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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SpaceX capsule arrives at space station

A PRIVATELY owned Dragon capsule has arrived at the International Space Station, delivering a tonne of supplies with high-flying finesse after a shaky start to the mission.

The Dragon's arrival was one day late but especially sweet - and not because of the fresh fruit on board for the station astronauts who snared the capsule.

SpaceX, the California-based company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, had to struggle with the Dragon following its launch on Friday from Cape Canaveral. A clogged pressure line or stuck valve prevented thrusters from working, and it took flight controllers several hours to gain control and salvage the mission.

In the end, the Dragon approached the orbiting lab with its load about as smoothly as could be expected, with all of its thrusters, or little manoeuvring rockets, operating perfectly. The capture occurred as the two spacecraft zoomed 400km above Ukraine.

"As they say, it's not where you start, but where you finish that counts," space station commander Kevin Ford said, "and you guys really finished this one on the mark."

Among the items on board: 640 seeds of a flowering weed used for research, mouse stem cells, food and clothes for the six men on board the space station, garbage bags, computer equipment, air purifiers, spacewalking tools and batteries. The company also tucked away apples and other fresh treats from an employee's family orchard.

The Dragon will remain at the space station for most of March before returning to Earth with science samples, empty food containers and old equipment.

SpaceX - Space Exploration Technologies Corp - has a $US1.6 billion ($A1.58 billion) contract with NASA to keep the station well stocked.

Musk, who helped create PayPal, acknowledged the problem was "frightening", but believed it was a one-time glitch.

The 41-year-old entrepreneur, who also runs the electric car maker Tesla, oversaw the entire operation from Hawthorne, California, home to SpaceX and the company's Mission Control.

The Dragon's splashdown in the Pacific remains on schedule for March 25.

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Hundreds die in Syria police academy fight

HUNDREDS of Syrian troops and rebels have been killed in a week-long battle for a police academy in the northern province of Aleppo, with insurgents seizing control of most of the complex, a monitoring group says.

"Rebels have seized most of a police academy in Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province ... after eight days of fighting that left 200 troops and rebels dead," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based group said at least 120 army troops were among those killed in the battle for one of the regime's last remaining bastions in the west of Aleppo province. On Sunday alone, rebels killed more than 34 troops at the facility.

A police source in Aleppo confirmed that much of the academy had fallen into rebel hands, reporting that 40 security forces were believed dead. As many as 300 rebels were among those killed, he said.

Elsewhere, two mortars hit an area near Umayyad square in the heart of Damascus, close to a duty-free zone and customs offices, Syrian state media said, reporting only material damage.

The affected area is home to the state television building, the Assad Library and the army general command headquarters.

The Observatory reported that three mortar rounds smashed into the area, which was hit last year by a car bombing claimed by the jihadist Al-Nusra Front. On February 21, two mortar rounds hit the same area.

Also on Sunday, rebels in the southern province of Daraa seized an artillery battalion in Jamla village near the armistice line with Israel, according to the Observatory.

Eight rebel fighters were killed in the battle, the group said, adding the insurgents summarily executed the commander of the captured battalion.

In an unprecedented escalation of violence in the coastal province of Latakia, a regime stronghold, at least 15 rebel fighters were killed in a battle against troops, the Observatory said.

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