Russia's prime minister, Sergei Stepashin, said that the explosion of a Russian rocket over Kazakhstan on July 5th, which set off a political quarrel between the two countries, was a minor problem compared with the locust invasion.
Behind-the-scenes maneuvering erupted into a public quarrel between prosecutors and the defense over Holmes' public offer to plead guilty, but the two sides could still come to an agreement that would spare Holmes's life in exchange for spending the rest of his life in prison.