An elderly couple has died after eating poisonous pufferfish in Malaysia, prompting an appeal from their daughter for stronger laws to prevent others from suffering the same fate.

Ng Chuan Sing and his wife Lim Siew Guan, both in their early 80s, unknowingly purchased at least two pufferfish from an online vendor on March 25, said authorities in the southern state of Johor.

The same day Lim fried the fish for lunch and began to experience "breathing difficulties and shivers," authorities said. An hour after eating the meal, her husband Ng also started showing similar symptoms, they added.

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The couple was rushed to hospital and admitted to the intensive care unit, and Lim was pronounced dead at 7pm local time.

Ng fell into a coma for eight days but his condition worsened and he died on Saturday morning, said the couple's daughter, Ng Ai Lee, who gave a press conference at the couple's home on Sunday before their funeral.

Ng demanded accountability for her parents' death and for stronger laws in Malaysia, where at least 30 species of pufferfish are commonly found in surrounding waters.

"Those responsible for their deaths should be held accountable under the law and I hope the authorities will speed up investigations," Ng said.

"I also hope the Malaysian government will beef up enforcement and help to raise public awareness on pufferfish poisoning to prevent such incidents from happening again."

Malaysian law prohibits the sale of poisonous and harmful food like pufferfish meat and the offense carries a fine of $3410 AUD or a prison term of up to two years.

Despite the dangers, poisonous pufferfish are sold at many Malaysian wet markets, experts said.

"It's considered exotic and tends to attract consumers," said Aileen Tan, a marine biologist and director at the Universiti Sains Malaysia Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies.

"Once pufferfish have been cleaned and sold as slices, it is nearly impossible for the public to know the type of fish that they purchased," Tan warned.

"As for sellers, it is debatable on their (part) if they are aware (of the risks)."

"There needs to be more awareness about the risks of consuming puffer fish, maybe authorities need to look at special certifications for vendors and suppliers," she said.

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Highly prized but deadly delicacy

Commonly referred to as 'fugu', the Japanese term for pufferfish, pufferfish meat is enjoyed as a highly-priced delicacy despite containing deadly poison.

The fish's organs, as well as skin, blood and bones, contain high concentrations of a deadly poison known as tetrodotoxin.

Ingestion can rapidly cause tingling around the mouth and dizziness, which may be followed by convulsions, respiratory paralysis and death, medical experts say.

It is most commonly served in high-end Tokyo restaurants as sashimi and hot pot ingredients but has also caught on in popularity in countries like South Korea and Singapore, where dedicated fugu restaurants operate.

Under Japanese law, fugu chefs must undergo extensive apprenticeships of up to three years before they are licensed and allowed to handle and prepare the fish for food.

Incorrectly prepared fugu has been found to be one of the most frequent causes of food poisoning in Japan, according to its health ministry.

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There is no known antidote to the poison.

Despite the danger and risks, fugu has grown in popularity especially among gourmets and thrill seekers and is now also eaten countries outside Japan, at times, unregulated.

In 2020, food poisoning killed three people in the Philippines after they ate pufferfish from a local barbecue stand.

The Malaysian health ministry said 58 poisoning incidents involving pufferfish consumption, including 18 deaths, were reported in the country between 1985 and 2023.

Photos shared by Ng on Facebook showed two pufferfish cooked by the couple — fried, headless and served on plates.

Their deaths sparked a public outcry and outpouring of sympathy, authorities are investigating who sold them the fish.

"The state district health office has opened investigations under the Food Act 1983… and carried out an investigation on the ground to identify the supplier, wholesaler and seller of the pufferfish," Ling Tian Soon, chief of the Johor Health and Unity Committee, said in a statement issued Sunday.

He added that his health department would be holding discussions with the Fisheries Development Authority of Malaysia, a government agency overseeing seafood supplies in the country as well as local universities with fishery expertise.

"Information on pufferfish has also been posted on the Health Ministry's Food Safety and Quality Facebook page," Ling said.

"We urge the public to be careful when choosing their food, especially if it has known risks."

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A Louisville bank employee armed with a rifle opened fire at his workplace, killing five people — including a close friend of Kentucky's governor — while live streaming the attack on Instagram, authorities said.

Police arrived as shots were still being fired inside Old National Bank and killed the shooter in an exchange of gunfire, Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said.

The city's mayor, Craig Greenberg, called the attack "an evil act of targeted violence."

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The shooting, the 15th mass killing in the country this year, comes just two weeks after a former student killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, about 260km to the south.

That state's governor and his wife also had friends killed in that shooting.

In Louisville, the chief identified the shooter as 25-year-old Connor Sturgeon, who she said was live streaming during the attack.

"That's tragic to know that that incident was out there and captured," she said.

Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement that it had "quickly removed the livestream of this tragic incident this morning."

Social media companies have imposed tougher rules over the past few years to prohibit violent and extremist content. They have set up systems to remove posts and streams that violate those restrictions, but shocking material like the Louisville shooting continues to slip through the cracks, prompting lawmakers and other critics to lash out at the technology industry for slipshod safeguards and moderation policies.

Nine people, including two police officers, were treated for injuries from the Louisville shooting, University of Louisville Hospital spokeswoman Heather Fountaine said in an email.

One of the wounded, identified as 57-year-old Deanna Eckert, later died, police said Monday night.

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One of the wounded officers, 26-year-old Nickolas Wilt, graduated from the police academy on March 31. He was in critical condition after being shot in the head and having surgery, the police chief said.

At least three patients had been discharged.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said he lost one of his closest friends in the shooting — Tommy Elliott — in the building not far from the minor league ballpark Louisville Slugger Field and Waterfront Park.

"Tommy Elliott helped me build my law career, helped me become governor, gave me advice on being a good dad," said Beshear, his voice shaking with emotion.

"He's one of the people I talked to most in the world, and very rarely were we talking about my job. He was an incredible friend."

Also killed in the shooting were Josh Barrick, Jim Tutt and Juliana Farmer, police said.

"These are irreplaceable, amazing individuals that a terrible act of violence tore from all of us," the governor said.

It was the second time that Beshear was personally touched by a mass tragedy since becoming governor.

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In late 2021, one of the towns devastated by tornadoes that tore through Kentucky was Dawson Springs, the hometown of Beshear's father, former two-term Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear.

Andy Beshear frequently visited Dawson Springs as a boy and has talked emotionally about his father's hometown.

Beshear spoke as the investigation in Louisville continued and police searched for a motive. Crime scene investigators could be seen marking and photographing numerous bullet holes in the windows near the bank's front door.

As part of the investigation, police descended on the neighbourhood where the suspect lived, about 5 miles (8 kilometres) south of the downtown shooting.

The street was blocked as federal and local officers talked to residents. One home was cordoned off with caution tape.

Kami Cooper, who lives in the neighbourhood, said she didn't recall ever meeting the suspect but said it's an unnerving feeling to have lived on the same street as someone who could do such a thing.

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"I'm almost speechless. You see it on the news but not at home," Cooper said.

"It's unbelievable, it could happen here, somebody on my street."

A man who fled the building during the shooting told WHAS-TV that the shooter opened fire with a long rifle in a conference room in the back of the building's first floor.

"Whoever was next to me got shot — blood is on me from it," he told the news station, pointing to his shirt. He said he fled to a break room and shut the door.

Deputy Police Chief Paul Humphrey said the actions of responding police officers undoubtedly saved lives.

"This is a tragic event," he said.

"But it was the heroic response of officers that made sure that no more people were more seriously injured than what happened."

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Just a few hours later and blocks away, an unrelated shooting killed one man and wounded a woman outside a community college, police said.

The 15 mass shootings this year are the most during the first 100 days of a calendar year since 2009, when 16 had occurred by April 10, according to a mass killings database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

Going back to 2006, the first year for which data has been compiled, the years with the most mass killings were 2019 and 2022, with 45 and 42 mass killings recorded during the entire calendar year.

The pace in 2009 slowed later in the year, with 32 mass killings recorded that year.

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For eight torturous years, a Sydney mother grappled with a "slow-building" bladder infection; one that would leave her rushing to go to the bathroom "every 45 minutes to an hour", even through the night.

Laura Cunningham, from Camden in the city's south-west, first noticed the symptoms around 2010, but in 2017 her condition would deteriorate and result in repeated visits to her GP – and the emergency department.

Yet every urine test would come back negative.

READ MORE: Common UTIs risk turning into killer infections

Have you, or someone you know, struggled with UTIs? Contact Raffaella on rc*********@******om.au.

The mother-of-one didn't know she had a chronic urinary tract infection (UTI).

To get that diagnosis, she would need to undertake a journey of more than 17,500 kilometres and live through some of her "darkest days".

A UTI is a common infection one in two women will experience in their lifetime, but even Cunningham said she mistook her symptoms initially.

Chronic UTI Australia, a national advocacy group, explains chronic infections are different.

They arise when "intracellular bacteria burrow into the bladder and/or urethral lining (uroepithelium) where they safely hide away from further immune or antibiotic attack".

Research shows certain bacteria, like E. coli, can lay dormant in the lining, and flare up when conditions are optimal, which creates UTI symptoms.

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"I'd say I first really started to notice the frequency around 2010. It built ever so slowly, I kind of just adjusted," Cunningham told 9news.com.au.

"I didn't think it was a UTI initially because it was more mild.

"There was no burning, just that frequency.

"I suffered for many years without even knowing it."

Cunningham realised something was not quite right when the frequency started to impact her sleep.

"It went on for maybe eight years at least of slowly building, more frequency through the night, to the point I was going to the bathroom every 45 minutes to an hour, through the daytime," she said.

"I remember bringing it up with my doctor and they just said, 'Wait till you have a baby, it will just get worse.'"

Her GPs would treat the symptoms with a short course of antibiotics – even though her UTI tests "would always come back negative".

"I'd take the antibiotics they'd give me and within hours I would be fine," Cunningham said.

'I was slowly dying'

But then in 2017, something changed.

At the age of 35, Cunningham's symptoms flared up – and this time she had urgency, a busting feeling of needing to urinate.

She went to her doctor, as always, and was prescribed antibiotics, as always, but this time they didn't take.

"After a couple (of) days, while I was still taking the course, the symptoms came back," she said.

"That was really frightening, I thought, 'Now what?'

"I went back to the doctor and he called (a) special commission in Canberra to get a different antibiotic, which initially worked and then again two days later it came back again.

"It was just scary, isolating."

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At this point, Cunningham was going to the bathroom to urinate so often she wasn't sleeping.

"I can't say it got worse because there was no worse. It was just a constant state of busting," she said.

"There wasn't a period of the day I wasn't completely needing to go."

After four days "without a wink of sleep", she turned to hospitals for help but that help proved elusive.

"I thought this would be the end of me. I was slowly dying," she said.

"I remember going to three different hospitals as I knew it was an infection but no one would believe me.

"The test would come back negative and they'd tell me I'm clear of a UTI and they'd send me on my way."

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Increasingly desperate, Cunningham found herself a urologist to investigate.

"He put me on an antibiotic drip overnight a few times and I started to feel a tiny bit better," she said.

"But after one night he put me on overactive bladder medication and left me on that."

After a cystoscopy, a procedure which sees a long tube with a camera attached inserted inside the urethra and bladder, Cunningham was diagnosed with interstitial cystitis – a chronic and painful bladder condition often mistaken for a UTI.

But Cunningham wasn't convinced with the diagnosis, as she had found short-lived relief through antibiotics.

"He told me I can stay on the medicines for overactive bladder 'forever'," she said.

"They saved my life as far as any specialist could help in Australia, they treated the frequency a little bit, but they weren't treating the infection.

"I kept telling him, 'I know it's an infection', and would ask him, 'Why else would the antibiotics have worked initially?' but he wouldn't listen."

That's when Cunningham started Googling.

The article that changed Laura's life

After six months of plugging in the same search term – "UTI with negative test results" – she got a hit.

"I Googled and I Googled for six months and one day an old newspaper article from England popped up," she said.

That article introduced Cunningham to Professor James Malone-Lee, who had begun researching the possibility of chronic UTI in London.

"Straight away I said, 'I know this is what I've got'," she said, explaining she emailed the professor and heard back after a month.

"I booked a flight straight away and I went out there."

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In early 2018, Cunningham flew from Sydney to London via Dubai on a Qantas A380.

Her "sweet" husband used all his available points to secure a seat; the only one happened to be in first class.

Her son was just three-years-old at the time.

He and Cunningham's husband would later join her on the two-week trip.

Upon arrival, Cunningham was amazed to learn Malone-Lee's clinic, Harley Street, had a different approach to diagnosing UTIs compared to the dip tests and midstream urinary cultures used worldwide.

Research shows urine dipstick tests, the preliminary tool GPs use to test for indicators of a UTI, can miss up to 70 per cent of genuine infections.

From there, GPs will often send urine off to a laboratory – as part of a midstream urinary culture – to see if bacteria can be "grown" from the sample.

Those tests are believed to miss between 50 and 80 per cent of infections.

Cunningham said the professor didn't need to look for bacteria to diagnose her chronic UTI.

Instead, he looked for epithelial cells, which cover all body surfaces internally and externally.

A large number in urine could signify an infection.

"The professor looked at my fresh urine straight under the microscope," she said.

"He was looking at the epithelial cells from the shedding and the white pus cells, which are signs of infection.

"After doing a count, he then gave the treatment plan of high dose, long-term antibiotics."

On arriving back in Australia after two appointments, Cunningham said she was "lucky" that her GP was more than happy to follow the prescription plan.

Cunningham was on a high-dose course of antibiotics for two years.

She's now stopped taking it and is no longer on overactive bladder medication.

Malone-Lee has since died but Cunningham said he changed her life.

"Life is amazing compared to then," she said.

"They were the darkest days of my life, especially those four days without a wink of sleep.

"It was such a relief I finally had an answer.

"I knew it was an infection, I kept telling every single specialist I saw – and there were a lot – and no one believed me.

"The professor finally did. I'm so happy to have my life back and just to be here with my boy."

Chronic UTI Australia said "there are currently no practitioners in Australia that specialise in diagnosing and treating chronic UTI that we know of" and the condition is largely unrecognised.

Cunningham believes one of the "big failures" in the medical system is the over-reliance on the dip test and midstream urinary cultures as diagnostic tools for UTIs.

"I would love it if urologists had more hands-on experience, look at fresh urine under the microscope," she said.

"I think that should be standard, to do it the way (the) professor did.

"It's not tested two hours later, it is looked at straight away."

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A Perth OnlyFans creator has been criticised for taking out a billboard to advertise her account but has defended the decision saying there are "worse things" children could be looking at.

Savannah – known as West Coast Savage – is a content creator on OnlyFans, a subscription-based platform used by adult content creators as well as musicians, fitness experts and more.

Savannah has taken out a billboard in Osborne Park, a Perth suburb, which features a photo of her in a bikini, a QR code to her site and the handle of her Instagram account.

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She claims it is the first time an OnlyFans creator has gone to these advertising lengths in Australia.

But not everyone is happy with the billboard.

"It's a mixed barrel, people are concerned about people seeing this picture of me in a bikini at a beach," she told Nine radio station 6PR.

"I think that is a little far-fetched but each to their own.

"Obviously, the fact that OnlyFans is an adult-content-creating website that caters to adult entertainment."

She argued the billboard isn't any more provocative than other advertisements and there are "worse things" a child could see.

"To be honest, young children will see that billboard and see a picture of a woman in a bikini; they won't know any better," she said.

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She said it was a parent's responsibility to monitor their child's internet usage and the platform has parameters in place to stop underage people from accessing the site.

"Teenagers, if they have access to iPhones, tablets, computers, that sort of thing, it's really the parent's job to monitor what they're looking at online," she said.

"OnlyFans has layers of protection to stop underage people from accessing the site.

"You need to have your licence and a credit card to even access the free site.

"They restrict what OnlyFans content creators can put on their main profile, you can't have any nudity when you go on the page and open it up."

https://omny.fm/shows/6pr-breakfast/onlyfans-model-defends-provocative-bikini-billboar/embed

She said parents should be putting parental blocks on their child's technology to prevent access to explicit content.

"If the worst thing your children are going to see today is a woman in a bikini then I think we should have some perspective, there are so many worse things children could be seeing or experiencing than a woman in a bikini at a beach," she said.

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A woman's ear has been ripped off in a dog attack in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

The woman in her 60s was dragged about 15 metres along the road after she was attacked by the 50kg three-year-old bull Arab cross in Bulleen about 5.15pm on Sunday.

The dog escaped through an open gate as its owner was putting out hard rubbish and attacked the woman from behind.

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"I just heard a shriek and I realised it was him and I was maybe 20 metres away and I just ran and tried to get him off her," the owner told 9News.

The dog's owner spoke on the condition of anonymity to express her remorse at the situation.

"I'm just so sorry, like, for the lady. There's nothing that I can say that is going to make it better for her," she said.

"It's heartbreaking."

The victim suffered serious injuries and was treated by paramedics at the scene before being taken to hospital.

"(The dog) had blood all over its mouth, and I heard this lady going 'help me, help me, help me, please help me," neighbour Nick Carter said.

The owner said: "There was cars driving past and I was screaming for people to stop and stop. And it felt like forever but eventually quite a few people did stop."

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The dog was contained in a yard while police waited for council to arrive.

It was last night locked in a pound and faces being put down.

"I understand what his fate will be. For safety, for anybody, for everybody, but that's what's going to happen," the owner said.

Police said they were investigating if there was any criminality.

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Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has apologised after a video showing him kissing a child on the lips triggered criticism.

A statement posted on his official website said the 87-year-old leader regretted the incident and wished to "apologise to the boy and his family, as well as his many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused".

The incident occurred at a public gathering in February at the Tsuglakhang temple in Dharamsala, where the exiled leader lives.

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He was taking questions from the audience when the boy asked if he could hug him.

The Dalai Lama invited the boy up toward the platform he was seated on. In the video, he gestured to his cheek, after which the child kissed him before giving him a hug.

The Dalai Lama then asked the boy to kiss him on the lips and stuck out his tongue.

"And suck my tongue," the Dalai Lama can be heard saying as the boy sticks out his own tongue and leans in, prompting laughter from the audience.

The footage triggered a backlash online with social media users condemning his behaviour as inappropriate and disturbing.

"His Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras," the statement from the Dalai Lama read.

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https://twitter.com/DalaiLama/status/1645312490597937152

The Dalai Lama has made the hillside town of Dharmsala his headquarters since fleeing from Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

India considers Tibet to be part of China, though it hosts Tibetan exiles.

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Searchers on the ground and in the air have been combing the area today.

A young girl has been rushed to hospital after she was attacked by a dog south of Brisbane.

The six-year-old girl is in a serious condition after she was dragged into a yard and attacked by a bull Arab in Woodridge this afternoon.

It's understood the young girl was walking on the footpath when she was attacked by the dog.

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Paramedics attended the scene and took the child to Queensland Children's Hospital, where she remains in a serious condition.

Another person, aged in their 20s, was also taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital with a leg injury after the attack.

Council dog handlers have arrived on scene and taken the dog away.

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Waste management workers are set to strike again across Sydney and Canberra.

Cleanaway staff will hold a 24-hour strike on Tuesday in their campaign against longer shifts and a reduction of overtime rates.

Workers will be walking off the job, leaving bins uncollected in the City of Sydney, Randwick, Erskine Park and Silverwater.

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A strike is happening at the same time in Canberra, the latest of multiple strikes in NSW and the ACT.

Transport Workers' Union NSW/Queensland secretary Richard Olsen claimed workers are being "treated horrifically".

"Waste worker shortages have put enormous pressure on workers to work faster and longer, while Cleanaway's attempts to worsen conditions will only add to dangerous pressure on workers to rush and drive tired through suburban streets," Olsen said.

"Following four days of strike action at both City of Sydney and Erskine Park depots, workers have achieved some progress towards fairer agreements, but are still facing unfair and unsustainable attacks to their income and working hours."

After the previous strike, Cleanaway said it had made an amended offer.

"Cleanaway entered into bargaining with the TWU in good faith to ensure our employees receive the most fair and reasonable agreement," it said.

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“We all are trying to support the family.”