5 accused of human sacrifice in India — and other world news you may have missed

As reported by CBS News, police in India arrested five men for allegedly conducting a Hindu ritual human sacrifice four years ago. The female victim, Shanti Shaw, was found decapitated at the Kamakhya Temple in the northeastern city of Guwahati in 2019. “During the investigation, we found this was a case of human sacrifice to please Maa Kamakhya [a Hindu goddess],” Guwahati police commissioner Diganta Barah told journalists on Tuesday. “The accused apparently believed that the sacrifice would appease the soul of the deceased.”

The primary suspect, 52-year-old Pradeep Pathak, is accused of organizing the human sacrifice on the 11th anniversary of his brother’s death. In June 2019, Shaw had traveled to the annual fair at the temple with two other women and a man claiming to be a Hindu “god-man.” Police say 12 people took part in orchestrating the murder.

Why it matters: Human sacrifices in India occur more than you think. From 2014 to 2021, 103 ritualistic human sacrifices were recorded there, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. More prevalent than human sacrifices, however, is violence against women. According to a report by German news outlet DW, Assam — the state where Shaw was murdered — had the country's highest rate of violence against women in 2021. However, according to human rights organizations, this government-collected data is likely just the “tip of the iceberg.” Across India, 2021 had the highest rates of crimes against women since it began recording data. Statistics found that there were 31,878 rapes and 28,222 kidnappings of women in 2021.

Here are four other international news stories you may have missed this week from Yahoo News’ partner network.

South Africans oppose Uganda’s anti-LGBT bill

Protesters in South Africa gathered outside the Uganda High Commission over antigay legislation passed by lawmakers in the last month, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday. More than 200 demonstrators called for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni not to sign the controversial bill into law and called on the South African government to speak out against it.

One Ugandan protester in South Africa said he now fears for his family’s safety back home. “They are preaching hate crimes and genocide against our queer bodies, but we are human first,” Papa De said. The bill proposes the death penalty for those convicted of “aggravated homosexuality,” meaning sexual acts with minors, or people with disabilities or with HIV; 20 years in prison for committing the “offense of homosexuality”; and 10 years in prison for attempting to commit a sexual act. The United Nations’ human rights chief described the bill as “probably among the worst of its kind in the world.”

Body of 2nd Indigenous woman found in Canadian landfill

The remains of a second Indigenous woman were found in a landfill in Canada less than one year after another woman was uncovered, BBC News reported on Wednesday. The body of Linda Mary Beardy, 33, was discovered at the Brady Road Resource Management Facility in the city of Winnipeg on Monday. Just 11 months earlier, Rebecca Contois’s remains were found in the same landfill. Police said they believe the two deaths are unrelated. Investigators think Contois was a victim of Jeremy Skibicki, an alleged serial killer who is accused of killing three other women. Beardy is not believed to have been one of his victims.

An investigation into the murder and disappearances of Indigenous women in Canada found that First Nation women were 12 times more likely to be killed or go missing. “According to Statistics Canada, between 2001 and 2015, homicide rates for Indigenous women were nearly six times higher than for non-Indigenous women,” the 2019 report found.

Troops filmed killing boy in Burkina Faso

Horrifying footage circulated on social media showing the killing of a 16-year-old by government soldiers in the West African country Burkina Faso, the AP reported on Sunday.

The video appeared to show troops killing the teenager, Adama, who had gone missing in mid-February. One soldier dropped a rock onto Adama’s head. “This one ... was still alive,” one man in the video says about him. “Good-for-nothing! You don’t have anything to do but to kill people. We’ll kill you one after another.”

Adama and six other boys were reportedly killed by Burkina Faso’s military, which has denied the allegations. The killings would be considered war crimes under international law.

Hallucinogenic drugs found in Bronze Age humans, study finds

Research conducted in Spain found that ancient humans took part in drug-fueled hallucinogenic rituals, the Telegraph reported on Thursday. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, found various hallucinogens derived from plants in strands of human hair at a burial site in Spain.

Elisa Guerra-Doce, an archaeologist at the University of Valladolid, and her team of scientists examined hair strands from a human believed to have lived between 2,800 and 3,600 years ago. The scientists believe the drugs may have been used in “ritualistic” ceremonies.

“The concentric circles on the wooden containers may have depicted eyes and could have been a metaphor for inner vision related to a drug-induced altered state of consciousness,” Guerra-Doce said.