Island DNA tested for Libya link

ROME, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Libya's Moammar Gadhafi requested DNA tests to determine if residents of Italy's Tremiti Islands are of Libyan descent, Tremiti's mayor said.

Tremiti Islands Mayor Giuseppe Calabrese said about 30 people were tested by Libyan scientists to see if they were linked to 1,300 Libyans exiled to the Adriatic archipelago after Italy colonized the North African country in 1911, ANSA reported Monday.

Calabrese said the results failed to show a link. He said many of the exiled Libyans died from typhus relatively soon after they arrived. Most were buried in a common grave.

The archipelago is home to about 350 people, ANSA said.