A little over two years ago former Nazi Paul Schaefer, who founded a secretive German cult in Southern Chile in the 1960s and was later convicted of sexually abusing children, died of heart failure in a prison hospital.

But today, ten years after Chilean police raided Colonia Dignidad’s properties, many of his victims are still seeking closure from the human rights abuses they experienced.

Kevin Hague, drugs spokesman for New Zealand’s Green Party, has alleged in Parliament that the Church of Scientology is using tax-payer money to promote an anti-psychiatry agenda and messages against medication used to treat mental illness through charities disguised as social service organisations.

Through its front groups the cult wages an extended hate campaign against psychiatry and psychiatrists.

A decade-long court dispute over a child neglect case that spawned a legal battle over faith healing, ended Tuesday with two guilty convictions for the girls’ mother and friend.

Sherman and Crank say they will appeal the conviction, and the case is expected to test Tennessee state laws that allow parents to make medical decisions based on their faith.

A man charged in April with raping a woman in a Santa Ana, California motel room under the pretense of performing a “spiritual cleansing” involving raw eggs has been charged with sexually assaulting a second woman using the same ruse.

The second victim came forward after seeing reports of the first case on a Spanish-language television station.

Fugitive Agape Mininstries cult leader Rocco Leo and former cult member Martin Penney have settled their lawsuits against each other.

Rocco Leo fled to Fiji in May 2010, just before police raided his Agape Ministries properties where they discovered thousands of rounds of ammunition and guns.

Cult leader Bert Potter dies; a look at how Jim Jones manipulated politicians in San Francisco; and Kate Bornstein is no longer afraid to speak out about Scientology.

Also in this religion news briefing: the rise of paid, online worship in India; plus: 15 years after committing suicide the website of the Heaven’s Gate cult is still online.

Plus: why more Ugandans are turning to Witchcraft, and why a lawer thinks trafficking in brides might be OK.

Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times changed an anti-Scientology speech by Australian Senator Nick Xenophon into an anti-Islam speech by switching the terms.

Amid concerns for his safety, the senator says the paper’s apology is too little, too late.

Judges says Samuel Mullet had prior knowledge of the attacks and that he defended the assaults in media interviews.

They also said Mullet exerts such complete control over his community that members have refused to talk to the FBI until he gives permission.

Followers of José Luis De Jesus Miranda — a man who has claimed to be both Jesus Christ and the Antichrist — claim they and their leader will be ‘transformed’ on June 30th.

And, according to one of the cult members, “All those that are not believers are going to be destroyed.”

A Utah Attorney has a series of criminal investigations under way into members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the polygamous sect led by jailed cult leader Warren Jeffs.

Authorities in Texas have begun sharing some of the billions of pages of evidence seized in an April, 2008 raid on the sect’s ranch.

An Appeals Court based in Wausau, Winconsin will release its decision today on the request by Dale and Leilani Neumann to have their convictions overturned in connection with the 2008 faith healing death of their daughter, Madeline Kara Neumann.

Instead of taking her to doctor when she fell ill, they only prayed for the girl’s recovery. Update: The Appeals Court has recommended in a written ruling released this morning that the state Supreme Court hear the case.

Nearly ten years ago the mother and ‘spiritual father’ of a 15-year-old girl who died of bone cancer were charged for failing to heed advice from medical professionals and instead relying solely on faith healing.

The trial of Jacqueline Pearl Crank and her minister, Ariel Ben Sherman, has been now been set for May 8 in Loudon County Circuit Court.

Controversial pastor Terry Jones has burned copies of the Koran and a depiction of the prophet Mohammed to protest the imprisonment in Iran of ‘Christian’ clergyman Youcef Nadarkhani — a follower of a cult of Christianity.

The tiny church headed by Jones is considered a hate group.

The leader of an Amish splinter sect accused of cutting the beards of religious enemies has received more than $2 million for oil rights to his 800-acre farm, yet continues to be represented by a taxpayer-financed public defender, according to a new court filing.

Prosecutors also that Samuel Mullet remain in jail pending his trial, citing fears that he and his followers might retreat to his farm and forcibly resist surrendering.

As Mexican immigrants journey north, devotion to Santa Muerte has grown immensely in Chicago, Los Angeles, Tucson, Ariz., and other urban areas..br “The fact that Santa Muerte is here in Richmond, Virginia, where the Latino population doesn’t exceed six percent, is really significant,” said Andrew Chesnut, an expert on the Santa Muerte movement.

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