In Monday’s RNS report Sherry Amatenstein reports from Yendi, Ghana, on widows who are labeled and treated as witches because their communities no longer believe them to be valuable human beings: Mariama Bawa is a witch, her family members say. They believe she caused her 25-year-old son to be killed by lightning, so they have sent her to the Ngani witches camp. Bawa, according to international relief workers, has been caught in an intensifying human rights abuse. At least 1,000 women-most older widows-have been labeled witches by superstitious villagers and now live in exile at one of the six camps in this region. They have been blamed for everything from deaths to bad crops. Some are stoned and lynched; other have been able to flee their homes and live out their days in these isolated camps. They all have one other thing in common: a perceived lack of value in their communities because they are too old to remarry.

David G. Molyneaux reports on sights in India beyond the Taj Mahal: For many travelers to India, the architectural wonder of the Taj Mahal in Agra is both the highlight of the trip and an enduring cultural symbol. A rich and powerful emperor, grieving his dead wife, built this magnificent marble monument as a statement to love, enduring forever. It’s a fairy-tale building, representing a fairy-tale India. Visitors who want to get a less romanticized glimpse of Indian life, love and death would do well to explore beyond Agra, to the cultural riches of Varanasi and Khajuraho. The two cities may shock the squeamish. The holy city of Varanasi is the cremation capital of the country, with funeral ceremonies on the Ganges River running round-the-clock. Khajuraho is home to temple ruins that are decorated with highly explicit erotic sandstone sculptures.