Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Fugees rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel appeared in court on Thursday and told reporters he is innocent of criminal charges that he conspired to funnel foreign funds into Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential re-election, while also plugging his upcoming album.... ...Last week, the Justice Department unsealed charges against Michel and Low Taek Jho, a wealthy Malaysian businessman with a tabloid partying reputation known as “Jho Low,” alleging they conspired to steer foreign campaign contributions into Obama’s 2012 campaign. It is a crime for foreign nationals to make political contributions in U.S. federal, state or local elections. Federal prosecutors...

A US radio telescope has captured images of an enormous lava lake on the surface of Io, one of the moons orbiting the planet Jupiter, the Puerto Rico Astronomy Society (PRAS) reported. "The new images clearly show an enormous lake of lava, fed from the subsoil and which exists permanently," PRAS vice president, professor and scientist Armando Caussade said in a statement. The Large Binocular Telescope Observatory in Arizona was the one that spotted the mass of lava in the region known as Loki Patera, a volcanic pit measuring approximately 200 kilometers (124 miles) in diameter. PRAS spokesman Juan Villafañe...