Facebook suit thrown out

Claims that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for the social networking site have once again been thrown out of court.

A US District Court judge in Boston has dismissed the latest in a string of claims made by twins and former Olympic rowers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, along with their business partner Divya Narendra, that Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook while the four were studying at Harvard.

The trio’s claim was settled for US$65 million in 2008, but since then they have claimed repeatedly that important evidence was suppressed.

The latest suit, in the Massachusetts District Court, was launched just a day after the group chose not to appeal a decision in the US Supreme Court upholding the original ruling.

A lawyer for the brothers is reported to be planning further action.

Tensions escalate between trio and former Harvard president

A war of words has broken out between Narendra and the Winklevoss twins and former Harvard president, Larry Summers.

In an interview at a tech conference hosted by business publication Fortune, Summers described a meeting he had with the trio, saying, "If an undergraduate is wearing a tie and jacket on Thursday afternoon at three o'clock, there are two possibilities. One is that they're looking for a job and have an interview, the other is that they are an a**hole.

"This was the latter case."

The jibe prompted the group to hit back, publishing an open letter questioning Summers' ethical standards.

"It is deeply disturbing that a professor of this university openly admits to making character judgements of students based on their appearance," the letter reads.

"Someone who does not value ethics with respect to his own conduct, would likely have little interest in this subject as it related to the conduct of others."