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.

The Consul General of the People's Republic of China in San Francisco has written an official letter addressed to members of the city council of Seattle, Washington, dismissing a performance of a Falun Gong-related dance group and asking him not to attend, nor to congratulate the group.

Naturally nobody takes him seriously.

Police arrested nine people Monday suspected of being members of a Jerusalem cult.

In August, 2011, the cult's three central defendants were indicted in the Jerusalem District Court on Wednesday, in a case of what police and social workers have called the worst abuse of its kind they have seen in decades.

Megachurch pastor Eddie Long has apologized to the Anti-Defamation League over an incident in which he was wrapped in a Torah scroll and crowned "king."

The stunt was the idea of visiting speaker 'Rabbi' Ralph Messer.

A married couple who had served for 28 years as Baptist missionaries in Mexico were murdered on last week Tueday at their home near Monterrey in El Cercado, Santiago, Nuevo Leon.

The area has suffered heavily from attacks by drug cartels in recent weeks, including the murder of the mayor of El Cercado, leading to the tentative conclusion that the crime was committed by people serving narcotics traffickers.

Leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the polygamous sect led by Warren Jeffs, have paid Arizona county treasurers about $930,000 in back taxes.

In making the partial payment they avoided possible evictions of sect members.

The Public Security Intelligence Agency in Japan on Friday inspected several properties of Hikari no Wa -- a splinter group of the notorious Aum Shinrikyo cult.

Security officials believe the group is still under the influence of cult founder Shoko Asahara, who is on death row for a series of AUM crimes.

An unusual building is under construction on the FLDS compound in Eldorado, Texas.

Speculations regarding its purpose range from a place to house a statue of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs to a new temple.

Six months after he was jailed for life plus 20 years for his so-called 'spiritual marriages' to two teenage girls it's clear Jeffs continues to pull the strings, call the shots and rule with an iron fist in the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona.

Mike Watkiss reports.

Updated A French appeals court on Thursday upheld the Church of Scientology's 2009 fraud conviction on charges it pressured members into paying large sums for questionable remedies.

The case centered on the complaints of several people who spent huge amounts of money for the cult's 'purification packs' and other alleged 'cures.'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A resurgent Rick Santorum won Republican presidential caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado on Tuesday night, a stunning sweep that raised fresh questions about front-runner Mitt Romney's appeal among the ardent conservatives at the core of the party's political base....

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Same-sex marriage moved one step closer to the Supreme Court on Tuesday when a federal appeals court ruled California's ban unconstitutional, saying it serves no purpose other than to "lessen the status and human dignity" of gays....

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- Political turmoil over abortion and birth control spread suddenly on Tuesday. A high-ranking official resigned from the Komen breast-cancer charity after its backtracking treaty with Planned Parenthood, and Republican presidential candidates blistered the Obama administration for a recent ruling on Catholic hospitals and contraception....

BEIRUT (AP) -- Days after blocking a U.S.-backed peace plan at the U.N., senior Russian officials pushed for reforms Tuesday during an emergency meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, promoting a settlement to end the uprising without removing him from power....

NEW YORK (AP) -- The police commissioner's TV host son won't face criminal charges of sexually assaulting a woman who said he attacked her after a date last fall, prosecutors said Tuesday....

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- Prosecutors asked Tuesday to have Jerry Sandusky kept indoors as part of his bail conditions, citing complaints that the former Penn State assistant football coach was seen outside and watching children in a schoolyard from the back porch of his home, where he remains under house arrest while awaiting trial on child molestation charges....

NEW YORK (AP) -- It was just last summer that the Dow Jones industrial average shed 2,000 points in three terrifying weeks. Investors had a host of things to worry about, including the possibility of another recession....

ATLANTA (AP) -- Bread and rolls are the No. 1 source of salt in the American diet, accounting for more than twice as much sodium as salty junk food like potato chips....

LONDON (AP) -- Florence Green never saw the front line. Her war was spent serving food, not dodging bullets....

MIAMI (AP) -- Dwyane Wade scored 26 points, LeBron James added 24 against his former team and the Miami Heat tuned up for a long road trip by beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 107-91 on Tuesday night....