Villagers crushed a tigress to death with a tractor in a game reserve in north India in the second controversial killing of one of the endangered species since Friday.

Officials at the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve warned against the "serious offence", which villagers said was carried out in defence after the tigress mauled a villager to death.

The killing reignited a nationwide row over the ‘murdering’ of India’s national animal after another tigress was shot dead by hunters last week following a killing spree of its own.

Ministers traded blows with local officials over the weekend as environmentalists called for control and more humane methods of dealing with dangerous tigers after the initial killing that followed a high-profile hunt.

Sunday’s killing took place in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve 300 miles east of New Delhi. Villagers said they had slain the tigress in retaliation for mauling a 50-year old local farmer from Pilibhit district in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

Identified as Devanand, the victim later died of his injuries in the local hospital late Sunday, officials said.

“While we were busy rushing the injured man to hospital, the villagers had tracked down and surrounded the tigress and crushed it to death under their tractor” forest officer Mahavir Kaujlagi told the Hindustan Times.

He said the tigress’s carcass had been recovered and an autopsy would be conducted on it under the National Tiger Conservation Authority guidelines.

“The killing of a tiger inside a protected area is a serious offence” Dudhwa Reserve head Ramesh Pandey said, adding that a case would be registered under the Wildlife Protection Act and ‘appropriate action’ initiated.

Locals, however, claim that the tigress had attacked and injured another local around 10 days ago and they were ‘alert’ and looking out for her. 

Animal rights activists said that though ‘reactive attacks’ on tigers by villagers living in and around the Dudhwa Reserve were not uncommon, large scale destruction of the animals’ habitat was largely responsible for the recent increase in such incidents.

Meanwhile, a senior Indian cabinet minister has accused her colleague of sanctioning the ‘ghastly murder’ of the other tigress in the Pandharkawada jungle in central India, who was shot dead by hunters on Friday after killing at least 13 people since mid-2016.

“This (killing the tigress) is patently illegal’ said Maneka Gandhi, federal Women and Child Development Minister and staunch animal rights activist.

“I am definitely going to take up this case of utter lack of sympathy for animals as a test case; legally, criminally as well as politically” she tweeted over the weekend.

Gandhi accused the provincial forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, who belongs to her Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, of disregarding  appeals to abandon the hunt for the tigress, officially designated T1 but  popularly known as Avni.

In response Ms Gandhi’s allegations Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister of Maharashtra state where T1 was shot dead has ordered an inquiry into the tigress’s killing. 

Officials said the tigress had evaded capture at least four times and was responsible for attacking and killing inhabitants living on the edge of the forest alongside cows, goats and horses.

Wildlife officials said for months they had planned on capturing the tigress, but it had attacked its trackers even after being hit by tranquiliser darts.

The tigress was eventually shot by Nawab Shafat Ali Khan, one of India’s best known big game hunters following a Supreme Court order in September which ruled that the animal could be killed failing tranquilisation.  

Forest officials, however, acknowledged that no veterinarian was present during the shooting as decreed by the court.

The Indian chapter of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claimed that T1s killing was little more than ‘satisfying a hunters blood lust’.

 According to the 2014 censure India’s campaign to boost its tiger population had been successful with their numbers increasing from around 1,500 to over 2,200.

But animal rights activists said India’s burgeoning population of around 1.30 billion had infringed upon the animals territory, thereby increasing the conflict between man and beast.

According to official statistics one person had been killed per day in conflict with a tiger or an elephant between 2014-17.

The tiger is India’s national animal and it is categorised as endangered under the Wildlife Protection Act.

The US is moving ahead with reimposing severe sanctions on Iran next week but will grant waivers to eight countries to allow them to temporarily continue buying Iranian oil, officials said Friday. 

Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, did not say which eight countries would be exempted from the waivers but they are believed to be US allies like India, Japan, Italy, and South Korea. 

China, the world’s largest importer of Iranian oil, is also likely to get an exemption as Washington tries to avoid further antagonising Beijing with sanctions amid an already heated trade war. 

Turkey will also be among the eight nations to get a waiver, the country’s energy minister said.

The waivers will give Iran some limited respite from the sanctions on its oil industry, which go into force on Monday and are the second wave of American measures since Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Iranian nuclear agreement. 

The price of oil fell in response to the announcement as traders realised the US sanctions were not as harsh as expected and would not lead to an immediate drop in oil supplies.      

However, Mr Pompeo said the waivers were only temporary and that two of the countries would eventually cut all oil imports while the other six would import “at greatly reduced levels”.

He said the goal of the sanctions was “depriving the regime of the revenues that it uses to spread death and destruction around the world. Our ultimate aim is to compel Iran to permanently abandon its well-documented outlaw activities and behave as a normal country.”

The White House said 700 Iranian individuals, companies, vessels and aircraft were also being added to the sanctions list, restoring all of the restrictions that Barack Obama lifted as part of the nuclear agreement and adding hundreds of new ones. 

While the US is returning its sanctions to pre-2015 levels, the EU, Russia and China have promised to continue doing business with Iran. 

The EU has created a special financial instrument designed to shield European businesses from American sanctions if they deal with Iran, but so far many major European firms have been scared out of the Iranian market by the threat of US punishments. 

Iran’s currency has fallen sharply over the last year and Iranian cities have been rocked by large scale protests. The government of Hassan Rouhani, the relatively moderate president, is under severe pressure from both the public and more hardline elements of the regime. 

Mr Trump is gambling that the the economic pressure will eventually force Iran to make concessions not only on its nuclear programme but also on its behaviour in the Middle East, including arming militant groups like Hizbollah and supporting the Assad regime in Syria. 

The retired King of the Belgians has been ordered to take a DNA paternity test by a Brussels court, raising the prospect of finally resolving whether he is the real father of Delphine Boël, a 50-year-old aristocrat artist.

King Albert II, who has refused to recognise Ms Boël as his daughter for more than a decade, must submit to the test within three months or be legally presumed to be the multi-media artist’s father.  

An earlier court-ordered DNA test proved that Jacques Boël, scion of one of Belgium’s richest industrial dynasties, was not her biological father. Since that 2013 test, Ms Boël, who has two children, has tried to prove that Albert is her father.

The former monarch, 83, abdicated in 2013 in favour of his son Philippe after 20 years on the throne. The decision also cost him his immunity to court judgments such as the paternity test, which would be a saliva test carried out on Albert, Ms Boël and her mother at a Brussels hospital.

Ms Boël’s lawyers said in their statement that they were pleased with the "strong affirmation of the principle of acting in the interests of the child" as she seeks legal confirmation of her true identity.

“The wound that King Albert struck when he cast her out has not healed," the statement said.

Ms Boël’s parentage became the subject of fevered speculation in Belgium after the 1999 publication of a biography of Queen Paola, Albert’s Italian wife.  

The book alleged the King, who no longer has a public role, had a long extra-marital affair with Ms Boël’s mother Sybille de Selys Longchamps, a baroness, which resulted in the birth of a daughter in the 1960s.

The affair ended in 1976 after Albert chose to stay with Paola rather than abdicate to be with Mrs de Selys Longchamps, she has claimed.

The court decision, made public on Monday, overturned an earlier ruling and cannot be appealed.

The palace told Belgian media that it would not comment on the case, insisting it was “in the private domain.”

A Japanese journalist kidnapped in Syria more than three years ago is believed to have been released, the government said Tuesday.

Jumpei Yasuda, a 44-year-old freelancer, was seized in the war-torn country in June 2015, and appeared in a rare video released by a militant group over the summer warning that he was in a bad situation.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a late-night press conference the government was trying to verify information from Qatari authorities but it was "highly likely" Yasuda had finally been freed.

"The Qatar government informed us that Jumpei Yasuda has been freed and is now at the immigration centre in Antakya" in Turkey, Mr Suga said.

"We’re now verifying the information… but it’s highly likely it is Jumpei Yasuda himself," he added.

A jihadist group in August released videos of the Japanese journalist and Italian national Alessandro Sandrini, in which they appeal for their release.

Both men were wearing orange outfits with armed, masked men standing behind them.

The videos did not identify which group was holding the men or include specific demands.

Mr Yasuda is thought to have been seized by the group previously known as the Al-Nusra Front, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, in northern Syria.

But with the shifting territory of Syria’s complicated conflict, it is unclear whether he is still being held by his original abductors or has been transferred to other captors.

In the video, he identified himself as Korean and gave a different name, but spoke in Japanese.

He gave the recording date as July 25, saying he was in a bad situation and asking for help.

His wife said she had no idea why Mr Yasuda had identified himself as Korean in the video, but confirmed it showed him and that he is Japanese.

In 2015 militants from the Islamic State group beheaded Japanese war correspondent Kenji Goto and his friend Haruna Yukawa in Syria.

The Japanese government was criticised for what detractors saw as its flat-footed response to the crisis at the time, including apparently missed opportunities to free both men.

Britain has called for the UN Security Council to take action over the war in Yemen, as international pressure grows on both sides. 

“Now for the first time there appears to be a window in which both sides can be encouraged to come to the table, stop the killing and find a political solution that is the only long term way out of disaster,” said Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. “The UK will use all its influence to push for such an approach.”

The Foreign Secretary’s renewed call to support an end to Yemen’s conflict followed a meeting with UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths, who has been trying to advance peace talks in the neglected conflict.

One of the Arab world’s poorest countries, Yemen has been caught in a devastating war since March 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition launched a massive military campaign to oust Iran-backed Houthi rebels and restore the country’s official government to power.

Three and a half years on, much of Yemen’s infrastructure is in ruins. Eight million of the country’s 28 million people rely on UN food rations to survive, and experts predict widespread famine.

The UK is one of the top arms suppliers to Saudi Arabia, after sales rose two-thirds in 2017. 

Mr Griffiths has pushed for a nationwide ceasefire in Yemen, the start of a UN-led process that could lead to an end to the conflict and eventual peace talks.

The Foreign Secretary said the time was right for the UK to discuss with its UN Security Council partners how to bolster this process, days after the US made a rare appeal for a ceasefire in the country. 

Renewed attention on the conflict has come amid widespread condemnation of Saudi Arabia and its powerful Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who is the chief architect of Yemen’s war.

MBS, as the crown prince is known, is suspected of ordering the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the country’s consulate in Istanbul one month ago.

Saudi Arabia and bin Salman deny his involvement. 

The incident has thrown a light on the crown prince’s broader foreign policy decisions, apparently bringing the widely forgotten conflict in Yemen back onto the global agenda.

A pensioner has begun a legal battle to be recognised as being 20 years younger than his actual age so he can go back to work and achieve greater success with women on Tinder.

Emile Ratelband, 69, argues that if transgender people are allowed to change sex, he should be allowed to change his date of birth because doctors said he has the body of a 45-year-old.

The entrepreneur and self-help guru is suing his local authority after they refused the amend his age on official documents.

Mr Ratelband’s case has now gone to a court in the city of Arnhem in the eastern Dutch province of Gelderland.

The case has caused controversy in his homeland, with the Dutch edition of Vice, a news website, asking, "Is Emile Ratelband disturbed or accidentally extremely woke?"

Mr Ratelband was born on 11th March 1949, but says he feels at least 20 years younger and wants to change his birth date to 11th March 1969.

Mr Ratelband said: "I have done a check-up and what does it show? My biological age is 45 years.

"When I’m 69, I am limited. If I’m 49, then I can buy a new house, drive a different car. I can take up more work.

"When I’m on Tinder and it say I’m 69, I don’t get an answer. When I’m 49, with the face I have, I will be in a luxurious position.

"Transgenders can now have their gender changed on their birth certificate, and in the same spirit there should be room for an age change."

The Dutchman said he is discriminated against because of his age, and that he encounters problems in society on a daily basis. The court is due to deliver a written ruling within four weeks.

He complains that companies are reluctant to hire someone the age of a pensioner as a consultant.

And he says his move would also be good news for the government as he would be renouncing his pension until he reaches retirement age again.

The judge said that he had some sympathy with Mr Ratelband as people could now change their gender which would once have been unthinkable.

But the court said there would be practical problems in allowing people to change their birth date, as it would mean legally deleting part of their lives.

The judge asked Mr Ratelband about the status of his early years, from 1949 to 1969, if his official birth date was put back.

"For whom did your parents care in those years? Who was that little boy back then?," the judge asked.

The court is due to deliver a written ruling within four weeks.

Chinese cities are launching a scoring system for dog owners where anyone found failing to care for their pets could be forced to pay a fine – or even have their dog confiscated.

The credit system is already being enforced in the Chinese city of Jinan, and requires anyone with a dog to register with the police – with only one dog permitted per person.

The licence starts with a dozen points and is embedded as a QR code on a dog’s collar.  

Points are then deducted for various infractions, such as walking a dog without a leash or tag, not cleaning up poo, or being reported for a disturbance. Owners are docked three points if dogs are walked without a leash, for example, which must be less than 1.5 metres in length and under the control of someone at least 18 years of age.

Dogs are not allowed to play in public water fountains, and they are banned from government buildings, public transport, schools, hospitals, parks, public squares, gyms, hotels restaurants, markets and shopping centres.

Repeat offenders can see as many as six points subtracted in one go, though owners can earn points back with good behaviour such as volunteering in kennels.

Losing all 12 points means saying goodbye to the dog, the most severe punishment authorities can levy. Once a dog is confiscated, owners must pass an exam about responsible pet ownership before being reunited.

Since the programme was introduced last year, 1,430 dog owners had been fined, according to state media.

Of those, 122 lost the full dozen points, and subsequently their dogs; most, however, passed the exam and got their pets back. Local police say the number of complaints lodged about dogs has dropped significantly.

Other Chinese cities are now also beginning to roll out the dog owner social credit programme, reported state media.

“With proper implementation [of the system] and training, the overall quality of the dog owners will be raised,” said Miss Hu, 35, a consultant in Beijing who owns a black Labrador retriever.

“It can reduce the risk of my dog being attacked by other dogs that are poorly kept,” she said, declining to give her full name. The programme might also lower “the number of stray dogs and unleashed dogs, and eventually the number of people bitten by such dogs.”

Dog bites have long been a concern in China, which has the world’s second-highest number of reported rabies cases in the world, according to the World Health Organisation.

But that has not stopped millions of Chinese from owning dogs, leading to a boom in the pet care industry offering everything from doggie spas to pet funerals.

The dog-owner social credit system is similar to the government’s nationwide social credit system launched in 2014.

The programme is being rolled out in phases, and is slated to be fully operational by 2020, though the government has provided scarce details about who is in charge of the system, how it works, and whether anyone can dispute the scores.

“By rating citizens on a range of behaviours from shopping habits to online speech, the government intends to manufacture a problem-free society,” according to a Human Rights Watch report released in 2017.

Additional reporting by Paula Jin