Conspiracy theories rage over Paul the Psychic Octopus's death

As we never reported yesterday, caught up as we were in whatever was more important, Paul died of something or other a couple of days ago. Paul is dead, long live Paul, according to the Spanish media, who had naturally taken the cephalopod oracle up in a big way when it predicted Spain's victory in the 2010 World Cup (over which Paul -or Peter, or Mary for all we know- appears to be lifting a leg in the photo). However, Metro.co.uk puts it this way: "There are some in England, Germany and Holland who wanted Paul turned into paella after he predicted defeats for them in the World Cup this year. Perhaps he ended up in the stomach of a disgruntled fan?>

"Or maybe he was assassinated by Iran? The Iranian leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, denounced the sea-based soothsayer as a symbol of decadence and decay in the West earlier this year. 'Those who believe in this type of thing cannot be the leaders of the global nations that aspire, like Iran, to human perfection, basing themselves in the love of all sacred values,' he said.
"Meanwhile, Jiang Xiao, the director of the imminent thriller Who Killed Paul the Octopus?, is '60 to 70 per cent sure' that Paul died two days before the World Cup final, which took place on July 11.
"She told the Guardian: ‘We have been keeping in touch with the German aquarium ever since the beginning [of production] but it seemed to me that they were afraid. The movie is about unveiling the inside story behind the octopus miracle, so they felt nervous.
"‘For the movie, we had done quite a lot of investigation and I am 60 to 70 per cent sure that Paul died on 9 July and the Germans have been covering up his death and fooling us for a long time.’
"So, has the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre in Germany been using a decoy octopus? Xiao refused to reveal why she thought the aquarium would engage in salty subterfuge when she was pressed on the matter.
"Some people wager that Paul was bumped off by a riled betting shop, fed up with punters using him to beat the odds.
"It’s a theory that makes sense, but we’ve not read of any betting shops who’ve lost enough money because of Paul to take such drastic action.
"Suffice to say, the aquarium is certain about Paul’s passing. A spokeswoman said: ‘He died a simple and straightforward death.’"

Yes, say we, but when?