You couldn't make it up dept. no.51: The Pope is a Jew! The Pope is a Jew!

From AFP via Breitbart come these peculiar quotes from Iranian newspapers
"The reality is that if we do not consider Pope Benedict XVI to be ignorant of Islam, then his remarks against Islam are a dictat that the Zionists and the Americans have written (for him) and have submitted to him."

"The American and the Zionist aim is to undermine the glorious triumph of Islam's children of Lebanese Hezbollah, which annulled the undefeatable legend of the Israeli army and foiled the Satanic and colonialist American plot," it said.

Fellow hardline daily Kayhan, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said there were signs of Israeli inteference aimed at creating conflict between Islam and Christianity.

"There are many signs that show that Pope Benedict XVI's remarks regarding the great prophet of Islam are a link in a connected chain of a Zionist-American project," it said.

"The project, which was created and executed by the Zionist minority, aims at creating confrontation between the followers of the two great divine religions."

Incredible

Italy has occasionally produced some very good tennis players, but since the early seventies there seemed to be nobody coming through worth a damn. In the last few years, however, the female half of the sport has been doing quite well - but never enough for anyone to expect what just happened. The Italian women's team has just won the Federation Cup - supposedly the female version of the Davis Cup - by beating the Belgians. Get it? The Belgians. As in Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne.

EDIT: according to reports, both Clijsters and Henin-Hardenne had to retire due to injuries, but this only proves that the Italian team was fitter. Let alone that, on the way up, they knocked out a French team led by Amelie Mauresmo, the super-strong current World no.1. An astonishing performance however you look at it. And even more surprising is that three out of the four Italian players come from south of Rome - not an area that used to produce a lot of female stars. And there is another record to be added: the manager Corrado Barazzutti was part of the male team that won the Davis Cup in 1976. He is apparently only the second person to win a Davis or Fed Cup both as a player and as a manager, following on the Frenchman Guy Forget.