LOS ANGELES (CN) - A 19-year-old man claims his Scientologist parents "ceded custody" of him at the age of 5 to the controversial church, which then entered into a "billion year contract" with him as a minor, forced him to work hundreds of hours a week at a Scientology school for as little $35, denied him an education, and forced him back to work just two days after he lost a finger in a work accident. The first of Daniel Montalvo's ...

The Church of Scientology Mission of Boulder briefly evacuated Tuesday evening after receiving a bomb threat. Susan Gaut, director of special affairs at the mission, said the threat was a prank call and the evacuation was a precaution. Boulder police Sgt. Doyle Thomas said police searched the offices at 1021 Pearl St. and didn't find anything suspicious.

[Contributor notes: Series of 5 minute TV shorts called 4though.tv about various faiths. The whole week from 7th March to 13th March 2011 is taken up with the subject of scientology, pro and against. See alternate/complimentary links to each episode.] ———- 0248 Lizzy Calcioli How relevant is Scientology to twenty-first century Britain This programme will appear online shortly after broadcast Monday, 07 March 2011 19:55 More about Lizzy Calcioli Scientologist Lizzy Calcioli gave birth to her five children according to the ...

Inside the Church of Scientology What's the Church of Scientology all about? Sunday Herald Sun reporter Hamish Heard joined to find out. AFTER barely an hour in the Church of Scientology's new Melbourne headquarters the verdict is in: I am deeply flawed. It appears I am in denial of a deep-seated depression, I am close to unlikable and a decade and a half of social indulgence has left me borderline dim. On the plus side, Mark - my new mentor in ...

Protest Planned at Scientology Headquarters Reported by: KPSP Local 2 News Email: news@kpsplocal2.com Created: 3/06 3:10 pm Last Update: 3/06 8:00 pm The "hacktivist" collective known as Anonymous is planning to picket at the Scientology compound in Hemet Saturday, March 12. A group of human rights activists will also join the protest at Golden Era Productions on Gillman Springs Road. Protestors say they want the center to address claims of human trafficking, physical abuse and forced abortions. The group will also ...

Scientology adverts under investigation by ads watchdog Row over posters that claim sessions can tackle job insecurity as former member of church describes campaign as ‘misleading and offensive’ Gabrielle Monaghan. Sunday Times Published: 6 March 2011 [In print. Online subscrption only] Complaints have been filed with the country’s advertising watchdog over a Church of Scientology campaign, which claims its courses can help with job insecurity. The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) is investigating claims that the ads, appearing in Dublin’s ...

Fowler Software Design ran smoothly and profitably for years, even as the staff was divided between Scientologists and nonmembers of the controversial group. But a full-blown schism developed after employees learned that the company's founder — 59-year-old William Rex Fowler — gave as much as $250,000 of the firm's money to the Church of Scientology, according to witness statements given to investigators. Those conflicts were readily apparent after 42-year-old Thomas Ciancio, a non-Scientologist, was shot and killed by Fowler on Dec. ...

A runaway from the Church of Scientology's restrictive religious order, the Sea Org, alleges in two lawsuits filed Friday that the church violated California laws regulating child labor, wages and school attendance. Daniel Montalvo, who turns 20 today, also contends his parents, who remain in the Sea Org, neglected him and breached their duty to protect him from harm by ceding his care to the church. Church spokesman Tommy Davis said Friday night the church had not been served with the ...

Massages, haircuts, and scientology? Posted by: 3AW Radio | 2 March, 2011 - 11:27 AM Scroll down and play the interview of Neil Mitchell with Pauline Priest - Spokesperson for Church of Scientology (The flyer can be seen below the story) The Church of Scientology is out for new recruits and is advertising $10 haircuts and massages at their controversial new headquarters in Moonee Ponds. The event also promises nutrional advice, beauty treatments, and "walking with personal trainers around the neighborhood." ...

Gawker.com, where the author is employed as a staff writer, declined to publish this story. Did the Church of Scientology use a Vanity Fair contributing editor to infiltrate and gather intelligence on the cult's enemies in the media? John Connolly is a well-known, and well-liked, character in New York media circles. He's a former NYPD detective and stock broker who landed a third career as an investigative reporter for Vanity Fair, where he is a contributing editor, Radar, the Daily Beast, ...

Farrakhan: Revolution imminent in U.S. Nation of Islam leader also praises Scientology to crowd at Allstate Arena By Becky Schlikerman, Tribune reporter 10:55 p.m. CST, February 27, 2011 Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan predicted on Sunday that America faces imminent uprisings that mirror those in the Middle East. "What you are looking at in Tunisia, in Egypt … Libya, in Bahrain … what you see happening there … you'd better prepare because it will be coming to your door," ...

L'auteur de science-fiction L. Ron Hubbard a fondé l'Église de Scientologie en 1954. Il s'agit d'un mouvement ésotérique dont les fidèles découvrent les préceptes au fur et à mesure qu'ils y consacrent temps et argent. La Scientologie prétend que nos expériences douloureuses du passé, incluant nos vies antérieures, ont laissé des traces. Ces traces nous minent et nous empêchent d'atteindre notre vrai potentiel. Seule l'application rigoureuse des techniques développées par Hubbard permettent de s'en débarrasser et d'arriver au statut de personne ...

Dans son enquête sur l'Église de scientologie, l'équipe de JE a constaté que le mouvement étend ses tentacules au Québec, notamment dans le milieu des affaires. La scène a tout d'un déjeuner d'affaires comme les autres. Pendant une heure et demie, Sylvain McDuff, consultant en management, explique à des propriétaires et gestionnaires de PME comment ses méthodes de gestion peuvent les aider. L'homme d'une cinquantaine d'années, diplômé du Collège d'administration Hubbard en Californie où l'on forme des consultants WISE (World Institute ...

DENVER — After just two hours of deliberation, an Adams County jury found Rex Fowler guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of his former business partner. Fowler, 59, was immediately sentenced to life in prison. The fact that Fowler shot and killed Thomas Ciancio was never in dispute. What was in dispute was whether the act was deliberate and pre-planned. Prosecutors argued the fact that Ciancio was shot three times in the face could not be an accident — it ...

Doc Thompson 2/24/11 Hour 3 Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:27:13 -0500 Is Tom Cruise using slave labor? Doc gets behind the walls of the Church of Scientology. [Features a Telephone Interview with webmaster and founder of Operation Clambake at www.xenu.net , Andreas Heldal-Lund] Contributor Notes: Podcast link mp3 audio 15Mb, running time 31m55ss. Scientology segment in first part. Youtube link is an commercial-free edited version of just the scientology related segment. Running time 19mins.

BRIGHTON, Colo. – The murder trial starts Wednesday morning for an Adams County software firm founder accused in the 2009 execution-style shooting of his former business partner. William Rex Fowler is charged with first-degree murder. He's accused of shooting Thomas Ciancio, 42, three times in the head with a 9mm Glock handgun when Ciancio came to collect a $9,000 severance payment at Fowler Software Design in Adams County on Dec. 30, 2009. Fowler, 58, has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he ...

BRIGHTON — The upcoming first-degree murder trial of an Adams County business owner with links to the Church of Scientology will be about the facts of the case and not the defendant's religion, the presiding judge said today. "Someone's religion has never been an issue in my courtroom and it won't be in this case," said Adams County District Judge Francis Wasserman. Wasserman spoke in a pre-trial hearing for 58-year-old William Rex Fowler, accused of shooting his former business partner on ...

(Trois-Rivières) L'ancien employé et patient du centre de désintoxication Narconon, David Edgar Love, poursuit sa croisade afin que le ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux n'octroie pas de certification à l'organisme trifluvien. Celui qui a déjà déposé des plaintes devant la Commission des normes du travail et la Commission des droits de la personne contre le centre dont les méthodes ont été critiquées dans le passé était d'ailleurs de passage à Trois-Rivières, hier. Il a rencontré un responsable de ...

On August 19, 2009, Tommy Davis, the chief spokesperson for the Church of Scientology International, received a letter from the film director and screenwriter Paul Haggis. “For ten months now I have been writing to ask you to make a public statement denouncing the actions of the Church of Scientology of San Diego,” Haggis wrote. Before the 2008 elections, a staff member at Scientology’s San Diego church had signed its name to an online petition supporting Proposition 8, which asserted that ...

Did you read that New Yorker piece on the Church of Scientology? You really have to. I know it's long, but it's worth it. If you're short on time, there are a lot of summaries. Along with some incredible new details, there are the previously reported stories of rampant physical abuse of underlings by church head David Miscavige, the church's "Sea Org" full of underage workers signed to "billion-year contracts" performing manual labor for little to no money, and the tales ...

FBI agents investigating human trafficking have interviewed several high-ranking defectors from the Church of Scientology who spoke out to the St. Petersburg Times over the past two years about abusive and coercive practices within the church. Five former church staffers confirmed Monday that the FBI interviewed them individually over the past 15 months about their experiences in the church's religious order, the Sea Org. They said agents asked detailed questions primarily about working and living conditions at Scientology's remote international management ...

Lawrence Wright's cover story in the current edition of The New Yorker reports on the Church of Scientology and focuses on why screenwriter and director Paul Haggis resigned from the organization in 2009 after spending nearly 35 years with it. Haggis, who directed Crash and wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, spoke with Wright about his reasons for leaving the church and the response from his fellow Scientologists. Wright tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the detailed fact-checking process his ...

Melbourne lord mayor Robert Doyle says he would rethink his decision to attend the opening of a new Scientology centre in Melbourne if given his time again given the furore his presence caused. Cr Doyle faced widespread criticism for accepting the role of guest speaker at the opening of the Church of Scientology's multimillion-dollar headquarters on Mount Alexander Road in Ascot Vale on Saturday. Despite insisting he only attended the private function as a friend of Scientologist Kate Ceberano, Cr Doyle ...

MELBOURNE lord mayor Robert Doyle was a guest speaker at the opening of the Church of Scientology's multimillion-dollar headquarters in Ascot Vale yesterday, which drew more than 50 protesters. Mounted police supervised the private function in the Mount Alexander Road building as Mr Doyle and guests including Kate and Phil Ceberano were ferried in a back entrance. Senator Nick Xenophon, who has campaigned to have Scientology's tax-free status revoked, said he was surprised at Cr Doyle's decision. Cr Doyle said he ...

In 2009, a low-profile Pinellas County company drew unwelcome attention in a growing national controversy over home foreclosures. Employees of Nationwide Title Clearing, a leading processor of mortgage-related documents for banks, loan servicers and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., were under fire for signing paperwork as "vice president" of various banks although they actually worked for NTC. The assembly-line process in which workers scrawled their names or initials on hundreds of documents at a time — typically without reading them — ...

[Picture / Caption: The Church of Scientology building in Mt Alexander Rd, Ascot Vale. Picture: Ian Currie Source: Sunday Herald Sun ] SCIENTOLOGISTS from around the world are expected to land in Melbourne this week ahead of the opening of a new multi-million dollar Scientology church. But the church has hosed down speculation that high-profile devotees John Travolta and Tom Cruise would be among the Scientologists in town to celebrate the opening of the Ascot Vale facility this weekend. Reports surfaced ...

[...] Unfair aspersions against Scientology It is disappointing that an article highlighting a charity's alleged breach of Fair Trading regulations should focus on non-existent links with the Scientology religion ("Refugee volunteers tell of Scientology influence", January 17). The article quotes the founder of the Australian League of Immigration Volunteers, Gary Taylor, as saying Scientology was one of a few religions he had spent some time with as a younger man. Beyond that, the only link to Scientology is based on ...

A CHARITY that recruits volunteers to run recreational activities at detention centres is on the brink of deregistration for failing to provide a single financial statement to Fair Trading NSW since it was formally created in 2003. Fair Trading wrote to the founder of the Australian League of Immigration Volunteers, Gary Taylor, on December 15, demanding he lodge the documents within 28 days. But it has received no response. Advertisement: Story continues below The Herald understands Fair Trading wrote again last ...

The Church of Scientology has paid $8.5 million in cash for a building in the Ballpark neighborhood formerly occupied by McClain Finlon Advertising. Over the past five years, the Los Angeles-based church had considered numerous Denver locations, including the Colorado National Bank Building at 17th and Champa streets that is now slated for a hotel. It bought the 44,679-square-foot Ballpark building at 2300-2346 Blake Street on Thursday. The building was listed for $14 million in 2008, following a banner year in ...

SAN BENITO — Renovation of the old Harlingen police station is the first step in opening a new facility to be called The Bridge Community Outreach Center, which will be a joint program operated by Cameron County, the city of Harlingen, Harlingen school district and a half dozen social service agencies. Programs to combat delinquency, school truancy, illegal drug use and gang activity will be offered at the center, said Tommy Ramirez Jr., executive director of the Cameron County Juvenile Justice ...