PARIS (Reuters) - A new French law means the Church of Scientology cannot be dissolved in France even if it is convicted of fraud, it has emerged during a trial of the organisation. A prosecutor has recommended that a Paris court dissolve the church's French branch, which has been charged with fraud after complaints by former members who say they gave huge sums to the church for spiritual classes and "purification packs." The Church of Scientology's French arm denies fraud. Whatever ...

(Reuters) — A French prosecutor on Monday recommended a Paris court should dissolve the Church of Scientology's French branch when it rules on charges of fraud against the organization. Registered as a religion in the United States, with celebrity members such as actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, Scientology enjoys no such legal protection in France, where it has faced repeated accusations of being a money-making cult. The Church's Paris headquarters and bookshop are defendants in a fraud trial that began ...

PARIS (Reuters) - A French judge has ordered two branches of the Church of Scientology and seven of its leaders to stand trial for fraud, a judicial source said on Monday. The case is the latest in a series of legal battles that have pitted the French judicial system against the Scientologists, who are viewed by the authorities as a sect. The latest suit centers on a complaint made in 1998 by a woman who said she was enrolled into the ...

NEW YORK, June 19 (Reuters) - Matt Feshbach, one of the most famed short-sellers of the 1980s, is liquidating his latest fund after months of stock losses. Feshbach said on Thursday he was liquidating Largo, Florida-based MLF Investments, which peaked at more than $200 million in 2006, by distributing holdings in its two remaining stocks to his investors. "I believe it was in the best interests of my investors to distribute the underlying securities that the fund held," Feshbach told Reuters ...

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble launched a verbal assault against the Church of Scientology on Sunday, accusing it in a newspaper interview of trying to secure political power and influence in Germany. A spokeswoman for Scientology in Germany dismissed Schaeuble's allegations as "insane". Schaeuble and the country's 16 state interior ministers declared Scientology unconstitutional on Friday, opening the way for a possible ban on the organisation. "Scientology is also working in Germany to secure political power and influence," ...

CANBERRA, July 1 (Reuter) — Australian bosses might prefer blondes, but the tax office won't give their secretaries a rebate for changing their hair colour. As Australia entered its annual fiscal silly season on Tuesday, when millions of workers fiddle their figures to try to claw back tax payments, the association of tax accountants published a list of enthusiastic claims destined for failure. Among them were a car repairer's claim for the cost of his "guard dog" — a miniature poodle ...