A BIZARRE religious cult which believes humans are trapped alien souls has announced plans to open a centre in Trafford to serve as its north west HQ. The Church of Scientology, which bills itself as the fastest growing religion in the world, announced on its website plans to take over the former Duckworth’s Essence Distillery factory on Chester Road in Old Trafford. The movement’s website has started advertising the building as one of several across the globe it plans to open ...

For more than 25 years, the IRS denied tax-exemption to the Church of Scientology. The long-running policy flowed from an IRS determination in 1967 that Scientology was in fact a commercial entity operated solely for the benefit of founder L. Ron Hubbard. In 1993, seven years after Hubbard's death, the IRS made a puzzling and highly suspicious reversal. It settled its tax bill with Scientology for just $12.5 million and conferred on it the title of tax-exempt "religion." Both the Wall ...

With two recent public confrontations, a year-long, highly publicized drama in the world of Scientology has spilled into the streets of Clearwater. The latest incident occurred Friday afternoon as seven members of the Church of Scientology — including five senior members of its California-based international management team — surrounded and screamed at a former church executive, then loudly carried the dispute into the office of an unsuspecting and startled doctor. The former executive was Mike Rinder, 55, Scientology's longtime spokesman, whose ...

Inside Scientology, superstar Tom Cruise is regarded as its most dedicated follower. The mystery is why he never joined its most elite unit. Now, a former top-ranking defector who was just a teenager when recruited into Scientology says she knows why. Amy Scobee claims she knows the truth about how the cult controls celebrities, the way it handled Tom Cruise's marriage to Nicole Kidman and tells eyewitness accounts of what happens when its leader loses it. She began life and work ...

RUSSIA is set to ban dozens of texts and recordings by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. "Materials on Scientology by Ron Hubbard have been found extremist and will be banned from distribution in Russia," the Russian prosecutor general's office said in a statement. The ban relates to 28 books and audio-video discs containing lectures by Hubbard, a US science fiction author who founded Scientology in 1954. The ruling was the latest blow to the Church of Scientology, an organisation that some ...

Moscow, April 21, Interfax — On the initiative of the Surgut Transport Prosecutor's Office, materials by scientology founder Ron Hubbard were recognized as extremist and banned in Russia, the Prosecutor General's Office reports. In compliance with the legislation, they will be included in the Russian federal list of the extremist materials. The Surgut Transport Prosecutor's Office and the Khanty-Mansiysk customs held a joint check to find out that various recipients in Surgut received international mail deliveries from the USA with literature, ...

TAMPA - A lawyer suing the Church of Scientology has filed a motion asking to withdraw from the wrongful death case – but he doesn't really mean it. Kennan Dandar says the state judge who ordered him to withdraw doesn't have jurisdiction in federal court. He also says he doesn't want to abandon his client, who blames the church for her son's death. The highly unusual motion is rooted in the longstanding animus between the church and Dandar. The order to ...

Amy Scobee is a former high-ranking Scientologist. She's about to publish a book about her time with the Church, which contains some interesting details about Tom Cruise. Last week, Cruise's lawyer has sent her an angry letter, countering the claims. Scobee, who'd been with the Church since age 14 and used to work at the LA Celebrity Centre, has spoken out before—most recently during Anderson Cooper's CNN Scientology expose. Next month, her book, Scientology: Abuse at the Top, will be (self-?) ...

BRIGHTON — William Rex Fowler lured his former business partner into a deadly trap last year, killing 42-year-old Thomas Ciancio over claims Fowler was embezzling money from the company he founded, an Adams County prosecutor said Friday. But the second half of Fowler's plan failed when the 58-year-old tried unsuccessfully to kill himself, prosecutor Dave Young said in a preliminary hearing. "His intent was suicide," Young said. "He was going to take care of his business before he took care of ...

THORNTON, Colo. (CBS4) — An Adams County judge says a man, accused of shooting a former business partner, will stand trial. The first degree murder trial will begin May 19. Prosecutors claim Rex Fowler shot himself after shooting Thomas Ciancio on Dec. 30. The prosecution presented four witnesses during Friday's preliminary hearing. Fowler has been charged with first degree murder. He appeared in court wearing shackles around his wrists and ankles. An Adams County Sheriff's Deputy testified that Fowler seemed dazed ...

She was the original Hollywood wild child, leaving school at 14, winning an Oscar nomination at 18 and then sliding into drug addiction. But now Juliette Lewis, 36, who played unhinged outlaws in Natural Born Killers and Kalifornia, is back on the big screen after five years, again playing a bad girl in the roller derby drama Whip It. Lewis credits the Church Of Scientology for helping her beat her drug habit and putting her back on the path to recovery. ...

Yesterday, we were visited by Aaron Saxton, who is in town visiting friends. Saxton is a former Scientologist, and his Orwellian tales of being one of the Sea Org's ruthless enforcers during the 1990s are part of a national scandal that has become big news in Australia. In November, an Australian senator with the unlikely name of Nick Xenophon stunned his colleagues and the nation with a surprising speech filled with allegations of abuse by Scientology and calling for a federal ...

EVERY jail in England has been infiltrated by alien-obsessed Scientologists, it emerged today. Followers of the wacky "church" claim to have signed up thousands of cons to a bizarre "rehab" programme behind bars. But officials freely admit there is no way they can STOP the cult's vast recruitment drive — because it does not "threaten" national security. A wing of weird religion, called Criminon, today revealed it had targeted lags in all 139 prisons in England and Wales. It offers "distance-learning" ...

[Unofficial English translation by Anonymous of an article in Itialian entitled, "Le falsità del comunicato stampa di Scientology in merito alla richiesta di risarcimento danni a Maria Pia Gardini"] [Quoted] you can read the press release of Scientology, my answer [follows each quoted passage]. The National Church of Scientology of Italy has brought proceedings against Mrs. Maria Pia Di Gasparro Gardini for damages totaling two million euros. Scientology forgot to state that this is what they are asking for ...

[Picture / Caption: In four to six months, the former Science Museum of Minnesota will be transformed into the regional headquarters for the Church of Scientology, which has ambitious plans for growth in the Twin Cities—part of a global effort to expand, which an official says has resulted in the Church doubling its worldwide size in the last five years. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)] The Church of Scientology has ambitious plans for growing in the Twin Cities area, hoping to double ...

Books penned by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard are not a common sight in Egypt. Recently, however, Arabic-language translations of the books have begun to appear in Cairo, even bearing the stamp of approval–surprisingly–from Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni Muslim world. Hubbard's book The Way to Happiness, which claims to be a non-religious work, and, more surprisingly, his Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, which lays some of Scientology's 'scientific' foundations, were made available ...

La Cour de cassation a validé l'arrêt de non-lieu en faveur de membres de l'Eglise de Scientologie mis en examen pour "escroquerie" et "exercice illégal de la médecine", a-t-on appris, mardi de source judiciaire. La cour a suivi le 30 mars la chambre de l'instruction de la cour d'appel de Paris qui avait déclaré irrecevable en mars 2009 l'appel interjeté par une association de victimes, l'UNADFI, dans ce dossier ouvert en 1989. Une information judiciaire avait été ouverte en 1989 après ...

Au sommet de l’organisation de l’Eglise de scientologie, Sea Org est censée former les cadres de la secte. Aline*, inféodée et ruinée, a vécu une méthodique entreprise de déstructuration de la personnalité. Elle raconte. Dans l’Eglise de scientologie, le fond du gouffre, c’est à Copenhague qu’Aline* l’a connu. Cadre brillante d’une société financière, généreuse, idéaliste, élevée dans une ambiance religieuse, solitaire mais ouverte aux autres, elle est entrée dans la secte en juillet 1990. Neuf ans plus tard, toutes ses économies ...

Marie-France Hirigoyen, psychiatre, et Rodolphe Bosselut, avocat d'Aline [Voir son témoignage en lien], nous expliquent les mécanismes sur lesquels s'appuie une secte pour qu'un individu «structuré» se retrouve sous emprise psychique. Paris Match. A quoi reconnaît-on qu’on a affaire à une secte ? Me Rodolphe Bosselut. J’ai une définition simple : “C’est un groupe où il est très facile d’entrer et dont il est très difficile de sortir.” Et sa caractéristique essentielle ? Le phénomène d’emprise psychi­que. Mais attention ! Il ...

Workers are busily transforming the old Science Museum of Minnesota in downtown St. Paul into the new local headquarters for the Church of Scientology—thanks to a $3 million renovation. The Clearwater, Fla.-based denomination, which claims more than 8,000 churches and adherents in 165 countries, has been headquartered in the Twin Cities at 1011 Nicollet Ave. in Minneapolis since 1991. That will change when the renovated, three-story, 80,640-square-foot building at 505 N. Wabasha St. in St. Paul reopens as a Scientology “Ideal ...

LOS ANGELES – A federal judge has dismissed part of a lawsuit brought against the Church of Scientology by a woman who alleged she worked 100-hour weeks for almost no pay for years while a member of Scientology's elite inner corps. U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer issued a written order late Friday that dismissed the wage claims portion of Claire Headley's lawsuit. The judge did not address two other causes of action: allegations that the church coerces members of the inner ...

In a sleepy beach town in the Bible Belt, a 22-year-old journalist found himself in the middle of what was then considered by some a cult - and is now known as the Church of Scientology. That young journalist was adjunct professor Richard Leiby, one of the first to unearth religious leaders' clandestine activities during his time at The Clearwater Sun in Florida. During his stay at the now defunct Tampa Bay-area newspaper, Leiby was sent to the nation's capital to ...

CHICAGO (RNS) The windows are boarded-up and there's a "Keep Out" sign in the windowsill. Many in the Printer's Row neighborhood are unaware that the vacant brick building is slated to become Illinois' new welcome center for the Church of Scientology at the end of the year. The $4-million purchase of the seven-story structure is part of a nationwide push by Scientologists to open a host of new church buildings and draw new members into the faith. In all, more than ...

COLOGNE, Germany – A German TV-movie about Scientology that claims to reveal the dark side of the organization was a huge ratings hit for public broadcaster ARD, with 8.7 million viewers tuning in Wednesday night, a 27% market share. Germany has long been at odds with Scientology. Most here view the organization with suspicion. During the shooting of Brian Singer's war film "Valkyrie" in Berlin, famed Scientologist Tom Cruise was savaged in the German press for his beliefs. The ARD film, ...

BRISBANE Scientologists claim they’re being vilified following recent TV reports calling their religion a dangerous cult. In March, ABC’s Four Corners program aired claims of forced abortions, imprisonment in boot camps and separation of families, and Channel 7’s Sunday Night program explored Scientology’s controversial beliefs. The allegations preceded independent senator Nick Xenophon’s failed bid to get the Senate to launch a Parliamentary inquiry into the church, which he labelled a cult. The Church of Scientology of Brisbane, at Annerley, has about ...

The former Science Museum of Minnesota is being transformed into the largest Church of Scientology in the Midwest. Renovations started this week on the vacant downtown St. Paul building that the church bought three years ago. It appears to be the church's first foray into St. Paul and its largest footprint in Minnesota. The building will serve followers from across the state, according to a video on the Scientology website. Church officials did not return a message seeking comment on Thursday. ...