A regional court in Moscow has upheld a lower court decision made in June 2011, declaring books published by the Church of Scientology to be extremist literature and banning publication or distribution of books from Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

The decision does not ban the controversial cult.

The Irish branch of the Church of Scientology remains deep in the red as revenues continue to decline.

Interest-free loans from overseas Scientologist and from other Church of Scientology ‘missions’ are keeping the Dublin branch abroad.

Members of the Netherlands’ House of Representatives have asked questions of State Secretary for Finance, Frans Weekers, regarding tax deductions on financial donations given to the Church of Scientology via front groups.

Scientology is not considered a charitable organization in the Netherlands, and therefore encourages members to donate to the church via an ancillary foundation that does have charitable status.

We have collected nearly 500 religion stories this week. Most of them we never post, but simple file instead to have information on hand should we need it.

But we have hand-selected 5 news stories from the past week that we think deserve a closer look.

Australia’s Mental Health Minister, Helen Morton, says a new campaign by the Church of Scientology is sensationalist.

The ‘Citizens Commission on Humans Right,’ a Scientology front group engaged in an ongoing hate campaign against psychiatry and psychiatrists, has advertised in newspapers and distributed pamphlets warning people about changes to the WA (Western Australia) Mental Health Act.

The controversial Church of Scientology is in the process of acquiring an office complex in a suburb of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The enormous complex is located in the New West suburb — well away from the city’s center, where the problem-plagued cult has had a presence for decades.

Another PR Crisis for Scientology: Nightline interviews Debbie Cook — the former Scientology executive whose criticism of the Church of Scientology has rocked the religious cult to the core.

Having failed to silence Cook in court, Cook has now filed a counterclaim…

An anti-drug group run by the Church of Scientology will be investigated to ensure money granted to it by the government was not misspent.

Drug education experts say the information in the pamphlets funded by the grants is not based on science, and should not be given government money or disseminated by schools.

The Church of Scientology in Australia has asked the Federal Government for an exemption to the Fair Work Act so they do not have to pay workers the minimum wage.

Last September the cult was found to be subject to Australian labour laws after an investigation into allegations it paid employees who were members of its clergy as little as $10 a week.

A controversial drug-awareness program widely considered to be a front group for the Church of Scientology has received funding from the Government of New Zealand to spread its unorthodox views through schools and community groups.

“This kind of quackery should not be in our schools,” says the director of the New Zealand Drug Foundation.

Two former Scientology ministers want the 9th Circuit to let them sue the church for forced labor, rejecting application of the First Amendment’s ministerial exception.

Husband and wife Claire and Marc Headley each filed complaints against the Church of Scientology under the Trafficking Victims Act after leaving the Sea Organization, an order of Scientology in which members work long hours and perform hard labor without pay.

In the middle of suburban Australia is a secret compound that’s labelled ‘degrading’ and ‘inhumane’, with allegations of keeping children prisoner.

Australia’s current affairs program Tonight Today reports on Scientology’s prison camp.

After explosive trial testimony last week, the Church of Scientology abandoned its quest to silence a former church official it sued for breach of a confidentiality agreement.

The change came after Cook gave lurid testimony about abuse she says she underwent in the church.

The Church of Scientology’s attempt to silence a former member who criticized the ‘church’ in an explosive email have backfired.

One of the Church of Scientology’s senior international figures, Jan Eastgate, has been charged for a second time with perverting the course of justice.

Eastgate is the international president of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights — a hate group found by the Church of Scientology engaged in a hate campaign against psychiatry and psychiatrists.

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