Firefox maker says British surveillance company has hijacked its brand to help spy on targets

Published May 01, 2013

Associated Press

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LONDON –  The maker of one of the Internet's most popular browsers is taking on one of the world's best known purveyors of surveillance software.

The Mozilla Foundation — responsible for the Firefox browser — accuses Britain's Gamma International Ltd. of hijacking the Firefox brand to camouflage Gamma's electronic espionage products.

Researchers have found several samples of Gamma's FinFisher spy software disguised as a Firefox file, apparently in an effort to fool computer users into believing the virus is harmless.

Mozilla says in a statement that it has formally demanded Gamma end the practice, which it calls abusive.

Gamma, based in the English town of Andover, has recently found itself in the spotlight over the surveillance software it markets to governments and law enforcement.

Gamma did not return emails seeking comment Wednesday.

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Egg laid by extinct elephant bird sells for $101G at British auction

Published April 24, 2013

Associated Press

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  March 27, 2013: Christie's scientific specialist James Hyslop holds up a chicken egg to scale the size of a sub-fossilised pre-17th century Elephant Bird egg as he poses for photographs at the auction house's premises in London.AP

LONDON –  A massive, partly fossilized egg laid by a now-extinct elephant bird has sold for more than double its estimate at a London auction.

Christie's auction house said Wednesday that the foot-long, nearly nine-inches in diameter egg fetched 66,675 pounds ($101,813). It had been valued at 20,000 to 30,000 pounds pre-sale, and was sold to an anonymous buyer over the telephone after about 10 minutes of competitive bidding.

Elephant birds were wiped out several hundred years ago. The oversized ovum, laid on the island of Madagascar, is believed to date back before the 17th century.

Flightless, fruit-gobbling elephant birds resembled giant ostriches and could grow to be 11 feet high. Christie's says their eggs are 100 times the size of an average chicken's.

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