Scientology operates more as a business than as a church, relying on techniques perfected by car salesmen to attract new members and celebrities to its rolls.

That's just one of the takeaways from Janet Reitman's controversial book about the world's most controversial and secretive religion. Inside Scientology chronicles L. Ron Hubbard's creation of Scientology six decades ago and traces its development into the faith of choice for movie stars such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise.

In an interview with TheWrap, Reitman, a Rolling Stone contributing editor, addressed blackmail rumors and talked about why Kabbalah may represent a bigger threat to it than any South Park parody.

The chief of the Turkish armed forces, Isik Kosaner, has resigned along with the army, navy and air force heads.

They were furious about the arrest of senior officers, accused of plotting, shortly before a round of military promotions.

A series of meetings between Gen Kosaner and PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed to resolve their differences.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul moved quickly to appoint General Necdet Ozel as the new army chief.

Gen Ozel is widely expected to be swiftly elevated to chief of the general staff in place of General Kosaner. Tradition dictates that only the head of the army can take over the top job.

Former President George W. Bush says his apparent lack of reaction to the first news of the September 11 2001 attacks was a conscious decision to project an aura of calm in a crisis.

In a rare interview with the National Geographic Channel, Bush reflects on what was going through his mind at the most dramatic moment of his presidency when he was informed that a second passenger jet had hit New York's World Trade Center.

Bush was visiting a Florida classroom and the incident, which was caught on TV film, and has often been used by critics to ridicule his apparently blank face.

"My first reaction was anger. Who the hell would do that to America? Then I immediately focused on the children, and the contrast between the attack and the innocence of children," Bush says in an excerpt of the interview shown to television writers on Thursday.

Public outcry last fall over allegedly illegal surveillance of Norwegian citizens by the US Embassy in Oslo has ended with silent acceptance of the embassy's activities by Norwegian authorities. They've decided against filing any charges against the US and its embassy personnel in Oslo, claiming they lacked evidence that any laws had in fact been broken.

In a decision revealed while the vast majority of Norwegians are preoccupied by last Friday's attacks on their capital and a Labour Party summer camp, state prosecutor Jørn Maurud said that a police investigation indicated that embassy personnel conducting the surveillance hadn't done anything illegal. It was widely referred to as a "scandal" last fall, but Maurud sees no need to pursue the case.

"This group has operated a more passive observation service," Maurud told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). "We don't view it as punishable under law."

Former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas referred in a book he published entitled Coups et blessures (Assaults and Injuries), that "The "Israelis" are doing whatever they want in France, and are controlling the French Intelligence with what serves them".

On another hand, Dumas confirmed that the "Israelis" are mistaken not to negotiate with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, even if the latter refuses any kind of agreement. He also added, "I made some special relations with him [Bashar al-Assad] like those I had with his father (President Hafez Assad)".

Furthermore, Dumas revealed in the same book that when current Zionist President, Shimon Perez was still the entity's Foreign Minister, he advised Dumas to pay President Hafez Assad a visit in 1992. At that time Perez was aware that the US is seeking a new way to understanding with Damascus, so he [Perez] believed that France could also gain interest through being involved in the Middle East peace process.

In this context, Former French Minister added, "The deceased Syrian President had little faith in Perez, and he knew the mazes of the internal "Israeli" relations". Hafez al-Assad was aware that the "Israeli" Foreign Minister might adopt unilateral initiatives, and therefore it won't lead into anything effective".

Chief adviser to Turkish PM nevertheless cautions that normalization will not happen unless Israel apologizes, offers compensation and lifts the blockade on Gaza.

Dr. Ibrahim Kalin, the chief adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, emphasized Wednesday in a conversation with Haaretz that Turkey intends to normalize its relations with Israel across the board. "From the return of the ambassador, the renewal of joint military maneuvers, military and civilian cooperation, ministerial visits, and to all other areas, relations will return to how they were before the flotilla incident" of 2010, Kalin said.

Kalin emphasized that normalization between Israel and Turkey will not happen unless Turkey's three conditions are met: an apology, compensation and the end of the Gaza blockade. He stressed that Turkey's position on these conditions have not changed.

Norway is understandably in deep shock following the horrific shooting spree and bomb attack in Oslo last Friday 22 July. The worst terrorist atrocity in Europe since the 2004 Madrid train bombings has left the country reeling. An enormous bomb exploded somewhere within a complex of government buildings at 3.30 in the afternoon. The offices of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg appear to have been the main target, although the Oil Ministry's building across the road was also destroyed. The blast was so powerful that windows were blown out along several blocks. Seven people were killed and many more injured by flying glass and debris. The perpetrator(s) chose a public holiday to carry out the deed, so most government employees were not working that day. But the open layout of government buildings in Norway, reflecting of the relatively open nature of Norwegian society, meant that security is very low compared to anything most countries' citizens are used to in this totalitarian age.

In response to the media's leading questions about this being 'Norway's 9/11', the Associated Press quoted a Norwegian police official as saying that the terror attack was more like the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing than the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. It's a curious comparison to make because, as Stephen Lendman explained in an interview he gave to Press TV, the Oklahoma bombing was blamed on a right-wing extremist and his huge car bomb, but the explosives evidence later pointed to something else entirely:


There have been numerous mass shootings in recent years, but the massacre on Utoya island is the worst yet. The camp on this tiny island, which lies just 700 meters from the shore, was organised by the AUF, the youth wing of the ruling Labour Party. In fact, the island was owned by this organisation; it has held regular summer camps there for decades and is well known to Norwegians. Most of the attendees were 14 to 19 year olds with an interest in politics attending seminars, partying, taking part in debates, playing music and listening to speeches on everything from local issues to international politics. In attacking the government's headquarters in downtown Oslo and then the gathering place of the country's political future, those responsible have managed to pierce the beating heart of Norwegian society.

More than 36 years later, the secret grand jury testimony of President Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal was ordered released on Friday by a federal judge because of its significance in American history.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth granted a request by historian Stanley Kutler, who has written several books about Nixon and Watergate, and others to unseal the testimony given on June 23 and 24 in 1975.

Nixon was questioned about the political scandal during the 1970s that resulted from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington.

The scandal caused Nixon to leave office on August 9, 1974, the only resignation of a U.S. president. The scandal also resulted in the indictment, trial, conviction and imprisonment of a number of his top officials.

The House Judiciary Committee approved legislation on Thursday that would require Internet service providers (ISPs) to collect and retain records about Internet users' activity.

CNET reported the bill would require ISPs to retain customers' names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses for 12 months.

The bill passed by a vote of 19 to 10, and is aimed at helping law enforcement track down pedophiles.

Detroit's Democratic mayor, David Bing, revealed further details Wednesday of his plan to shrink the city by forcing residents out of neighborhoods deemed too poor or underpopulated. Under the "planned contraction" scheme, the city will reduce or eliminate trash pickup, street lighting, fire and police protection, public schools and other essential services to drive residents out.

The Motor City, which has been decimated by decades of factory closures and downsizing, is being used as a model by the Obama administration to drastically reduce spending to blighted urban areas. Far from reviving these cities - through government spending to create jobs and expand services - Detroit is one of several hard-hit industrial cities, including Youngstown, Ohio and Flint, Michigan, targeted for "right-sizing."

The scheme, which is being funded by a "public-private partnership" of the federal government and the multibillion-dollar Kresge and Skillman Foundations, will divide Detroit into three "market-type" categories, according to analysis of the plan by the Detroit News.

The first, deemed "steady" neighborhoods, would include those with a higher level of owner-occupied homes. These would see "more code enforcement, debris cleanups, streetlight repairs, business recruitment and commercial area improvements," the newspaper reported.