A court in Ecuador on Friday handed down prison sentences for five people found guilty of murdering presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.

Journalist and former legislator Villavicencio was shot while leaving a rally in August 2023, becoming the most prominent victim of Ecuador’s spiraling violence.

The ruling, read out by Milton Maroto, one of the court’s three judges, can be appealed by both the prosecution and the defense. The trial started at the end of June.

Prosecutors accused at least two of those tried of belonging to the Los Lobos crime gang, among 22 criminal gangs designated as terrorists by President Daniel Noboa in January.

According to the attorney general’s office, Carlos Edwin Angulo Lara, known as ‘El Invisible’ (‘The Invisible’), gave the order to murder Villavicencio from prison, while Laura Dayanara Castillo was in charge of logistics.

Both Angulo and Castillo were sentenced to 34 years and eight months.

Erick Ramirez, Victor Flores and Alexandra Chimbo were sentenced to 12 years.

Villavicencio, whose journalism exposed corruption and connections between organized crime and politicians, had long faced threats.

Prosecutors are undertaking a separate investigation into who requested the murder.

One of the hitmen died at the scene of Villavicencio’s murder and seven other suspects – mostly Colombian citizens – were murdered in October while being held in prisons on pre-trial detention.

Villavicencio’s friends and family have decried multiple delays and urged investigation into who ordered the killing.

Veronica Sarauz, Villavicencio’s widow, had asked judges earlier on Friday in a post on X to apply the full weight of the law to those accused.

Twenty-one people died after a school building collapsed in central Nigeria while students were sitting an exam in what local authorities called an “avoidable tragedy.”

The two-story building collapsed in the city of Jos and saw a further 30 people hospitalized, according to Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

NEMA said that students were amongst those who died in Jos, the capital of Plateau State, without providing an exact number.

Around 120 people were trapped when the building collapsed, according to Plateau State government.

The governor of Plateau State, Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang, said the building collapsed as students were sitting an exam. Mutfwang expressed his “deep sympathy to the families of students and staff of St. Academy School.”

The Plateau State government said in a statement Friday: “The government describes the incident as an avoidable tragedy, citing the school’s weak structure and unsafe location near a riverbank.”

Local hospitals have been instructed by the government to provide treatment without documentation or payment.

Schools with similar safety issues have been urged to close down, the government said.

Building collapses are common in Nigeria due to lax construction standards and poor quality materials.

The City of Love has a message as it prepares for the Olympics: Performance is not always the priority. Rather, when it comes to sex, pleasure takes first place.

As Paris starts welcoming athletes to the Olympic Village in the coming days, organizers of the 2024 Games are set to launch a comprehensive sexual health campaign that champions pleasure and consent as well as the traditional emphasis on safety.

It is an important message, backed by research, that is rarely endorsed on a stage with a global spotlight as influential as the Olympics.

Prioritizing pleasure in sexual health refers to the approach of celebrating the physical and mental benefits of sexual experiences as well as minimizing the risks. It aims to rewrite fear and shame narratives that cast sex as taboo, with sexual health organizations promoting the sex-positive method as fundamental for unlocking greater agency over sexual rights and well-being.

A systematic review by the World Health Organization and advocacy group The Pleasure Project found that pleasure-inclusive sex education is a more effective sexual health intervention strategy than abstinence programs and risk-focused messaging. The findings show that it increases condom usage and enhances knowledge and self-esteem, which are crucial to promoting safer choices in the bedroom.

The decision to focus on pleasure-inclusive messaging at the Olympics is especially significant at a time when sex education is increasingly under attack in many countries. In the United States alone, 2024 has seen a surge in restrictive state-level sex education proposals that aim to limit what can be taught in the classroom, such as by removing guidance around contraception or advocating for abstinence.

History of Sex Ed at the Olympics

Paris’s focus on pleasure and consent is part of the Olympics’ long-running history of promoting safe sex, with organizers of the 1988 Seoul Games first making headline-grabbing hand-outs of condoms to competitors to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS.

Since then, the International Olympic Committee has encouraged host cities to roll out condom initiatives at all summer and winter games, from a record-breaking 450,000 condoms at the 2016 Rio Olympics – equivalent to 42 per athlete – to keeping up the tradition at the 2022 Beijing Olympics despite COVID-19 social distancing rules.

This year, organizers in charge of first aid announced that over 200,000 male condoms, 20,000 female condoms, and 10,000 dental dams would be made available at the Paris Olympic Village, which will host around 14,500 athletes. They will also have numerous sexual health testing centers on site for athletes, in addition to the sexual health awareness messaging.

While one athlete – a gold medallist – once suggested sex was “​​part of the Olympic spirit … Why do you think they give away so many condoms?” the massive number of condoms distributed is not just a reflection of the competitors’ extra-athletic activities. Instead, the initiatives are intended to be used as a springboard for sex education.

Anne Philpott is the founder of The Pleasure Project, an international organization that has spent the past two decades advocating for pleasure-inclusive sex education. She applauds Paris’ decision to pair its condom initiative with pleasure and consent messaging.

“So far the public health world has not done a good job of promoting safe sex,” Philpott said, explaining that promoting condoms “purely for avoiding negative consequences,” is not effective.

Rather, she says the most productive way to encourage safe sex is to flip the script from the beginning by focusing on why people have sex.

“People think pleasure is a bit frivolous or the icing on the cake. But we now know that if we had integrated pleasure considerations into sexual health interventions from the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, we would have saved considerably more lives,” Philpott explained.

“There’s been a big rise in choking being seen as a normal part of sexual activity when it’s actually very dangerous,” Philpott gave as an example, as she urged sex education curriculums to catch up with what people are able to access online.

Turning sport into a sex ed classroom

The need to learn about one’s sexual desires, needs, and boundaries is a constantly evolving process, with the Olympics’ spotlight on safe sex also highlighting the opportunity for wider sporting communities to become trusted spaces for such conversations.

In the coastal town of Kilifi in Kenya, Deogratia Okoko sees the value of expanding sex education beyond the classroom, using soccer to teach young boys about issues such as consent and contraception. The scheme to which he contributes, known as “Moving The Goalposts,” works directly with community leaders, fathers, and young boys to provide resources on sexual health, sexual rights, gender, and positive masculinity.

“We found that one of the places that they spend a lot of their time is the football pitch,” Okoko said.

“We began to design our sessions based on soccer drills to explain certain issues,” Okoko said, adding: “You’ll find that sometimes they get so engrossed in the debrief discussions that they forget that they were supposed to actually train and play.”

Okoko explained that the initiative also provides a safe space for boys to access condoms and HIV testing kits, with societal shame often creating barriers for boys to buy these products directly from the shops.

“It’s no longer just let’s play football, let’s practice and go away … these spaces are now a community used by them to talk about issues that they’d not normally talk about,” Okoko said.

Reflecting on the Paris organizers’ decision to include pleasure and consent in their sexual health messaging, Okoko says it is “imperative” to have high-profile platforms set the example.

“It’s fundamental. It’s important. It’s good if we, to the best of our abilities, find great ways of passing that message across,” Okoko said.

British police have found human remains in a west London apartment which they believe are connected to body parts found earlier this week in another city, officers said Friday.

Authorities are now on the hunt for a Colombian man thought to be linked to the case.

Investigations have been underway since two suitcases were found on Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of the capital, on Wednesday. They contained the remains of two men, police previously said.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that officers believed the newly discovered body parts “are connected to the human remains found in Bristol.”

It added that a 36-year-old man arrested in London over the grisly find has been released without charge.

They are now on the hunt for another man believed to be linked to the case. Officers said their priority is to find Yostin Andres Mosquera, a 24-year-old Colombian national, naming him for the first time.

They released a photo of Mosquera clad in a black Adidas baseball cap, black jeans, a black jacket, black trainers with thick white soles, with a black backpack.

Officers also believe they know the identity of the two male victims, but “formal identification is yet to take place,” they said. Police are trying to locate and inform their next of kin.

“Both victims are thought to have been known to Mosquera and the Met is appealing for information on his whereabouts,” the statement added.

“This is a fast-moving enquiry with detectives in London and Bristol actively pursuing a number of lines of enquiry,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Valentine said.

The investigation began when Avon and Somerset Police received a call late on Wednesday about a man with a suitcase “acting suspiciously” on the bridge in Bristol. The suitcases were later found in the area, the force said on Thursday.

Authorities later said a “man wanted in connection with the incident had traveled to Bristol from London earlier the same day.” Police previously did not identify the individual, despite a large-scale search involving a police helicopter and coastguard.

They arrested the unnamed 36-year-old early Friday but said the person was not the same individual as the one police were initially looking for.

Vicks Hayward-Melen, acting Bristol commander of Avon and Somerset Police, told the BBC’s Today program Friday that officers and initial attendants at the scene are being supported after the “really horrendous discovery.”

The police have said that it is “not aware of any current risk to the wider public,” adding that high-visibility patrols are being carried out in the area.

It is the second grisly case to have shocked Britain this week, after Tuesday’s triple killing of the wife and two daughters of a BBC sport commentator.

Carol Hunt, 61, the wife of horse racing commentator John Hunt, and their daughters, Hannah Hunt, 28, and Louise Hunt, 25, were named as the victims of the attack.

Kyle Clifford, 26, was found by officers in Enfield, north London, on Wednesday following an extensive manhunt, and arrested on Thursday in connection with the killing.

The devotees rushed to collect soil from the ground the man had just walked on, thousands thronging to the front of a venue densely crammed with a quarter of a million people, under stifling heat.

But one by one, many began falling onto the muddy field and into a sewer nearby, crushing each other as panicked screams pierced the air.

They had arrived to receive spiritual enlightenment, but 121 people – mostly women – were killed by the crowd crush in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state last week. Those who survived were left scarred and traumatized.

The man they had come to see was known to his disciples as Bhole Baba, a self-styled Hindu spiritual leader worshipped by many as a living god.

And he is among dozens of spiritual gurus in the country who inspire devotion in millions of followers, have the ear of the Indian elite, and rake in colossal sums of money.

While the world’s most populous nation has long produced self-styled “godmen”, the tradition has, over the last few decades, evolved into a multimillion-dollar industry, whose biggest stars control vast philanthropic and business empires. A large chunk of their money comes from their followers’ donations.

They are widely revered in a country where religion and faith dictate much of society – with some even winning endorsement from the highest echelons of society.

But that industry occasionally finds itself mired in controversy, with several holy men either convicted or accused of a range of crimes – from financial fraud to murder and rape – alarming those who cast doubt on their divine personas.

“It’s a question we’ve long asked,” said Meera Nanda, author of “The God Market: How Globalization is Making India More Hindu.”

“What brings literally millions of poor, desperate people to these godmen?”

A sense of belonging

Subhash Lal was working as a security guard nearly 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Mughal Garhi village, where Bhole Baba was delivering his sermon, when the news flashed across his TV screen.

Lal’s mother, a devout follower of the guru, was among the crowd, and he was desperate for answers. Lal and his family rushed to the hospital that was treating the survivors, when his son learned of the devastating news.

“He told me, Dad, your mother is no more,” the 48-year-old said. “My mother believed in (Bhole Baba). I couldn’t tell her anything. She would attend these functions… she believed in him. What could I do?”

People like Lal’s mother – poor and on the lower rungs of India’s hierarchical caste system – make up the bulk of Bhole Baba’s following. They are predominantly Dalit women from India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, where religion holds particular sway. And for them, a sense of devotion to these godmen is a way to be seen and heard within the Hindu religion.

Despite being outlawed in 1950, the caste system, which categorizes Hindus at birth and once forced the so-called “untouchables” or Dalits to the margins of society, is still omnipresent in the daily lives of millions across the nation.

Policeman turned preacher

Reportedly born Narayan Sakar to a low-caste family, Bhole Baba used to be a constable with the Uttar Pradesh Police before becoming a preacher and establishing an ashram – or place of worship – in the state.

Sitting on an ornately decorated chair, he often delivers impassioned sermons exhorting his followers to maintain their devotion.

“If, through the medium of truth, you remove old trash from within you, and today if you let truth into your heart, devotion for the god into your heart, humanity into your heart… then know that even if the world abuses you, you will not get affected by it at all,” he can be heard saying in one of his speeches.

The “rigidity of caste structure” is an important reason for the proliferation of godmen, said K. Kalyani, an assistant professor of Sociology at Azim Premji University, Bangalore.

“The low-caste community are particularly debarred within Hindu religion to have respectable position within religious institutions,” she said. “Their presence in the sanctum sanctorum as priest or their proximity to deity is seen as an act of defilement due to practices of ‘untouchability’.”

In the absence of religious and spiritual gratification for low-caste Hindus, Kalyani said, an “alternative form of religiosity becomes inevitable.”

Sheetal Jatav, a survivor of last week’s Bhole Baba event, said her community – the lower-caste Jatavs – “believe in him immensely,” hanging his pictures on their walls or even placing it inside small temples at home.

Miracle workers

The gurus India has produced range from men who claim they can perform miracles, like the revered Sathya Sai Baba, to the yoga guru and founder of the widely popular Art of Living foundation, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

Claiming to possess mystical knowledge and the ability to cure illness and solve problems, godmen inspire remarkable fervor in their millions of followers.

But with their rise has come a slew of criticism over the true intentions behind this perceived divinity, fueled in recent decades by their grandiose lifestyles and immense wealth.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, head of the spiritual organization Dera Sacha Sauda, is another self-styled spiritual guru revered by millions. His group has ashrams across 10 states and union territories in India and claims to have 60 million followers worldwide.

He is also a convicted killer and rapist. In 2017 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping two of his followers. Two years later, he received a life term for the murder of a journalist who exposed the sexual abuse of women within his group.

Despite the severity of his crimes, Singh maintains a cult-like following. The rape conviction even sparked riots by his supporters that left 36 people dead and hundreds injured across northern India.

Since then, Singh has been granted parole multiple times, once even walking out of prison to attend his own birthday party, raising allegations of impunity for these holy men.

“They have deep connections with the political machine… and it’s deeply problematic,” Nanda, the author, said.

The furor over Singh’s case was reminiscent of violent skirmishes that broke out in 2013 after the arrest of guru Asaram Bapu for raping a 16-year-old girl. He was convicted five years later and given a life sentence for the crime.

Famous followers

Many godmen are also known for their philanthropy, praised for building schools for the impoverished and developing infrastructure in small villages – and they also attract millions of people to small towns across the country.

Sathya Sai Baba’s followers, for example, included the US actor Goldie Hawn and Hard Rock Cafe founder Isaac Tigrett. When the guru died in 2011, Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar openly wept at his funeral, which was also attended by India’s prime minister at the time, Manmohan Singh.

More often than not, the most devout of their followers come from the lower middle classes, but millions in donations also stream in from foreigners, Indians living abroad, and the richest of society.

While Sathya Sai Baba’s appeal was – in large part – due to a certain level of mystique, other godmen, including Singh, are more outspoken, carefully using the media to fuel their rise.

“There is an entire media structure that supports and promotes them,” said Kalyani, the sociologist. “There are dedicated channels like Astha or Sanskar TV which have dedicated time to show their preachings.”

As authorities investigate the organizers of last week’s event for alleged negligence, Bhole Baba, who left the event in an armored vehicle, is not being pursued by authorities.

Many of those affected by the tragedy are angry.

“This is not a real (godman),” said Surendra Singh, whose wife was a devout follower of the guru, and died in the tragic crowd crush.

Speaking to India’s largest news agency, ANI, Bhole Baba, appearing forlorn, said: “This incident has left me distraught.”

“Mischief makers and anti-social elements responsible for the stampede will not be spared.”

Referring to himself by his birth name, he added: “May the praise of Narayan Sakar Hari resound forever throughout the universe.”

Aishwarya S. Iyer contributed reporting