Which country has topped the list of countries contributing to space debris, according to a study by the Russian space agency, Roscosmos?

"I think the United States and India have a robust and vital relationship, and nothing in this bill should interfere with that," homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters at the White House, shortly after President Barack Obama signed the Border Security Bill into law. The bill seeks to increase application fees for H-1B and L-1 visas by at least $2,000 for the next five years.

China accounts for 40% of space debris, followed by the United States, which produces 27.5%. Russia stands in the third position, with 25.5% of space debris, the study showed. The credit for catapulting China to the top of the orbital garbage heap goes to the Chinese military, which deliberately destroyed a defunct weather satellite in 2007 to test a missile. The explosion created more than 2,800 pieces of free-flying shrapnel.

The state NCP president criticised the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is under the direct control of the chief minister, and the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, which is run by the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance, regarding the state of Mumbai's infrastructure before the festive season. He demanded that Kshatriya and Gaikwad intervene and punish guilty officials and contractors.

"The assertion that there was linkage between two separate and distinct issues is wrong, is incorrect," Benjamin Chang, deputy spokesperson of the National Security Council in the White House said. Chang was responding to a question about reports in India that a senior US official had asked New Delhi not to persist with its efforts to seek more compensation for the 1984 gas tragedy victims from Dow Chemicals so as to avoid any "chilling" in investment ties between the countries.

Rangin Dadfar Spanta , who has also served as the country's foreign minister, said in an op-ed article in The Washington Post that Pakistan, while faced with a growing domestic terrorist threat, "continues to provide sanctuary and support to the [Taliban's] Quetta Shura, the Haqqani network, the Hekmatyar group, and al-Qaeda." Spanta said global efforts to counter terrorism would not succeed until and unless there was clarity on who was a friend and who, a foe.

Gen Odierno, the US military commander in Iraq, said troop numbers were now at around 49,700 and would stay at that level for the next year ahead of a full withdrawal by the end of 2011 as agreed upon in a bilateral security pact. Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish factions are still in talks to form a coalition government, leaving the country with a political vacuum that insurgents have tried to exploit through a steady stream of suicide bombings and assassinations.

Apathukatha Sivathanu Pillai, a distinguished scientist and chief controller of research and development at the Defence Research and Development Organisation, is also the CEO & MD of BrahMos Aerospace. Last week he said all modifications had been completed and the company was in the process of readying the missile. He also said the Sukhoi 30MKI aircraft, in which the missile is to be fitted, needed to be modified and this process would take two years. Since this BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is "heavier" and "elaborate", the Sukhois need to be modified "exclusively" for it.

"We have sent a notice to the owner of MSC Chitra claiming Rs3 crore for cleaning up the coast after the oil spill," environment secretary Nair said. The oil spill from MSC Chitra continued for three days, polluting the shores of Colaba, Raigad and Elephanta Island and mangroves in Navi Mumbai. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board has already spent Rs80 lakh for the clean-up operation, she said.

Brahma, a retired senior bureaucrat hailing from Assam, is a 1975 batch officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre of the Indian Administrative Service. Brahma, 60, retired as Union power secretary. He was appointed to the Election Commission following the elevation of SY Quraishi as chief election commissioner. Brahma is the second person from the Northeast after JM Lyngdoh, who retired as chief election commissioner in 2004, to become election commissioner.

Saroori, a Congress minister in Jammu & Kashmir, was asked to put in his papers after a controversy erupted over the alleged use of an impersonator for his daughter, but he chose to ignore the directive and left for Jeddah to perform 'umrah' without any clearance from the external affairs ministry. So, the state cabinet, at a meeting chaired by chief minister Omar Abdullah on August 26, decided to sack the public works minister.