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Malaysia coroner rules out others in French-Irish teen death

A Malaysian coroner ruled the death of a French-Irish teen, whose body was found near a Malaysian jungle resort where she vanished while on holiday, was most likely a misadventure that didn't involve other people.

Coroner Maimoonah Aid ruled out homicide, natural death and suicide and said Nora Anne Quoirin likely got lost after leaving her family's cottage on her own.

The 15-year-old disappeared at the Dusun eco-resort in southern Negeri Sembilan state on August 4, 2019, a day after the family arrived for a vacation.

After a massive search, her naked body was found on August 13 beside a stream on a palm oil estate about 2.5 kilometers from the resort.

British schoolgirl Nora Anne Quoirin died from intestinal bleeding caused by starvation and stress, Malaysian police say. Malaysia's assistant superintendent of police Nasron, who gave only one name, speaks next to a photo of missing British girl Nora Anne Quoirin.

Police believed she climbed out of the cottage window on her own, with no evidence of any foul play.

But Nora’s parents said she was likely kidnapped because she had mental and physical disabilities and wouldn’t have wandered off on her own.

The coroner described that possibility as a theory and said it would be a breach of her duty to speculate on third-party involvement without any evidence.

A total of 49 witnesses have testified over 24 days since August last year via video-conferencing due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Crowd numbers slashed for SCG Test

Fan numbers have been slashed for the upcoming third Test between Australia and India at the Sydney Cricket Ground, after authorities decided on a reduced 25 per cent capacity limit.

Some 24,000 fans – about half the ground's capacity – were due to attend the event on Thursday.

Now, half of them will have to stay home and the entire event will be reticketed.

Cricket Australia this afternoon announced all current ticketholders would receive a full refund, and have first crack at buying the new available seats via Ticketek from 5pm today.

Any unsold tickets will go on sale to the general public at noon tomorrow.

"In response to the public health situation in NSW, we are working closely with Venues NSW and NSW Health to put appropriate biosecurity measures in place for our staff, players, match officials, broadcasters and fans to ensure we play the third Test at the SCG safely," Cricket Australia interim CEO Nick Hockley said.

"Reducing the capacity of the venue is crucial in achieving social distancing requirements, and we sincerely thank ticketholders for their patience, as we process refunds today, reconfigure the SCG seating plan to deliver these social distancing measures and go back on sale."

NSW Acting Premier John Barilaro had earlier said the match would go ahead but in a COVID-safe manner.

LIVE UPDATES: No new locally acquired cases in NSW

"NSW Health, through [Dr] Kerry Chant's team, have been working with the SCG and Cricket [Australia] to find that framework," he said.

"Of course, each day we are confronted with other issues.

"There is now a consideration that if it is wet weather, what does that look like? Will people be leaving their zones, their seats and congregating under the shelter? They're the things we've got to deal with."

NSW's Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said her team has provided its advice to the government regarding the framework.

"We have certainly taken the matter seriously. We are concerned about the Berala cluster in particular and [we're] putting in a range of strategies," she said.

NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday for the first time since December 15.

However, NSW Health identified two new cases connected to the Berala BWS cluster after 8pm.

There were seven new overseas-acquired cases in hotel quarantine.