Abbott preferred in western Sydney: poll

VOTERS in Sydney's west would rather have Kevin Rudd as prime minister than Julia Gillard, but Tony Abbott remains their top choice, a poll shows.

The Seven News/ReachTEL poll found Mr Rudd has a clear lead over Ms Gillard as the preferred prime minister - 74.5 per cent to 25.5 per cent - if voters are forced to choose between the two.

Almost 42 per cent of western Sydney residents would be more likely to vote Labor if Mr Rudd was leader of the party.

But the poll found both Ms Gillard and Mr Rudd sank below Opposition Leader Tony Abbott as preferred prime minister.

If given the choice of four prime ministers, 39.2 per cent of voters would choose Mr Abbott, followed by Mr Rudd at 26 per cent, Malcolm Turnbull at 22.1 per cent, and Ms Gillard at just 13.2 per cent.

The poll surveyed 1615 residents from 11 electorates in Sydney's west.

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Kenyans vote after police gunned down

LONG lines of Kenyans have queued from way before dawn to vote in the first election since the violence-wracked polls five years ago, with a deadly police ambush hours before polling started marring the ballot.

The tense elections are seen as a crucial test for Kenya, with leaders vowing to avoid a repeat of the bloody 2007-8 post-poll violence in which more than 1100 people were killed and observers repeatedly warning of the risk of renewed conflict.

Voters standing for hours in snaking lines several hundreds of metres long - and several people thick - crowded peacefully outside polling stations to take part in one of the most complex elections Kenya has ever held.

Tensions were high on the coast including in the port city of Mombasa where six policemen killed in two separate attacks, including an ambush by some 200 youths armed with guns and bows and arrows, hours before the opening of polling stations.

"Six policemen and six attackers were killed during the confrontation," Kenyan police chief David Kimaiyo told reporters, adding that 400 officers were being sent to the coastal province to beef up security.

Kimaiyo said the attackers were suspected members of the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC), a group seeking the secession of the coastal region popular with tourists.

Despite the attack, voters packed the streets in the city.

"We are not worried, we are voting," said architect Said Said, waiting to cast a ballot at a primary school.

Neck-and-neck rivals for the presidency, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and his deputy Uhuru Kenyatta, have publicly vowed there will be no repeat of the bloodshed that followed the disputed 2007 polls.

Crimes against humanity trials later this year at The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) for Kenyatta and running mate William Ruto have raised the stakes: should they win the vote, the president and vice-president could be absent on trial for years.

Kenyans are casting six ballots, voting for a new president, parliamentarians, governors, senators, councillors and special women's representatives, with some 14.3 million registered voters and more than 30,000 polling stations.

Preliminary results are expected within 48 hours but could take up to seven days, officials have said.

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Dutch police arrest woman over art heist

DUTCH police have arrested a young Romanian woman in Rotterdam on suspicion of helping get a haul of masterpieces stolen from the city's Kunsthal museum out of the country, police say.

"Detectives investigating the art heist at the Kunsthal on Monday afternoon arrested a 19-year-old Romanian woman who is suspected of being involved in the handling of the seven stolen paintings," Rotterdam police said in a statement.

The woman is the girlfriend of one of three suspects being held in Romania for alleged involvement in October's swiftly executed theft of works by Picasso, Monet and Gauguin, among others.

The heist gripped the Netherlands and the art world as police apparently struggled to piece the crime together, despite putting 25 officers on the case.

Experts put the paintings' value at between 100 and 200 million euros ($A257 million).

Police said it appeared the paintings had been taken to a home in Rotterdam immediately after being stolen.

"There the frames were apparently removed from the paintings and later taken to Romania," police said.

The 19-year-old was one of several people living in the house at the time.

Dutch police last year released grainy security camera footage of the theft, which took place about 3am.

The footage showed two apparently young males entering and leaving the museum in central Rotterdam within barely 90 seconds.

The works stolen include Picasso's Tete d'Arlequin, Monet's Waterloo Bridge and Lucian Freud's Woman with Eyes Closed.

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Fake bishop tries to sneak into Vatican

AN Italian man dressed up in fake ecclesiastical robes has been escorted out of a meeting of Catholic cardinals by Swiss Guards after trying to sneak into the closed-door Vatican meeting.

The man told reporters his name was "Basilius" and he was a member of the "Italian Orthodox Church", which does not exist.

Before he was discovered, the "bishop" told reporters that Catholic bishops had "made a mistake by moving priests" who were accused of pedophilia around different parishes.

He was wearing a purple scarf around his waist that was similar to the sashes warn by senior Catholic prelates and he shook hands and chatted with priests and cardinals arriving at the meeting on Monday.

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US stocks slip after launch of budget cuts

US stocks have opened modestly lower as traders remained cautious after Washington moved into austerity mode with the launch of the steep sequester spending cuts.

Ten minutes into trade on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 40.63 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 14,049.03.

The broad-based S&P 500 lost 2.68 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 1,515.52.

The Nasdaq Composite slipped 4.98 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 3,164.76.

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Frostbitten explorer Fiennes back home

BRITISH explorer Ranulph Fiennes showed off a heavily bandaged hand as he returned home following his evacuation from Antarctica with severe frostbite, and vowed to help the team he left out there.

The 68-year-old said it was "extremely frustrating" to be pulled off the trip, which if successful would have meant him had become among the first people to ski across the world's coldest continent in winter.

He insisted the remaining five members of his team would succeed in their quest to be the first men to conquer Antarctica in winter, and said he would focus on helping them raise their target of $US10 million ($A9.85 million) for charity.

"I'm not good at crying over spilt milk or split fingers," Fiennes told journalists at London's Heathrow Airport on Monday after flying in from South Africa, where he received several days of treatment on his frostbitten left hand.

"I started work on this expedition five years ago. I've been working on it, and nothing else, full time and unpaid - so it is definitely frustrating, but unavoidable," he said.

"I will make the best of it by putting my focus full time onto the expedition team - which of course is going on."

The team are making the epic trek in a vehicle dubbed the Ice Train, made from two snow tractors dragging carriages for scientific research, storage and accommodation.

They are set to start the winter crossing on March 20. The six-month journey via the South Pole will be mostly in darkness.

Fiennes told AFP he will probably not attempt to ski across Antarctica again.

"I probably won't because it takes a long time to set up," he said, adding that he would be unlikely to get fresh permission for the challenge because he could "die and become embarrassing to the British government".

The explorer, who is taking strong painkillers for his injuries, said the pain of frostbite "has to be experienced to be believed".

He famously sawed off the fingertips of the same hand himself after suffering severe frostbite on an expedition more than a decade ago.

"I had every reason to suspect that the damage from 13 years ago had completely gone," he told AFP.

He explained he had had no problems with the hand on recent expeditions, so the new bout of frostbite "was very bad luck indeed".

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Slim, Gates, Ortega are world's richest

MEXICAN tycoon Carlos Slim, Microsoft's Bill Gates and Zara fashion house boss Amancio Ortega of Spain have topped the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest billionaires.

Gina Rinehart is the highest-ranked Australian, coming in at number 36 with $US17 billion ($A16.75 billion), followed by Rupert Murdoch at 91 with $US11.2 billion.

James Packer ranks 198th with $US6 billion, Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest is 211th with $US5.7 billion, Frank Lowy is 229th with $US5.3 billion and Harry Triguboff is 276th with $US4.5 billion, according to the business magazine.

Slim, who controls Latin American telecommunications power America Movil and retail/industrial group Grupo Carso, came in first among the mega-rich for the fourth straight year, with a fortune estimated at $US73 billion, up $US4 billion from a year ago.

Microsoft chairman Gates, a perennial top finisher in the list, placed second with $US67 billion, up $US8 billion from 2012.

Ortega, whose Inditex fashion group includes the popular Zara chain, vaulted from the seventh position into the third spot. His wealth is now estimated at $US57 billion, rocketing from $US31 billion a year ago.

Slim and Gates were also in the top two spots last year.

Warren Buffett, chief of US conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, ranked fourth with $US53.5 billion, and Larry Ellison, chief executive of US technology company Oracle, rated fifth with $US43 billion.

Asia's richest man, Li Ka-shing, came in eighth with $US31 billion. He owes his fortune to his sprawling transportation, trading and energy businesses.

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