers are iconic but their shrinkage is more than just an issue for the tourists with their cameras; their loss would have profound ecosystem and economic consequences.

“Glaciers store the water in winter and release it in the summer when it is dry and warm when there is more need for water,” added Mr Huss.

“And they can also store it in the wet and cold years and release it in the hot and warm years. That’s an important reservoir.

“In the south-western part of Switzerland, almost all run-off water from glaciers is temporarily stored and used for electricity production. More than half the electricity consumed in Switzerland is produced from hydropower.”

The Huss-led research builds on work published in the Journal of Geophysical Research this year. The Farinotti-led research has been submitted to the Journals of Glaciology, and the Journal of Global and Planetary Change.

Russian Crowned Miss World Winner

Russian contestant Kseniya Sukhinova has won the Miss World 2008 competition at a ceremony in South Africa.

Trindad and Tobago’s Gabrielle Walcott was second runner-up and India’s Parvathay Omanakuttan was first runner-up, from among 109 contestants.

Millions of people were expected to watch the annual pageant, being held in Johannesburg.

It was the sixth time that South Africa has held the event, more than any other country except England.

South Africa organisers were said to be keen to calm concerns about the country’s ability to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

For this first time in the competition’s history, viewers in 180 countries had the opportunity to vote for one of the semi-finalists through the internet.

An international jury decided the winner.

Miss Sukhinova is from Siberia, studying for an engineering degree.

Elephants ‘Die Earlier In Zoos’,Shock Report

A new study comparing wild, captive and working elephants has found that living in zoos can significantly shorten the animals’ lives.

Writing in the journal Science, researchers say obesity is a major cause of death in adult zoo elephants.

They also cite stress as the key factor in the death of young captive animals when they are moved from zoo to zoo.

They say ideally zoos should not take on new elephants if they cannot provide suitable environments.

Still births

The study focused on the lives of female elephants, comparing more than 4,500 individuals. The researchers looked at wild elephants in Kenya’s Ambosseli National Park, working elephants in the Burmese logging industry, and zoo elephant populations in Europe.

For African elephants, the average lifespan in captivity was only 19 years compared with 56 years in the wild.

Rates of mortality amongst zoo-born Asian elephants were two to three times higher than for those born in the logging camps.

Ros Clubb from Britain’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) says diet and lifestyle are the key factors influencing elephant lifespan in zoos.

“The vast majority are overweight in zoos, this could explain the high still-birth rates and why they’re dying early. Bigger mothers have bigger calves and more of these are still-born,” she said.

Early death was also more likely to occur in captive animals born in the wild or transferred between zoos. Dr Clubb says this is probably caused by the stress of being taken away from their herd, mothers or family group.

“In the wild they live in large stable groups, separation does cause stress; we know this from studies of other species,” she said.

Working elephants

Khyune Mar, now at the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at Sheffield University, used to work for Myanma Timber Enterprise, the commercial arm of Burma’s forest ministry.

The company uses elephants to haul logs from the forests. Analysis of the lives of these working Asian elephants was based on data Dr Mar collected in Burma.

She says their longer life expectancy – more than 40 years compared with less than 19 in zoo elephants – can be put down to their lifestyle; for half the time the Burmese working elephants are allowed to act naturally.

“We keep working elephants in the workforce for no more than six to eight hours a day. For the remaining hours we let them loose in the forest, they live like wild elephants, they can meet and mate with wild elephants, they have a full elephant life, good exercise and good food,” she said.

Dr Mar says there are lessons from the treatment of these working elephants that could be taken on board by zoos.

“They have a very monotonous lifestyle, every day is the same for zoo elephants, they have to live in the same compound, with limited roaming, this makes them more stressed,” she said.

“They need a huge home range, more systematic enrichment, bigger compounds, grooming areas, mud wallows, hills.”

She says its important to allow them the freedom to behave naturally and has a straightforward message for zoos.

“If the zoo does not have space, its simple – don’t take elephants.”

The report’s authors say transfers of elephants between zoos should be avoided, calves should be kept with their mothers for as long as possible to avoid stress-related death, and there should be regular screening for signs of obesity.

UK zoos

A separate study looking in detail at all the elephants in UK zoos has found significant health problems and evidence of widespread psychological distress.

Researchers from Bristol University studied 77 animals in 13 zoos and found that almost half of the elephants displayed abnormal behaviour.

This included repeatedly swaying the trunk, pacing backwards and forwards and retracing their steps over and over again.

“Some of the animals were born in the zoos and must have developed it there,” said Chris Sherwin, from Bristol University’s Department of Veterinary Science.

“It’s possibly their way of coping with stress, but almost certainly indicates they’re in an environment which is inappropriate for their needs. This is not behaviour you see in the wild.”

The report says unless the animals’ health and psychological suffering can be addressed, the ethics of keeping elephants in zoos must be questioned.

“In my opinion, given the correct housing and care it would be ethically acceptable to keep a few elephants in a few zoos, but certainly not the numbers we have in all the zoos we have now,” Dr Sherwin added.

The Zoos Forum, the UK government’s independent advisers on zoos, will consider the new findings and report to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) within six months.

US Man Uses Pizza In Self-Defence

A Florida pizza delivery man who was challenged by armed robbers in the city of Miramar got in first with his own weapon – a large pepperoni pizza.

Eric Lopez Devictoria, 40, flung the piping hot pizza at the gunman, then turned on his heels and ran.

He made a safe getaway, according to the Florida Sun-Sentinel, despite one shot being fired as he fled.

Police later arrested three teenage suspects, who have been charged with armed robbery.

Water Found In Hot Planet’s Orbit

Scientists say they have found evidence for water vapour in the atmosphere of a planet 63 light-years from Earth.

The “hot Jupiter” planet’s surface temperatures exceed 900C.

Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists say their discovery may help find planets that can support life.

In a separate study, the US space agency (Nasa) says it has found carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the same planet.

Molten core

The planet known as HD 189733b is classed as a hot Jupiter due to its fiery molten centre and heavily gaseous atmosphere, which mimics the atmosphere of Jupiter, the gas giant in our own solar system.

The generation of heat by the planet’s core provides the key to why scientists have been able to identify water vapour in its atmosphere.

Gases in the planet’s atmosphere modify the wavelengths of heat radiation coming from the planet’s hot surface. These wavelengths can be detected by space telescopes such as Hubble or the Sun-orbiting Spitzer telescope used in this study.

The type of gas present in the planet’s atmosphere can be determined by looking at the spread of infrared radiation reaching the telescope, each gas producing a different wavelength.

Dr Drake Deming from Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland, US, has looked for signs of water on similar gas giants in the past. He says water vapour in the atmosphere leaves an unmistakeable signal.

“It produces a unique fingerprint, water vapour modulates the shape of the radiation in a very characteristic way,” he said.

As the planet is so far away it is hard to determine how much of the radiation detected by the telescope comes from this gas giant and how much from the star it orbits.

The scientists solved this problem by studying its orbit.

“There is a time when we know the planet is not visible, so we know the light comes only from the star,” says Dr Carl Grillmair from the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, who led the research.

They found HD 1897733b goes round its star every 2.2 days, by taking measurements over several orbiting cycles and deducting the radiation produced during the time when they couldn’t see the planet – when it was behind its star – they were able to see how much radiation the planet emitted on its own.

“The key to these measurements is the eclipse geometry, we have a unique moment in which to observe the star in isolation,” said Dr Deming.

Carbon Dioxide

The scientists were puzzled by earlier observations of HD 189733b and similar gas giants. They expected to see water vapour, but the telescopes did not detect any.

“We concluded there was no water a couple of years ago, the theoreticians were upset, they’d predicted it would be there. We didn’t understand it. We looked much harder we watched it for over 120 hours, and sure enough there was the signature matching brilliantly with the models,” said Dr Grillmair.

He suggests the planet’s proximity to the star means its atmosphere is constantly changing.

“With planets this close to their star, the star covers perhaps half the planet, you’re going to get enormous heat loads that create storms, perhaps clouds one year and none the next – this thing is changing right before our eyes” said Dr Grillmair.

The scientists suggest high clouds created by the storms may have hidden the water vapour in the earlier observations, they are confident that the latest findings are correct.

“What’s new about this is it’s unequivocal,” says Dr Deming.

In a separate development, Nasa says the Hubble space telescope has detected carbon dioxide in HD189733’s atmosphere.

Although the agency is keen to stress the planet is far too hot to support life, it says the finding represents an important proof of concept, showing that it is possible to detect CO2 in the atmospheres of distant planets orbiting other stars, and that the same method could be used to look at planets which might support life.

“The very fact we are able to detect it and estimate its abundance is significant for the long-term effort of characterising planets to find out what they are made of and if they could be a possible host for life,” said Mark Swain, a research scientist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who analysed the Hubble images.

Google Tells Us What We Look For,Updated

What do Sarah Palin, Facebook and Euro 2008 have in common?

They are all on the list of the top 10 fastest-rising queries on Google during 2008.

The search engine has published its year-end Zeitgeist, the tool which reveals what internet users are searching for.

The most searched term for Google users in the UK was Facebook while the BBC came second and its iPlayer service was the fastest rising query.

The list also reveals what global preoccupations are and this year the US election candidates and the Beijing Olympics figure high.

The things people around the globe have in common are a strong interest in socialising and politics, according to Marissa Mayer, vice-president of search at Google.

“Social networks comprised four out of the top 10 global fastest-rising queries while the US election held everyone’s interest around the globe,” she wrote on Google’s official blog.

Popular politicians

The economic crisis has made an impact on UK searchers with “money saving expert” and “hot uk deals” making the top 10 finance-related searches.

Gordon Brown will be pleased to hear that he beat David Cameron into second place on the list of most popular politicians among UK searchers.

Barack Obama made it into third place with rival John McCain coming in seventh.

Foodies were interested in recipes for cupcakes, meatballs, lemon posset and pork belly, while the hottest tickets in the UK went to Oasis and Leonard Cohen (first and second respectively).

Popular music

While news and weather tend to be the most searched for terms globally there are still plenty of country-specific quirks, according to Ms Mayer.

“Russians elected Dmitri Medvedev as their president but a couple of popular music acts got more attention from Google searchers,” she wrote.

In Poland the fifth fastest-rising term was Jozin z Bazin, the title of a 1978 Czech song which has been popular on YouTube.

History Of Omar Mokhtar And Libya

Omar Mokhtar:
Omar Mokhtar was from the tribe of Mnifa, born in a small village called Janzour located in the eastern part of Barqa not to be confused with the city of western Libya called Janzour which is more well known. He was the leader of the resistance movement against the Italian military occupation of Libya for more than twenty years.

A teacher of the Quran by profession, Mukhtar was also skilled in desert tactics. He knew his country’s geography well, and used that knowledge to his advantage in battles against the Italians, who were not accustomed to desert warfare. He repeatedly led his small, highly alert groups in successful attacks against the Italians, after which they would fade back into the desert terrain. Mukhtar’s men skillfully attacked outposts, ambushed troops, and cut lines of supply and communication. The Italians were left astonished and embarrassed to have been outsmarted and tricked by mere “Bedouin.”

In 1922 he reorganized the Mojahideen and re-ignited the resistance against Italy after World War I when the Italians thought that they succeeded in silencing the Libyan resistance. Omar Al-Mokhtar, was ill couple of times and many of his comrades asked him to retire and leave the country, he was about 83 years old. But he refused and kept fighting and he deserved a name given to him as “The Lion of the Desert.”

Italian Invasion in Libya:
In October of 1911, Italian colonial battleships reached the shores of Tripoli, Libya. The Italian’s fleet leader, Farafelli, made a demand to the Libyans to surrender Libya to the Italians or the city would be destroyed at once. The Libyans fled, but the Italians attacked Tripoli anyway, bombing the city for three days and thereafter proclaiming the Libyan population in Tripoli to be “committed and strongly bound to Italy.” The event marked the beginning of a series of battles between the Italian occupiers and the Libyan Omar Mukhtar’s forces.

Feeling that they may lose Libya to the Mojahideen, the Italian authorities sent one of their bloodiest high ranking officers Badolio who used the most inhuman measures to end the resistance. He did not just lead the fight against Omar Al-Moktar and his comrades, but he also punished even those who were living peacefully in the cities and villages accusing them of helping the Mojahideen. Badolio was not the only one whome the Italian government thought able to end the Libyan resistance through using the most inhumane and blodiest measures. Mosoliny, the infamous Italian dictator, sent another high ranking officer to kill thousands and thousands of inocent Libyans, young and old. fighters and non-fighters. Mosolini thought that the solution to the Libyan problem was Rodolfo Grasiani and by sending him to lead the fight against the Libyans he was telling his cabinet that anything and everything must be done to control Libya.

Major Battles:
The Italians first concentrated their attack on the coast cities, Tripoli, Benghazi, Misrata and Derna. Major battles took place in Al-Hani near Tripoli (October 23, 1911) , Ar-Rmaila near Misrata, Al-Fwaihat near Benghazi (March 1912) and Wadi Ash-Shwaer near Derna. Other battles took place on the coast and in other cities, villages, mountains and desert. One of the major battles was Al-Gherthabiya near Sirt (April 1915) where the Italians lost thousands of their soldiers.

Although the Italians succeeded in controling most of Libya after years of resistance and struggle (Jihad), they could not control the whole country because the Libyan fighters (Mojahideen) left their homes and headed for the mountains where they planned their attacks against the Italian armies. Some of the major Libyan fighters (Mojahideen) against the Italians were Omar Al-Moktar, Ramazan As-Swaihli, Mohammad Farhat Az-Zawi, Al-Fadeel Bo-Omar, Solaiman Al-Barouni and Silima An-Nailiah to name a few. Omar Al-Moktar is considered the great symbol for the Libyan resistance (Jihad) against the Italian occupation. He reorganized the Mojahideen in The Green Mountain (Aj-Jabal Al-Akdar) North East Libya and he re-ignited the resistance against Italy after World War I when the Italians thought that they succeeded in silencing the Libyan resistance.

The Original Rebel and Plannings of Omar and Italians Army:
In the mountainous region of Jebel Akhdar (the Green Mountain) Italian Governor Mombelli succeeded in 1924 in activating a counter-guerrilla force that inflicted a harsh defeat on the rebels in April 1925. Omar then quickly modified his own tactics. In March 1927, notwithstanding the occupation of Giarabub (February 1926) and the reenforcement of the oppression under then Governor Teruzzi, Omar surprised an Italian military force at Raheiba. Between 1927 and 1928 Omar fully reorganized the Senusite forces, who were being hunted constantly by the Italians.

Even General Teruzzi recognized Omar’s qualities of “exceptional perseverance and strong will power.” Pietro Badoglio, the new governor of Libya (January 1929), after extensive negotiations was able to reach a compromise with Omar similar to previous Italo-Senusite accords. Italian sources falsely described the situation as an act of complete submission by Omar.

At the end of October 1929 Omar denounced the compromise and reestablished a unity of action among Libyan forces, preparing himself for the ultimate confrontation with General Rodolfo Graziani, the military commander from March 1930. Having failed in a massive offensive in June against Omar’s forces, Graziani, in full accord with Badoglio, De Bono (minister of the colonies), and Benito Mussolini, initiated a strong plan to decisively break off the Cirenaica resistance. The plan was to transfer the Gebel population (around 100,000 persons) to concentration camps on the coast and to close the borders. Grasiani built a wired wall 300 Kilometers long, 2 meters high and 3 meters wide from Bardiyat Slaiman port North Libya to Al-Jagboub South East Libya, thus preventing any foreign(Egypt) help to the fighters and breaking up the solidarity of the population.

From the beginning of 1931 the measures taken by Graziani took their toll on the Senusist resistance. The rebels were deprived of help and reinforcements, spied upon, hit by Italian aircraft, and pursued by the Italian forces aided by local informers. In spite of hardships and increasing risks, Omar courageously continued the fight, but on September 11, 1931, he was ambushed near Zonta because they were out of food, out of mens, out of information and very little ammunations left.

Italian Army forced Libyians to live in Camps:
Italian Army built concentration camps where thousands of Libyans must live under complete control of the Italian army. Grasiany built concentration camps in: Al-Aghaila, Al-Maghroun, Solouq and Al-Abiyar to name a few. By the end of November 1929 all Libyans who live in tents in Al-Jabal Al-Akdar, Mortaf-Aat Al-Thahir from Beneena North to Ash-Shlaithemiya South, from Tawkera to the southern desert of Balt Abdel-Hafeeth and all the members of any tribe that has one or more of its sons fighting with Mojahideen, all those and more, thousands and thousands of Libyans were forced to leave their land and live in one of the concentration camps mentioned above.

In 1933, the Italian Army Health Department Chairman, Dr. Todesky wrote in his book (Cerinaica today): “From May 1930 to September 1930 more than 80,000 Libyans were forced to leave their land and live in concentration camps, they were taken 300 at a time watched by soldiers to make sure that the Libyans go directly to the concentration camps.

Peoples life in the Camps:
Life in the camps was miserable and thousands of Libyans died of hunger, illness and some of them were hanged or shot because they believed to be helping the Mojahideen. Dr. Todesky wrote (continued from his book) “By the end of 1930 all Libyans who live in tents were forced to go and live in the camps. 55% of the Libyans died in the camps.” The Libyan historian Mahmoud Ali At-Taeb said in an interview with the Libyan magazine Ash-Shoura (October 1979) that in November 1930 there were at least seventeen funerals a day in the camps due to hunger, illness and depression.

When some world newspapers talked about the inhumane life in the concentration camps in Libya, the Italian army started giving the Libyans some dry parley (22 Kilo-grams per person per month!…) which was too little to late. Outside the camps, in the mountains, the Mojahideen continued to fight the Italian occupation, but by the year 1931 the Mojahideen were out of food, out of information and out of ammunitions. The leader of the Mojahideen, Omar Al-Moktar, was ill couple of times and many of his comrades asked him to retire and leave the country, he was about 83 years old. But he refused and kept fighting.

No respect of human laws:
Grasiani agreed to go to Libya if and only if Mosolini let him do the job without any consideration or respect for rules and laws in Italy or in the World and Mosolini agreed immediately. He planned his murderous attack on the Libyans, all Libyans according to Mosoliny’s Motto “If you are not with me, you are against me!” which means the only way to control the country is by killing almost half of its population and the Italians did cause the death of half of Libya’s men, women, elderly and childern, directly through public hangings and shootings and indirectly (hunger, illness and horror) for the sake of one thing: showing the world that they have the power to invade and capture colonies just like the other powers in the world.

Capture and Execution:
Mukhtar’s nearly twenty years struggle came to an end when he became wounded in battle and was subsequently captured by the Italian army. The Libyan hero was treated like a prize catch by the Italians. Though in his late eighties, Mukhtar was shackled with heavy chains from his waist and wrists because of the army’s fear that he just might escape. Mukhtar’s capture was a serious blow to his people. However, his resilience had an impact on his jailers, who later said they were overwhelmed by his steadfastness. His interrogators later confessed that Mukhtar looked them in the eye and read verses of peace from the Qur’an as he was tortured and interrogated.

Mukhtar was tried, convicted, and sentenced to be executed by hanging in a public place. The fairness of his trial has been disputed by historians and scholars. When asked if he wished to say any last words, he replied with the Qur’anic clause:

“From Allah we have come, and to Allah we will return.”
On September 16, 1931, in the hope that the Libyan resistance movement would wither and die without him, Mukhtar was hanged in front of his followers in the concentration camp of Sollouq the orders of the Italian court. They forced the Libyans to watch their hero been hanged. There were no considerations of human rights in the Libya.

But, remember that the Italians caused the death of half of Libya’s population and killing Omar Al-Moktar to the Italians was ending the Libyan resistance which to them means finally taking control of the country after 20 years of struggle. Libya was under the Italian occupation till 1943 when Italy was defeated in World War II and Libya became under the Allies Armies occupation till December 24, 1951 when Libya achieved its independance after years and years of occupation.

Many peoples have taken inspiration from Omar Mokhtar struggle:
Today his face is shown on the Libyan 10 Dinar bill. His final years were immortalized in the movie The Lion of the Desert (1981), starring Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reed, and Irene Papas.

Streets are named for him not only in his native Libya but in many other Arab countries as well. In particular, many fighters which they are fighting for their rights have taken inspiration from his struggle.