Our weekly pick-tionary of happenings from Mumbai and beyond.

As the July 4th fireworks die down, another country is gets ready to celebrate its independence. Southern Sudan will most likely be recognized as a new country by the United Nations following a meeting on the 14^th of July. Happy birthday!

Bond(ed) for Life: Daniel Craig, aka James Bond and Rachel Weiss get married in a super-secret ceremony in New York. Here’s a list of other secret celebrity weddings.

Double Trouble: A Nigerian American man travels for months on expired tickets across the US and then goes scot-free for five days, even after security found out that he was a stowaway! Meanwhile a man walks through security check at the Mumbai airport although his ticket was for the next day!

Eight Indian athletes test positive for doping. Why aren’t we surprised?

Following the 7/7 terrorist attacks on the London tube, News of the World allegedly paid the London police to hack the victims’ family phones. Shameful!

God’s Own Country: A recent inventory of the Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple in Kerala finds gold and valuables worth approximately $ 22 billion. If the temple were a person, it would be just short of making Forbes’ list of the 10 richest people in the world. Here is a list of richest temples in the country!

Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad describes being gay as an unnatural disease. Meanwhile, Congress general secretary attempts to salvage the party’s declining popularity with a foot march across Uttar Pradesh. Maybe mouth in foot is more appropriate?

Hundred legislators have resigned in Andhra Pradesh demanding that a new Telangana state be formed, leading to widespread riots.

Powerpuff Girls: Saudi women are breaking the law prohibiting them from driving, and garnering immense support in the process. Closer home, theBombay High Court questions a Maharashtra law forbidding women to work in bars after 9:30 pm. You go, girls!

Shock(ing) Proof: Huge hue and cry over Casey Anthony’s not guilty verdict, who was accused of drowning her infant daughter; plus, ex-IMF chiefDominique Strauss-Kahn is expected to be acquitted in the ongoing sexual assault case against him. Sounds like the Indian judiciary, doesn’t it?

Slumdog Millionaire: Mumbai slums house over 15 million people, roughly 78% of the city population. Furthermore, Dharavi, the inspiration behind the Oscar-winning movie, has now been displaced to number four on the list of Asia’s largest slums, with the top four all in Mumbai.

War of the Words: US intelligence finds that Pakistani ISI ordered the killing of Shahzad, a journalist who wrote about the relationship between militants and the ISI.