A pair of fender-benders, two technology-loving hitchhikers and 22 hours blocked at the Russian border.

T’S going to be the sweet life of retirement for Paul the psychic octopus, who correctly predicted the winner in eight World Cup games but first he took home a mussel-bedecked winner’s trophy of his own.

Read our live text commentary of the 2010 World Cup Final between Spain and the Netherlands.

Two year-old octopus Paul, the so-called ”octopus oracle” predicts Spain’s victory in their 2010 World Cup semi-final soccer match against Germany by choosing a mussel, from a glass box decorated with the Spanish national flag instead of a glass box with the German flag, at the Sea Life Aquarium in the western German city of Oberhausen July 6, 2010.

Top wrestler Kotomitsuki was fired on Sunday for illegal gambling

Socialite Paris Hilton took some of the spotlight from the World Cup after she was arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana, then had the case dropped at a midnight court hearing.

The Wimbledon match between the USA’s John Isner and France’s Nicolas Mahut is finally over after 11 hours and 5 minutes, with Isner winning the fifth set at 70-68.

PARIS – A French cable TV channel is offering vuvuzela-free broadcasts for all matches at the World Cup, using frequency-separating technology to block out the trumpets’ buzzing drone while letting other sounds come through.

As South Africa’s flagship Soccer City stadium seethed in a mass of yellow and brightly coloured flags, the hum of tens of thousands of vuvuzelas was suddenly overcome as Gripen Fighter jets burst overhead.

As the smoke cleared, five silver falcons, their tails emblazed with the South African flag, sent the crowd’s excitement levels sky rocketing. The moment a nation has been counting down towards for more than six years had arrived.

Learn all about the grounds to be used at South Africa 2010.