SpeedBalling

Suicide adds to phone-tap mystery (The Guardian)

Kostas Tsalikides, 39, who took his own life last March, a day after the discovery of sophisticated spy software at the mobile telephone operator Vodafone, has deepened the mystery of how 100 portable phones, belonging to senior officials, were tapped in the run-up to the Athens Olympic Games.

'We found no suicide note,' said Tsalikides's brother, Panayiotis. 'He had no health problems, was about to marry and was doing very well at work.'

hi-tech software enabled phone conversations to be diverted to a set of 14 'shadow' mobile phones which then relayed them to a recording system. Officials say the calls were intercepted on mobile phones picked up by antennae in an area close to the US embassy.

Vodafone owns a 50% stake in Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. wireless provider.