Three killed by gunmen in Kenyan church

THREE people have died and at least 10 have been wounded after gunmen opened fire in a church outside Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa.

The three gunmen opened fire inside the Joyland Church in a Mombasa suburb of Likoni, killing two people, Kenyan officials said on Sunday, while a nurse at a nearby hospital reported a third person had died while being treated.

Kenya has suffered dozens of small attacks, many on churches, over the last several years. Muslim-Christian tensions on Kenya's coast are high.

Sunday's shooting comes about a week after police on the coast intercepted a car packed with explosives police believe were to be used for an attack.

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Bravery award for shark attack rescuer

A MAN who dived into open water to rescue a shark attack victim on the NSW mid north coast has been awarded one of the nation's highest bravery awards.

Rowan Cutbush was parasailing with two friends at Jimmies Beach, near Port Stephens, when one of them fell off a wakeboard into the water.

The woman was then attacked by a shark, suffering injuries to her arm, neck and face.

On seeing the attack, Mr Cutbush dived off his vessel and swam around 20 metres through "bloodied water" to reach the victim.

Mr Cutbush then held onto the woman until the pair was pulled back to the vessel with a rope.

With a mate, Mr Cutbush assisted the woman out of the water then treated her severely lacerated arm, before driving the vessel at high speed back to ambulance officers at a nearby jetty.

The woman received treatment for lacerations sustained in the attack.

Mr Cutbush was awarded one of 14 Aussies to this year win a Bravery Medal from Governor-General Quentin Bryce.

The Bravery Medal is awarded for acts of "bravery in hazardous circumstances".

It is the third highest Australian Bravery Decoration behind the Star of Courage and the Cross of Valour.

Ms Bryce said the 2014 national bravery awards recognised "the heroic actions of those amongst us who have placed the safety and lives of others before their own".

"We are privileged to have such role models in our society, and it is an honour to be able to recognise their acts of selfless bravery and thank them publicly for their brave actions," she said in a statement.

There were 47 Australians awarded national bravery decorations this year.

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Avalanche kills two skiers at Sochi resort

AN avalanche has killed two skiers at the Russian mountain resort used for the Sochi Olympics the day after it opened to the public.

Six skiers were on the middle section of Labirint run when the avalanche struck, Roza Khutor said in a statement on Sunday.

The snow buried two women, and rescuers who dug them out were unable to save them, it said, while the four other skiers escaped unharmed.

The Kuban regional branch of state Rossiya television, citing witnesses, reported earlier that three people had been killed in the avalanche.

Roza Khutor was the site of the Alpine skiing competitions during the Winter Games in February and the Paralympics that followed.

The resort re-opened to the public on Saturday.

The resort said it was clearing the snow from the run and trying to determine the cause of the avalanche.

The Roza Khutor management also expressed its condolences to the family and friends of the two skiers who died.

A map of the mountain shows the Labirint run located at the far edge of the resort and labelled black, the most difficult of four categories.

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F-35 fighter purchase reasonable: report

AUSTRALIA is likely to push ahead with the acquisition of its first operational F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft, according to a report by an independent defence think tank.

In a report released on Monday, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute says it makes most sense for the federal government to commit to spending between $8 billion and $10 billion on 58 of the fighters, which are expected to enter service in 2020.

Report authors Andrew Davies and Harry White say the F-35 is a capable fighter with an ability to penetrate sophisticated air defences, but note that other factors, including political relations, point towards a likely buy.

"Because we're an international program partner on the JSF, the economies of scale for other buyers - including the US - will be reduced if we don't purchase the aircraft," they say.

Start-up costs to take on the JSF are predicted to be $2 billion, with a ongoing annual cost of about $200 million.

"In the final analysis, the government seems likely to be prepared to pay a moderate premium to maintain a high-end air-combat capability, and to preserve the other benefits to industry and the alliance with Washington," the report says.

"On balance, that looks like a reasonable decision for Australia."

As the government keeps a watchful eye on Australia's budget, the report suggests an option of reducing the F-35 order to 50, thus saving about $800 million on the initial cost.

Australian industry has secured contracts worth more than $US300 million ($A332.54 million) to manufacture F-35 components, with the injection to the economy possibly reaching $US5 billion over the lifetime of the program.

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Mining tax repeal before the Senate

THE Senate will turn its attention to mining tax repeal legislation after rejecting the Abbott government's plans to scrap the carbon tax last week.

The repeal bill has been listed as the first item of business in the upper house when parliament resumes on Monday.

Trade Minister Andrew Robb has urged Labor to get out of the government's way on the issue.

"Bill Shorten has big responsibilities, he's starting to look like the Bob Brown of the new parliament - walking sovereign risk," he told Sky News on Sunday.

The Abbott government says the tax is anti-Western Australian but WA Labor frontbencher Alannah MacTiernan dismissed that proposition as silly.

"The mining tax has not been a jobs killer," she told ABC TV on Sunday.

Ms MacTiernan admitted there have been times when it has not been a popular tax.

"I think people are pretty smart ... they understand that where you've got those companies paying the tax still investing, still recording record ... profits, that quite clearly the mining tax hasn't been the problem."

Labor supports the concept of a profits-based mining tax and will consult with the mining industry and states over the issue ahead of the next election, she said.

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Pell to take stand at abuse inquiry

FORMER archbishop of Sydney George Pell takes the stand at a hearing on Monday to answer questions on how he handled an abuse complaint by former altar boy John Ellis.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse enters the third week of a hearing in Sydney in which Dr Pell's senior associates have been grilled on why the archdiocese disputed in court that Mr Ellis had been abused when an internal church process had accepted his allegation as true.

Dr Pell is expected to shed light on his role in instructing the church's legal team, which "vigorously defended" the case. It ended in a landmark finding, which some say created church immunity from abuse-related civil actions.

Mr Ellis was a 13-year-old altar boy at Bass Hill in Sydney in 1974 when Father Aidan Duggan first sexually abused him.

In 2002 Mr Ellis sought help from Towards Healing, the internal church process for dealing with victims of abuse.

In the past two weeks the commission has heard how that process failed and Mr Ellis sued Dr Pell and the trustees of the archdiocese.

Witnesses have included Michael Casey, Dr Pell's private secretary, and Monsignor Brian Rayner, the then chancellor of the archdiocese.

Mons Rayner's evidence contradicted Dr Pell's claim that he did not know Mr Ellis was willing to settle at one stage for an ex-gratia payment of $100,000. The church spent $1.5 million defending the claim.

Dr Pell's evidence comes just before he departs for Rome to become financial head of the Vatican and Holy See.

The commission has already heard a statement from Dr Pell that said: "Whatever position was taken by the lawyers during the litigation, or by lawyers or individuals within the archdiocese following the litigation, my own view is that the church in Australia should be able to be sued."

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China, Netherlands sign trade pacts

CHINA and the Netherlands have signed a trade pact pledging Dutch dairy expertise to help Chinese producers boost the quality and quantity of their milk.

The deal signed at a ceremony at Prime Minister Mark Rutte's official residence in The Hague on Sunday is another step by China to rehabilitate the reputation of its dairy industry in the aftermath of tainted milk product scandals.

It was part of a raft of deals and memoranda of understanding inked on the second day of a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is in the Netherlands with a large trade delegation.

In 2008, some Chinese milk brands were found to be tainted with the chemical melamine, which can cause kidney damage and other injuries. Some suppliers added it to fool protein tests on watered-down supplies.

Imported milk products like baby formula still have a reputation for safety in China and command far higher prices than local brands.

The Dutch government said in a statement that experts will help China increase its annual milk production to 40 billion kilograms in coming years.

After his meeting with Rutte, Xi spoke to a business conference in the seaside resort town of Noordwijk before visiting the world famous Keukenhof flower garden, where his wife Peng Liyuan christened a new strain of tulip called the Cathay.

After his state visit ends on Sunday, Xi is staying in the Netherlands to take part in the two-day Nuclear Security Summit starting on Monday in The Hague before travelling to France, Germany and Belgium later in the week.

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