A water-bombing helicopter crashed at Pechey north of Toowoomba in a firefighting operation when the pilot attempted to perform an emergency landing in strong winds. 

Queensland Police’s Acting Inspector Regan Draheim said water-bombing pilots put themselves in treacherous situations to benefit others. 

“He’s obviously done what he’s seen best to try and recover the aircraft and to obviously save his own life,” Mr Drageim said. 

The experienced pilot was injured but survived the crash. 

A fire broke out in bushland behind the Helensvale Aquatic Centre at around 3:30 yesterday afternoon. 

Queensland Fires and Emergency Services says people in the area will be affected by the smoke, which will reduce visibility and air quality, however, properties are not under threat. 

Forecasters indicated it is unlikely there would be any rainfall to help ease the fires.

Turkey is sending foreign IS fighters back to their countries of origin, with more than 20 Europeans set to be deported. 

Turkey has criticised Western countries for refusing to repatriate their citizens who left to join the group in Syria and Iraq, and stripping some of them of their citizenship. 

Turkey has been frequently sending back its IS fighters to their countries of origins in recent years, increasing pressure on Europe to bear the responsibility of home-grown terrorism.

Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam has labelled the city’s pro-democracy protesters as ‘the people’s enemy’ after police shot protestors at close range in Sai Wan Ho in eastern Hong Kong, leaving the protestors in a critical condition.

Another traffic policeman was also speeding on a motorbike into a group of protestors, which was criticized as an ‘out of control act’ by executive Lam.

Authorities suspect two fires that were started on Tuesday in Turramurra on Sydney's north shore and Loftus in the Royal National Park, were deliberately lit.

NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons has called for anyone caught lighting fires to spend time behind bars, as authorities investigate to find the potential culprit. 

Disgraced cardinal George Pell has been granted one final chance to fight his child sexual abuse conviction, after the High Court granted the imprisoned cardinal leave to appeal, which was announced this morning in Canberra.

Cardinal Pell’s lawyers will still need to lodge a formal appeal to the High Court, and the case is unlikely to be heard until next year. 

Two South Brisbane neighbouring companies have gone to court after a dispute over 34cm of building foundation two metres below the ground.

Brisbane Times’s Lydia Lynch reports that HS South Brisbane has taken its commercial neighbour United Voice, the union that represents paramedics, childcare workers and security guards, to court in a bid for $524,000 in "loss and damage" over the piece of the concrete.

A multinational engineering firm that was forcing workers on a Queensland gas project to submit blood tests in order to secure employment, has backed down following a legal push by the Electrical Trades Union.

Last fortnight, the union revealed that SNC-Lavalin, a new contract-holder for the project, was requiring prospective employees to submit to blood tests in order to retain their work on Shell’s Queensland Gas Corporation project at Chinchilla.