Via the AFP:  Psychic octopus is Paolo, not Paul, Italians say.

Apparently he was caught in Italian waters, leading to perhaps one of the saddest/most amusing attempts at generating national pride that I have ever seen:

"In its own way, Italy is also the star of the 2010 World Cup," wrote Italian newspaper La Repubblica’s online version, after the 2006 champions’ disastrous exit from the World Cup in the early stages of the tournament.

Italy were embarrassingly bundled out of the World Cup following a shock 3-2 defeat to Slovakia on June 24, ending at the bottom of what had looked like a fairly easy Group F.