Life Flight rescuers have told of the relief they felt when they saw the passengers of a light plane crash give them the "thumbs up" from waters off Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

The two men were rescued from a life raft after their Cessna light plane lost an engine and the pilot was forced to do a controlled ditching into the sea about 30 nautical miles north-east of the Sunshine Coast at 9am yesterday.

The 59-year-old and 51-year-old alerted air traffic control to their engine issues, triggering a response from the RACQ LifeFlight rescue helicopter but they were first spotted by a Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) plane that was flying past.

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The RDFS plane monitored the men on the life raft until the LifeFlight chopper arrived about 10 minutes later.

"They managed to get the aircraft safely into the water and they managed to extricate themselves from the wreckage," RACQ LifeFlight pilot Andrew Caton said.

"They got into a life raft and then as soon as we got overhead, you can see that there was a sense of relief on their faces."

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Queensland Ambulance Service paramedic Mick O'Brien said when they got overhead "they were giving us the thumbs up".

"That was a massive sense of relief for us," O'Brien said.

He said it was an "amazing outcome".

"We got them into the helicopter and they were fine.

"They were uninjured… It's just an incredible story of survival for these two guys."

He said they were preparing for the worst but the pilot did an incredible job to ditch the aircraft.

The men were discharged from hospital with no injuries.

It's understood the Cessna aircraft had left Caloundra Airport and was travelling to American Samoa.

The aircraft was full of fuel so when the plane lost one of the engines it wasn't strong enough to maintain its height.

A woman has died after she was hit by a falling tree during a severe storm in Queensland's south east last night.

Emergency services were called to a property on Qually Road property in Lockyer Waters after the woman had been struck by a tree just before 6pm.

Queensland Police said the 70-year-old had life-threatening injuries when they arrived.

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"She was declared deceased a short time later," Queensland Police said in a statement.

"Initial information indicates the woman was walking outdoors when the incident occurred."

The Bureau of Meteorology said winds up to 87 kilometres per hour were recorded during the storm.

Hundreds are without power after powerlines came down near Laidley, where a thick blanket of hail came down.

In the Lockyer Valley, 22mm of rain fell in just 10 minutes.

For 75 years, North Green outside Westminster Abbey in London has been offered as a location for poppies to be laid to remember those involved in conflict.

Lahore has become the latest megacity to shut down as pollution chokes swathes of South Asia, where nearly 50 million people have been breathing toxic air for nearly a week.

Pakistan's second most populous city – of more than 13 million people – has shut schools and closed public parks, malls and offices after the air quality index (AQI) this week spiked to more than 400, according to IQAir. That number is considered "hazardous" by the Swiss air tracking company.

Authorities in Pakistan's Punjab province have imposed an "environmental and health emergency" in three cities – Gujranwala and Hafizabad in addition to Lahore – until the situation improves, its chief minister Mohsin Naqvi said this week. The three cities combined account for more than 15 million people.

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"There shall be a limited movement of people to and from these areas by public and private transport," a statement from Naqvi's office said on Tuesday.

Naqvi's government has also restricted the gathering of more than four people in one place.

The pollution spike in Pakistan comes after neighbouring India saw smog blanket its capital New Delhi last week, as colder temperatures trapped pollution particles, creating a toxic haze that reached hazardous levels.

Traditionally, toward the end of the year after the winter harvest, millions of farmers clear their leftover rice stubble by setting fields alight to prepare for the incoming wheat crop. This, together with vehicular and industrial pollution, has created copious amounts of smog across the northern Indian states of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and New Delhi.

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India's Supreme Court this week ordered authorities in the states surrounding New Delhi to stop farmers from burning leftover crops, while also banning the use of firecrackers nationwide ahead of the upcoming Diwali festival this weekend.

The court has issued similar orders over the years with minimal effect.

Other major Indian cities, including Kolkata and Mumbai, also ranked on IQAir's list of the world's 20 most polluted cities this week, with pollution levels fluctuating between "hazardous" and "unhealthy".

Local authorities have scrambled to implement measures to alleviate the pollution, from restricting vehicles on roads, sprinkling water on pavements and banning non-essential construction to reduce the dust.

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, which has a population of more than 10 million people, also featured on IQAir's list of most polluted cities, with an AQI that reached 222 on Friday, a number that is considered "very unhealthy" according to the company.

The PM2.5 levels in all these cities far exceed the World Health Organisation's limit and illustrate a growing concern for South Asian countries as they experience rapid industrialisations and population booms that are fuelling pollution levels.

PM 2.5 particles include pollutants such as sulphates, nitrates and black carbon, exposure to which can impair people's cognitive and immune functions. They are also linked to lung and heart disorders.

Environment groups and policy makers have long called for more effective solutions to manage population growth, saying current measures such as restricting transport and halting construction make little difference in the long-term.

The effects of the worsening air are already visible in some parts of India.

According to a 2021 study by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), bad air could reduce the life expectancy of Delhi residents by as much as nine years.

The study also found that every single one of India's 1.4 billion residents endures annual average pollution levels that exceed guidelines set by the World Health Organisation.

Doctors in the Indian capital say they have seen an increase in pollution-related illnesses, with patients complaining of cough, throat irritation, shortness of breath and skin problems, among others.

Thousands of Palestinians streamed onto Gaza's only highway on Friday, fleeing the combat zone in the north after Israel announced a window for safe passage, as officials in the enclave said the Palestinian death toll surpassed 11,000 people.

Amid an intensifying campaign of airstrikes and ground battles in Gaza City, the search for safety in the besieged enclave has grown increasingly desperate. Tens of thousands have walked south, where they face the prospect of ongoing bombardment and dire conditions. Others have crowded into and around hospitals, sleeping in operating rooms and wards.

Gaza medical officials accused Israel of striking near hospitals on Friday, though Israel said at least one was the result of a misfired Palestinian rocket.

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Gaza's largest city is the focus of Israel's campaign to crush Hamas following its deadly October 7 surprise incursion.

BATTLES AROUND HOSPITALS

Early Friday, Israel struck the courtyard and the obstetrics department of Shifa Hospital, where tens of thousands of people are sheltering, according to Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson at the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. A video at the scene recorded the sound of incoming fire waking people up in their makeshift shelters in the courtyard, followed by screams for an ambulance.

The Israeli army has alleged that Hamas hides in and under hospitals and that it has set up a command centre under Shifa — claims the militant group and hospital staff deny.

The director of Shifa said Israel demanded the facility be evacuated, but he said there was nowhere for such a large number of patients to go.

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"Where are we going to evacuate them?" Director Mohammed Abu Selmia asked in an interview on the television network Al Jazeera.

The Health Ministry later said one person had been killed at Shifa and several were wounded. Another strike near the Al-Nasr Medical Center, which includes two hospitals for children, killed two people, according to the ministry.

In all, Gaza health officials said strikes were carried out near four hospitals overnight and early Friday.

A senior Israeli security official said that initial findings indicated that one strike at Shifa was the result of a misfire by militants. The military is conducting a review. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

At Shifa, families are sleeping in hospital rooms, emergency rooms, surgical theatres and the maternity ward — or on the streets outside, according to Wafaa Abu Hajjaj, a Palestinian journalist at the hospital, as well as several people who recently left.

Daily food distributions has helped a tiny number for a time, but there has been no bread in recent days, they said. Water is scarce and usually polluted, and few people can bathe.

World Health Organisation spokesperson Margaret Harris said 20 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are no longer functioning, including a paediatric hospital where children had been receiving care such as dialysis and life support — "things that you cannot possibly evacuate them safely with."

CIVILIANS FLEE SOUTH

More than two-thirds of Gaza's population of 2.3 million have fled their homes since the war began. On Friday, a steady stream of civilians used both sides of Gaza's main north-south highway.

Parents walked with small children, some evacuees crammed into covered donkey carts with possessions piled on the roof, and others rode on bicycles.

Since last weekend, the Israeli military has set aside several hours a day to enable civilians to escape northern Gaza, and it announced a six-hour window Friday.

A day earlier, the White House said Israel agreed to implement a brief humanitarian pause each day — in what appeared to be an effort to formalise and expand the process. Israel has also agreed to open a second route for people fleeing, the White House said.

In all, Israel estimated more than 850,000 of the 1.1 million people in northern Gaza have left, according to military spokesman Jonathan Conricus, who called the pauses "quick humanitarian windows" that allow southward movement "while we are fighting."

UN expert for the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese called the pauses "cynical and cruel," saying it was just enough "to let people breathe and remember what is the sound of life without bombing, before starting bombing them again."

RISING DEATH TOLLS

More than 10,800 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. Another 2650 people have been reported missing.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that "far too many" Palestinians have died and suffered and that while recent Israeli steps to try to minimise civilian harm are positive, they are not enough.

Though US President Joe Biden and others have challenged the figures from the Gaza Health Ministry as exaggerated, Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf told American lawmakers this week that it was "very possible" the numbers were even higher than reported.

More than 1400 people have been killed in Israel, mainly in the initial Hamas attack, and 41 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began.

Palestinian militants have continued to fire rockets into Israel, and an attack on Tel Aviv wounded at least two people Friday, said Yossi Elkabetz, a paramedic with Israel's rescue services. Hamas claimed credit.

Some 250,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate from communities near Gaza and along the northern border with Lebanon, where Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have traded fire repeatedly.

A British judge ruled on Friday that a lawsuit by Prince Harry, Elton John and five other celebrities accusing a newspaper publisher of unlawful information-gathering should go to a full trial.

The claimants, who include John's husband David Furnish and actors Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost, accuse the publisher of the Daily Mail of paying private investigators to illegally bug homes and cars and to record phone conversations.

Harry said the publisher targeted him and the people closest to him by unlawfully hacking voicemails, tapping landlines, obtaining itemised phone bills and the flight information of his then-girlfriend, Chelsy Davy.

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The publisher, Associated Newspapers Ltd., asked the judge to throw out the case. At hearings in March its lawyers argued that the claims — which date as far back as 1993 — were brought too late and that claimants were relying on confidential evidence the papers turned over to a 2012 public inquiry into tabloid wrongdoing.

Judge Matthew Nicklin ruled that the claimants cannot rely on the documents handed over to the 2012 Leveson inquiry. But he said the case can go ahead because the claims "have a real prospect of succeeding."

"Associated has not been able to deliver a 'knockout blow' to the claims of any of these claimants," the judge said in a written ruling.

The other claimants are anti-racism campaigner Doreen Lawrence and former politician Simon Hughes.

The case is one of several lawsuits brought in the UK by Harry, who has made it a personal mission to tame Britain's tabloid press.

In June he became the first senior member of the royal family to testify in court in more than a century when he testified in a separate phone hacking lawsuit against the publishers of the Daily Mirror.

Harry is also suing the publisher of The Sun newspaper alongside actor Hugh Grant. That case is scheduled to go to trial early next year.

A woman is in a serious but stable condition after being attacked by a shark in Adelaide's south this afternoon.

Emergency services were called to Port Noarlunga jetty just after 1pm after reports a 32-year-old woman had been bitten by a shark.

She was rushed to Flinders Medical Centre with injuries to her scalp and face, which were earlier described as "extremely serious" and "life-threatening" by SA Ambulance.

9News understands that she will most likely have to undergo surgey.

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The woman was free-diving with a friend when she was attacked, according to witnesses.

"Police with the assistance of other emergency services evacuated the water while a search to locate the shark was undertaken," police said in a statement.

"Members of the public have since returned to the water after the search failed to locate the shark."

The beach was full of school kids who were out on a pupil free day, while others were there for aquatic lessons. 

Some of the children claimed to have witnessed the shark grab the woman by the head.

"Some of the kids did see it, we've been talking to a few of them and they saw her face all bloodied," swimmer Mason Corbett told 9News.

Surf Life Saving South Australia monitored the area for hours after the attack, keeping an eye out for the shark. 

It is the fourth shark attack off the South Australian coast this year.

A 55-year-old surfer, Todd, is believed to have been killed by a shark off Granites Beach near Streaky Bay.

His body was never recovered but a part of his board and wetsuit were found.

A 64-year-old woman, Pam Cook, survived being bitten while swimming at Beachport.

Simon Bacanello's body was never found after the teacher was attacked while surfing off the state's west coast in May.

More to come.

“I do not accept that she encouraged in any way the conduct that occurred,” says judge.

From washing dishes in the hotel less than a decade ago, to leading the entire staff.

“I’m a firm believer that our actions and efforts carry more weight than our words.”