S. Africa’s Zuma returns to court. South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party head Jacob Zuma faces a second day in court as he seeks to have graft charges against him thrown out. The ANC leader stands accused of corruption, fraud, racketeering and money-laundering over a 1999 arms deal. His lawyers are arguing that delays in bringing the case to court mean he will not get a fair trial. He told his supporters outside court after the first day of the hearing that he was not “afraid of anything,” according to the Associated Press. In Zulu, he thanked the cheering crowds for standing by him through thick and thin. Zuma says he is the victim of a political conspiracy designed to prevent him from becoming South Africa’s next president. “Those who know me will know that I am not a coward. I have never been afraid of anything. … I was willing to die for this country and I am prepared to die for it,” AFP news agency quotes him as saying. He then sang his trademark anti-apartheid guerrilla song, “Bring Me My Machine Gun,” AP reports. Zuma has said he will stand down as ANC leader only if he is found guilty. Critics say he is just trying to delay proceedings until after he is elected president. The shadow of corruption has been hanging over Zuma for several years. In 2005 he was sacked as South Africa’s deputy president when his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was found guilty of soliciting a bribe on behalf of Zuma and jailed for 15 years in connection with an arms deal. Zuma then went on trial, but the case collapsed in 2006 when the prosecution said it was not ready to proceed. He was charged again last December shortly after winning a bitter campaign against President Thabo Mbeki to become ANC leader.

ANC leader fights corruption charges.

Lawyers for Jacob Zuma, president of the African National Congress, urged judges Monday to declare Zuma’s prosecution on corruption charges unlawful. Zuma contends the case against him is about politics, not actual crimes. He says it’s aimed at harming his chances to become his party’s presidential nominee next spring. Zuma could spend at least 15 years in jail if found guilty of accepting bribes from a company that won a contract for a multi-billion-dollar arms deal.

At least 133 people die in Indian stampede. At least 133 people were killed in a stampede Sunday as panicked worshippers tried to flee a crowded mountaintop Hindu temple in northern India, officials said. The stampede, which occurred on the second day of a nine-day religious festival at the Naina Devi Temple in Himachal Pradesh state, was triggered by a rumor of a landslide on the hill above the crowd, according to Deputy Police Commissioner C.P. Verma. Along with the deaths, 40 people were injured, Punjab Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla and police told CNN’s India affiliate IBN. The dead were taken to a hospital in neighboring Punjab state for autopsies, authorities said. While some victims were crushed to death, others fell to their deaths when a railing along the narrow path to the temple broke under the weight of the throng of panicked worshippers, Verma said.

Somalia fighting claims 27. More than 27 people were killed in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu on Sunday, including at least 20 women who died when a hidden landmine exploded, Radio Garowe reported. Another 42 women were wounded in Mogadishu’s Waberi district after the blast tore through a location where dozens of women were helping clean city streets, AllAfrica.com reports, Medina Hospital director Mohamud Yusuf Hassan said. “Some of the victims have grave injuries, and we are doing our best,” Mohamud told reporters, adding that four of the victims died at the hospital. Mohamed Dheere, Mogadishu’s embattled mayor, quickly blamed al Shabaab insurgents for the deadly explosion, but an Islamist spokesman rejected the accusations. Speaking to reporters at Medina Hospital, the mayor sent his condolences to the families of the deceased while strongly condemning the attackers. Somali insurgents readily claimed responsibility for a deadly battle along Industry Road today, where at least seven people were reported dead. The fighting, which erupted in Yaaqshiid district, pitted allied Somali-Ethiopian government forces against insurgents and led to the country’s rebel Islamic Courts movement.

The hip-hop hookup will spend the next 30 months in federal prison

Call him the “king of bling” or the “hip-hop hookup,” but for the next 2½ years, Jacob Arabov will be known as a federal prisoner after pleading guilty Tuesday to lying to prosecutors probing a multi-state drug ring. The 43-year-old Russian immigrant must also cough up $50,000 in fines and kick down the government to the tune of $2 million in forfeiture payment. “I feel ashamed that I broke the laws of this country, a country that has been so good for me,” Arabov said. “I will carry this shame for the rest of my life.” It could have been much worst for Abrabov, who authorities accused of conspiring to launder an estimated $270 million in profits for Detroit’s “Black Mafia Family” drug ring during the 1990s. At the recommendation of prosecutors, U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn imposed a minimum sentence of three years and one month. He lopped off another seven months from that, noting the defendant’s longtime charity work. He was arrested two years ago at his New York City jewelry store, which was frequented by many of the biggest names in the music industry.