Senator Nick Xenophon has vowed not to give up on his quest to bring the controversial Church of Scientology to task over tax exemptions.

Scientology had been variously accused of criminal behaviour, coercing abortions, stalking, transcending child labour laws and unconscionable treatment of members who were charged hundreds of thousands of dollars for their courses, he said.

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.

[Note: it is our policy to post news about acts of hatred on the part of 'religious' organizations in the 'hate groups' file.]

Russian prosecutors said Wednesday that dozens of texts and recordings by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard had been ruled “extremist” and would be banned in Russia.

The ruling was the latest blow to the Church of Scientology, an organisation that some countries treat as a legitimate faith but that others consider a cult designed to trick members out of large sums of money.

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.

In the test case against the US-based Church of Scientology, Marc Headley and his wife, Claire, have told how they were treated like slaves and forced to work 20-hour days almost continually through the year.

Next week CNN’s Anderson Cooper begins a four-part investigation into allegations made by a number of former high ranking members of the Church of Scientology.

It is the latest in a long list of exposes on violence, hate- and harassment activities and other unethical behavior involving the cult.

South Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon will keep pressing for an inquiry into the Church of Scientology, despite the major political parties joining to defeat his second attempt to refer allegations of abuse to a Senate committee.

The cult refers to the allegations as “”rumour and outright lies.”

A former Scientologist who says she was a “child slave” and alleges she saw a six-year-old boy chained up in a ship’s hold is disappointed the Senate has blocked a full inquiry into the religious organisation.

Keryn’s decision to speak openly about her experiences comes after ABC1′s Four Corners program, The Ex-Files, in which former members told of forced abortions, pressure to work extreme hours and being forced to hand over large sums of money.

Addressing a conference of cult survivors in Brisbane today, Senator Nick Xenophon said a new motion for a new parliamentary inquiry might include a push for police to take criminal action against cults.

He was also attracted to using the Trade Practices Act to prosecute groups for false and misleading conduct if they wrongly claimed to provide therapeutic benefits to their devotees.

The conference has heard a number of heart-rending stories from different religion-based and therapeutic cults.

Germany’s state broadcaster is locked in a row with the Church of Scientology which wants to block an upcoming feature film that depicts the controversial organisation as totalitarian and unethical.

According to the makers of Until Nothing Remains, the €2.5m (£2.3 m) drama, which is due to air in a prime-time slot at the end of March, is based on the true story of Heiner von Rönns, who left Scientology and suffered the subsequent break-up of his family.

Labor and the Coalition have been accused of choosing to look away from claims of abuse in the Church of Scientology, by blocking a Senate investigation into the tax-free status of religious groups.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon will next week introduce another motion for an inquiry into specific allegations against Scientology.

In Australia the Scientology cult has been hit by a fresh wave of allegations, likely to give added weight to calls for a Senate inquiry into the church.

Several Australians have spoken out for the first time about their experiences with the church, accusing it of forced abortions, holding slave labour camps and exploiting child workers.

The Church of Scientology has a lengthy history of hate- and harassment activities against critics and former members. The St. Petersburg Times has faithfully investigated the cult, and most recently ran a series of special reports in which former top-Scientologists alleged abuse at the hands of the organization’s top leader.

Now the cult does what it has always done: go after its critics.

On Friday, six ex-scientologists spoke out about their experiences inside the Church of Scientology at a Press Conference in Hollywood.

Their tales of harrowing abuse suffered in the Scientology organization are the latest in a long list of exposes about the cult.

In Scientology: The Religion of the Stars author Ian Halperin goes undercover to reveal never-before-told secrets of the strange, science-fiction inspired church of the stars.

Halperin infiltrates the Church of Scientology posing as a gay actor attracted by the church’s claim that it can cure homosexuality. Rebuffed until he claims that his uncle is a rich millionaire thinking of joining the church, he is given unprecedented access and allowed to video his entire experience. The results are explosive.

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