Fugitive cult leader Rocco leo is living in a five-star resort in Fiji, according to the man he allegedly assaulted weeks before police raided the Agape headquarters.

Philip Arbon today told AdelaideNow that in April he had been taking photos - which he intended to hand to authorities - of Leo when the cult leader allegedly assaulted him.

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In a rare clash between courts, a federal judge today said he will order a state judge not to interfere with a lawyer's handling of a federal case involving the Church of Scientology.

A visibly irritated U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday granted a motion by lawyer Kennan Dandar, who is representing the estate of Kyle Thomas Brennan in a wrongful death suit against the church.

[Note: due to Scientology's behavior we file news items like these under the heading of 'hate groups.']

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Runaway Agape cult leader Rocco Leo assaulted the estanged husband of one of his church members at Adelaide Airport less than a month before his doomsday cult was raided by police, a court has heard.

Magistrate Lydia Makiv issued an arrest warrant for Leo - who failed to appear at today's scheduled hearing - before recalling it to allow his lawyers to argue against it tomorrow.

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A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.

The U.S. is one of the most religious countries in the developed world, especially compared to largely secular Western Europe, but faith leaders and educators have long lamented that Americans still know relatively little about religion.

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A legislative panel in Nepal has proposed retaining a ban on converting others in the country's new constitution.

Parliament has yet to decide on the proposal, but Christian leaders said they fear it is likely to be approved given that Nepal's largest political party, led by former Maoist rebels, sympathizes with the deposed king's wishes for such a ban. The country is forging a new constitution as part of its transition from a Hindu monarchy to a democracy.

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Buddhist extremists held eight Chakma Christians for four days to force them to return to Buddhism.

The captives were all forced to wear Buddhist robes, shave their heads, bow down before a statue of Buddha and clean the temple; they were also threatened with beatings and even death if they tried to escape.

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