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Ahad, 3 Mac 2013

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AmBank issues 5 new call warrants

Posted: 03 Mar 2013 06:09 PM PST

AmBank (M) Bhd is issuing five new European-style cash-settled structured call warrants over the ordinary shares of AEON Co.(M) Bhd (AEON), Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd (CARLSBG), Parkson
Holdings Bhd (PARKSON), QL Resources Bhd (QL) and SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd (SKPETRO).

In a statement today, AmBank said the warrants will be listed for trading on March 5, 2013, via the market making method, with issue size of up to 100 million each and tenures of approximately 12 months.

AmInvestment Bank Bhd Director/Head (Equity Derivatives), Ng Ee Fang, said this would be despite the current political uncertainty and consequent risk-off pervading the equity markets as Malaysia prepares itself for the much anticipated coming general election.

She said Malaysia's fourth quarter 2012 gross domestic product growth powered on to surprise on the upside at 6.4 per cent year-on-year compared to average analysts' estimates of only 5.5 per cent.


"The strong growth came on the back of resilient public and private sector investment as well as domestic consumption."

She said consumer spending continued to be robust, up 6.1 per cent y-o-y, driven by the government's various cash assistance initiatives and a low unemployment rate.

"For AmBank's upcoming tranche of warrants, AmBank will be offering call warrants over consumer or consumer-related counters AEON, CARLSBG, PARKSON, QL, and SKPETRO," Ng added.

"Besides that, AmBank will also be offering a call warrant over SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd which is well positioned to secure further contracts overseas to add to its large domestic order book," she added.

"This offer is aimed at sophisticated traders who want to trade on the direction and volatility of AEON, CARLSBG, PARKSON, QL and SKPETRO," AmBank said.

It said the warrants have gearings ranging from 2.93 to 6.69 and are targeted at investors who want to enjoy leveraged exposure to the underlying stocks.

AmBAnk said all the five call warrants are priced at 15 sen each, with varying gearings -- AEON of 2.93 times, CARLSBG 4.08 times, PARKSON 6.25 times, QL 6.69 times and SKPETRO 4.78 times.

AmBank Group is one of the largest banking groups in Malaysia by market capitalisation and comprises AMMB Holdings Bhd and its subsidiaries AmInvestment Bank Bhd, AmInvestment Group Bhd, AmBank (M) Bhd, AmIslamic Bank Bhd, AmG Insurance Bhd and AmLife Insurance Bhd.

The group provides a wide range of conventional and Islamic banking and financial solutions.-- Bernama

Lynas COO to assume CEO from April

Posted: 03 Mar 2013 06:18 PM PST

MELBOURNE: Mining company Lynas will have a new chief executive from April as it ramps up its production of rare earths products, especially in Kuantan.

Eric Noyez, the company's chief operating officer and president, will be appointed to the Lynas board and become its chief executive on March 31, Lynas said in a statement Monday.

He previously worked as a senior manager with French chemicals group Rhodia and Shell.

Current Lynas chief executive Nicholas Curtis will remain on the board as non-executive chairman.

The change reflects Lynas' recent transition from a developer to a producer of rare earths products as its Malaysian plant began making its first products for sale in February.

Lynas mines rare earths -- metallic elements used in products ranging from digital televisions, mp3 players and fluorescent light bulbs -- at Mount Weld in Western Australia.-- Bernama

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Sinkhole house: Work crew begins tearing down structure - Chicago Tribune

Posted: 03 Mar 2013 08:42 AM PST

Work crews on Sunday began tearing down the home where a sinkhole swallowed a man Thursday night. (March 3)

SEFFNER, Fla. -- A wrecking crew on Sunday started demolishing the home of a man who disappeared into a sinkhole that swallowed his bedroom while he slept, after rescue workers gave up searching for his body on Saturday night.

Jeff Bush, a 36-year-old landscaper, had disappeared into the hole Thursday night and was presumed dead.

As family and friends stood silently across the street, demolition workers using a long-necked boom crane started to tear down the one-story suburban Tampa home at about 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT) because of its dangerous condition.

The crane swung forward toward the house after several loud beeps. Some onlookers took pictures and rubbed each other's backs.

Bush was presumed dead after vanishing into the sinkhole that opened suddenly beneath his room. Five other people in the house were getting ready for bed when they heard a loud crash and Bush screaming.

Before the demolition started, Jeff Bush's brother, Jeremy, was escorted by a deputy sheriff to the mailbox at the start of the driveway. He knelt down and put flowers on the ground, bowed his head for a few minutes before getting up and retreating behind police tape.

Jeremy Bush himself was rescued after jumping into the hole and furiously digging in an effort to find his brother.

Norman Wicker, whose family owned the house and is the father to Jeremy's fiancée, said he grew up in it. "It's horrible … my children were raised in that house, my grandchildren were raised in that house," he said.

The risk of sinkholes is common in Florida due to the state's porous geological bedrock, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

As rainwater filters down into the ground, it dissolves the rock, causing erosion that can lead to underground caverns, which cause sinkholes when they collapse.

Two nearby houses have been evacuated because the sinkhole has weakened the ground under them, and their residents probably will never be allowed inside again, Jessica Damico of Hillsborough County Fire Rescue said on Saturday.

These residents were allowed 20 to 30 minutes in their homes on Saturday to gather belongings.

Boehner Doesn't See Path Out of Sequester - Wall Street Journal (blog)

Posted: 03 Mar 2013 09:07 AM PST

By Jessica Holzer

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said he and President Barack Obama made no headway on a deal to shut off the automatic budget cuts known as the sequester that kicked in on Friday, and acknowledged in an interview that he doesn't know how it will be resolved.

Mr. Boehner, in a television interview with NBC's David Gregory that was taped Friday and aired Sunday, said he and Mr. Obama had "a very nice, polite discussion" during a meeting at the White House on Friday but failed to identify a way to resolve the budget impasse.

"In the end, you don't really see a pathway here that's open as you sit here," said Mr. Gregory on NBC's "Meet the Press" television show.
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Sabtu, 2 Mac 2013

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Sequester blame game continues as government shutdown looms - CBS News

Posted: 02 Mar 2013 09:21 AM PST

President Obama on Saturday called for a "caucus of common sense" to step forward and stop the sequester, which began cutting $85 billion of federal spending out of the economy on Friday.

Play Video

Sequester to affect all federal agencies

"I know there are Republicans in Congress who would rather see tax loopholes closed than let these cuts go through," he said in his weekly address. "And I know there are Democrats who'd rather do smart entitlement reform than let these cuts go through. There's a caucus of common sense. And I'm going to keep reaching out to them to fix this for good."

The deadline to avoid the across the board cuts outright came and went on Friday evening, as Mr. Obama officially signed the sequester into effect. Both parties blamed each other for the failure to secure a deal before the deadline, and the finger-pointing continued Saturday.

The sequester "took effect because President Obama and Senate Democrats failed to act," Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. and a member of House GOP leadership, said in the Republicans' weekly address. "In the last year, the House of Representatives has passed two proposals to replace the president's sequester with smarter spending cuts," but that the president's desire to "continue singling Americans out for tax increases" prevented Democrats from passing a "responsible plan to replace" the sequester.

"The president must stop using this debate as an excuse to raise taxes," she said, "and start seizing this opportunity to cut spending."

Play Video

Americans to feel sequester cuts in few weeks

Mr. Obama, for his part, pinned the blame squarely on Republican obstinacy, accusing the GOP of protecting tax loopholes for the rich at the expense of middle-class families.

"None of this is necessary," the president said. "It's happening because Republicans in Congress chose this outcome over closing a single wasteful tax loophole that helps reduce the deficit. Just this week, they decided that protecting special-interest tax breaks for the well-off and well-connected is more important than protecting our military and middle-class families from these cuts."

And "while not everyone will feel the pain of these cuts right away," Mr. Obama said, "the pain will be real."

Instead of submitting to the "perpetual partisanship and brinksmanship," the president suggested, "we can and must replace these cuts with a balanced approach" that combines targeted spending cuts with entitlement reform and closes tax loopholes.

"This is America," he said, "and in America, we don't careen from one manufactured crisis to another. We make smart choices."

Bipartisan leaders from the House and Senate met with President Obama at the White House Friday to continue negotiations before he officially signed the cuts into effect.

No agreement emerged, but both parties forged on, already looking ahead to the next fiscal fight. A temporary budgetary measure funding the government expires March 27, and if the parties cannot reach an agreement on continued funding by then, the government will shut down.

Despite the potential for another bout of budgetary drama, the president and House Speaker John Boehner each signaled after their meeting on Friday that a government shutdown looks unlikely.

"With respect to the budget and keeping the government open," Mr. Obama said, "what's called the continuing resolution, which is essentially just an extension of last year's budget into this year's budget to make sure those basic government functions continue - I think that's the right thing to do to make sure that we don't have a government shutdown. And that's preventable."

Boehner said, "The House is going to move a continuing resolution next week to fund the government past March 27th, and I'm hopeful that we won't have to deal with the threat of a government shutdown while we're dealing with the sequester at the same time. The House will act next week, and I hope the Senate will follow suit."

Growth of Sinkhole That Devoured Florida Man Threatens More Destruction - New York Times

Posted: 02 Mar 2013 09:17 AM PST

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 2, 2013

SEFFNER, Fla. (AP) — Engineers worked gingerly on Saturday to find out more about a slowly growing sinkhole that had swallowed a Florida man in his bedroom, believing the entire house could succumb to the unstable ground.

Jeff Bush, 37, was in his bedroom on Thursday night when the earth opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five other people were in the house but escaped unharmed. Mr. Bush's brother jumped into the hole to try to help, but he had to be rescued by a sheriff's deputy.

Engineers returned to the property on Saturday morning to do more tests after taking soil samples and running tests there all day Friday. They said the entire lot was dangerous, and no one was allowed in the house.

"I cannot tell you why it has not collapsed yet," said Bill Bracken, the owner of an engineering company called to assess the sinkhole. He described the earth below as a "very large, very fluid mass."

"This is not your typical sinkhole," said Michael Merrill, the Hillsborough County administrator. "This is a chasm. For that reason, we're being very deliberate."

The hole had grown to 20 feet deep and 30 feet wide by Friday night, and officials said it was still expanding and "seriously unstable."

Officials delicately addressed another sad reality: Mr. Bush was likely dead, and the family wanted his body.

"They would like us to go in quickly and locate Mr. Bush," Mr. Merrill said.

Two neighboring houses were evacuated, and officials were considering further evacuations. Members of the media were moved from a lawn across the street to a safer area a few hundred feet away.

"This is a very complex situation," said the Hillsborough County fire chief, Ron Rogers. "It's continuing to evolve, and the ground is continuing to collapse."

Sinkholes are so common in Florida that the state requires home insurers to provide coverage against the danger. While some cars, homes and other buildings have been devoured, it is extremely rare for a sinkhole to swallow a person.

Florida is highly prone to sinkholes because of the underground prevalence of limestone, a porous rock that easily dissolves in water, creating caverns.

"You can almost envision a piece of Swiss cheese," Taylor Yarkosky, a sinkhole expert from Brooksville, Fla., said while gesturing to the ground and the sky-blue house where the earth opened in Seffner. "Any house in Florida could be in that same situation."

A sinkhole near Orlando grew to 400 feet across in 1981 and devoured five cars, most of two businesses, a three-bedroom house and the deep end of an Olympic-size swimming pool.

More than 500 sinkholes have been reported in Hillsborough County alone since the government started keeping track in 1954, according to the state's environmental agency.

The sinkhole that swallowed Mr. Bush caused the home's concrete floor to cave in around 11 p.m. Thursday as everyone in the Tampa-area house was turning in for the night. It gave way with a loud crash that sounded like a car hitting the house and brought Mr. Bush's brother, Jeremy, running.

Jeremy Bush said he had jumped into the hole but could not see his brother before the ground crumbled around him. A sheriff's deputy reached out and pulled him to safety.

"The floor was still giving in and the dirt was still going down, but I didn't care — I wanted to save my brother," Jeremy Bush said through tears Friday in a neighbor's yard. "But I just couldn't do nothing."

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Jumaat, 1 Mac 2013

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KL shares to rise on external leads

Posted: 01 Mar 2013 07:31 PM PST

Bursa Malaysia is expected to see share prices rise higher next week, given February's positive performance and external development, dealers said.

They said positive news including the earlier-than-expected third round of quantitative easing measures and the US budget deal deadlock brought cheer to investors.

"The latest signs of monetary easing by the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve's hint that there will be no-early-exit from easing have comforted the bulls," said Affin Investment Bank Head of Retail Research Dr Nazri Khan.

This latest development also encouraged risk-taking sentiment and helped drive stocks towards its recent highs.

"With the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) closing above the 1,630 points resistance level, we believe the market has a bullish tilt this week.

"The next support should come at the 1,620 and 1,600 levels while strong resistance should appear at 1,650 and 1,680 levels, respectively," he said.

Dr Nazri said banks, properties and REITs should be investors' favourites.

UEMLand, KLCC Properties, Sunway, HLFG, AFG, MBSB, Bursa, PavReit, AxisReit, SunReit and HektarReit are among stocks to watch for their strong near-term upside, he said.

For the week just-ended, finance and properties continued to be the strongest sectors.

The FBM KCLI showed a wild ride over the last 20 trading days with the index hovering over 30 points.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the FBM KLCI rose 15.36 points to 1,637.44 compared with last Friday's 1,622.08.

The Finance Index added 237.78 points to 15,163.95, the Industrial Index rose 23.93 points to 2,807.44 but the Plantation Index was 37.78 points lower at 7,865.11.

The FBM Emas Index increased 121.76 points to 11,144.27, the FBMT100 advanced 120.14 points to 10,997.78, the FBM ACE Index gained 49.53 points to 3,990.41 and the FBM 70 Index surged 211.26 points to 12,185.59.

The weekly turnover slipped to 4.43 billion, worth RM7.76 billion, versus last week's 5.02 billion units valued at RM7 billion.

The Main Market volume declined to 3.461 billion shares, worth RM7.663 billion, last week's 3.689 billion shares worth RM6.849 billion.

The ACE market volume fell to 845 million shares, valued at RM1.615 billion, from 1.207 billion shares, worth RM11.097 million, recorded last week.

Warrants rose to 125 million units, worth RM8.111 million, versus 116.862 million units, valued at RM6.789 million, recorded previously. -- BERNAMA

Narrow range trading for ringgit

Posted: 01 Mar 2013 07:33 PM PST

The ringgit is expected to trade within a narrow range next week due to the uncertain global economic environment and lack of local impetus but has the potential to appreciate further on positive economic indicators, dealers said.

"In our view, the ringgit will likely gradually gain strength after the uncertainties clear out and on account of the sustained large current account surplus in the balance of payments.

"With stable capital flows, the ringgit is fundamentally supported at around RM3.00 against the greenback," said RHB Research in a note.

In the near-term the movement of the ringgit would be stuck in a range bound trading pattern and its direction will continue to be determined by the flows of capital, influenced by development in the euro-debt crisis and the US economy.

Throughout the week, the ringgit experienced volatile trade influenced by uncertainties over the US fiscal policy and uncertainties in Italy's political development.

The local unit closed the week at 3.0950/0980 against the US dollar, up from 3.1005/1025, recorded last Friday.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the ringgit was mostly higher against other major currencies.

It rose against the Singapore dollar to 2.5010/5042 from 2.5040/5065 the previous week, declined against the yen to 3.3402/3441 from 3.3192/3228, improved against the British pound to 4.6951/7009 from 4.7338/7381 and rose versus the euro to 4.0470/0519 from 4.0982/0012 last Friday. -- BERNAMA

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Obama, Party Leaders Remain at Impasse Over Sequester - Wall Street Journal

Posted: 01 Mar 2013 09:31 AM PST

BY ANDREW ACKERMAN

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama said Friday the $85 billion in "dumb, arbitrary" automatic budget cuts known as the sequester will move ahead following no progress in talks, and continued to blame Republican opposition to new tax revenues as the main obstacle to a deal.

In a press briefing with reporters following a meeting with top congressional lawmakers, Mr. Obama said he has gained little traction with Republicans over a plan that he says calls for "serious" spending cuts and entitlement changes, as well as additional tax revenue, and that "goes right to the heart of our long-term deficit problem." Republicans counter ...

Sinkhole under house swallows Florida man - Chicago Tribune

Posted: 01 Mar 2013 09:34 AM PST

Brother of sinkhole victim talks to reporters at the scene.

TAMPA, Fla. -- A 36-year-old Florida man was feared dead on Friday after a sinkhole suddenly opened beneath the bedroom of his suburban Tampa home swallowing him, police and fire officials said.

Rescuers responded to a 911 call late on Thursday after the man's family reported hearing a loud crash in the house and rushed to his bedroom.

"All they could see was a part of a mattress sticking out of the hole," said Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Chief Ron Rogers. "Essentially the floor of that room had opened up."

A sheriff deputy who arrived at the scene rescued the man's brother who jumped in the sinkhole and tried to rescue him. Three other adults and a child were in the house at the time the sinkhole opened up.

"I feel in my heart he didn't make it," the brother, Jeremy Bush, told Tampa TV station WFTS. "There were six of us in the house, five got out."

Bush said he thought he heard his brother scream for help.

"I didn't see any part of him when I went in there," he said. "I told my father-in-law to grab a shovel and I started digging. Then the cops showed up and pulled me out of the hole and told me the floor was still falling in."

Authorities have not been able to contact the missing man and ordered the evacuation of several nearby homes out of concern the sinkhole is continuing to grow.

Bill Bracken, the head of an engineering company assisting rescuers, said the sinkhole was as much as 30 feet (9 meters) in diameter and 20 feet (6 meters) deep.

"It started in the bedroom and it has been expanding outward and it's taking the house with it as it opens up," Bracken said.

The risk of sinkholes is common in the state due to its porous geological bedrock, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection said.

As rainwater filters down it dissolves the rock causing erosion that can lead to underground caverns, which cause sinkholes when they collapse.

Rogers said officials lowered listening devices and cameras into the hole but had so far not detected any signs of life.

Rescue efforts were suspended on Friday over concerns about the house's stability, Rogers said.
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Khamis, 28 Februari 2013

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IMF sees Malaysia growing 5pc

Posted: 28 Feb 2013 05:49 PM PST

Malaysia's improving exports and domestic demand will help the economy expand 5 per cent this year, even as general elections may fuel market volatility, according to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff forecast.

The national vote, which must be held by late June, is among risks to the country's outlook, IMF economists said in the report assessing the country's economy released in Washington late yesterday.

The main threats to growth are external, including a slowdown in China, it said.

"The next general election must be held by June 2013, but has been expected since 2011, leading to a pre-election political climate for the past two years or so," the IMF staff wrote. The elections "could lead to some market volatility," they said.

Malaysia's economy grew at the fastest pace since 2010 in the three months through December from a year earlier as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak boosted spending ahead of the ballot. Najib, whose ruling coalition won the 2008 vote by its narrowest margin in five decades, must dissolve parliament by April 28 for polls to be held within 60 days.

The IMF growth forecast is in line with the government's prediction of 4.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent.-- Bloomberg

Facebook buys Microsoft ad technology

Posted: 28 Feb 2013 06:56 PM PST

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook Inc said on Thursday it had agreed to buy advertising technology from Microsoft Corp that measures the effectiveness of ads on its website, which should help in its fight with Google Inc for online advertising revenue.

Under the long-rumored transaction, Facebook will purchase the Atlas Advertiser Suite, an ad management and measurement platform that Microsoft took on with its US$6.3 billion acquisition of digital ad agency aQuantive in 2007. Facebook did not say how much it paid for the technology.

Unable to make it work for its own purposes, Microsoft wrote off US$6.2 billion of the aQuantive deal's value last year.

Facebook has long been dogged by doubts about the effectiveness of its ads and was embarrassed just days before its initial public offering in May when General Motors Co declared it was pulling the plug on all paid advertising on Facebook's network.

Since then, Facebook has introduced a number of tools and partnerships to prove to marketers that advertising on its social network delivers enough bang for the buck.

Brian Boland, Facebook's director of monetization product marketing, said the purchase of Atlas was not a step toward creating a much wider ad network beyond the Facebook site, but analysts believe that is Facebook's ultimate goal.

"Although the statement announcing the deal focused on Atlas' measurement tools rather than its ad targeting technology, we expect that Atlas will soon be using Facebook's data to target sponsorships, in-stream ads, and other rich ad formats across the entire web, and that's big news," said Forrester analyst Nate Elliott.

"The question now is how quickly and successfully Facebook can integrate its data with Atlas' tools, and whether they can avoid a privacy backlash as they do so. History suggests they'll struggle on both counts," he said.

Google leads the US$15 billion US market for online display ads with 15.4 per cent share, according to researcher eMarketer, followed by Facebook with 14.4 per cent.-- Reuters

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Pope Benedict XVI leaves Vatican for final time ahead of resignation - Fox News

Posted: 28 Feb 2013 09:30 AM PST

Pope Benedict XVI left the Vatican for the last time as pontiff on Thursday and flew by helicopter to Castel Gandolfo, where he made his final public speech in front of a cheering crowd.

As his closest aide wept by his side, Benedict bade farewell to Vatican officials gathered in the San Damaso courtyard of the Apostolic Palace, a corps of Swiss Guards standing by at attention.

Benedict then traveled by car to the helipad on the top of the hill of the Vatican gardens and boarded a helicopter along with his secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, for the 15-minute trip to Castel Gandolfo.

Bells tolled as they took off and circled St. Peter's Square, where well-wishers held up signs saying "Thank You."

When Benedict landed in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, a crowd in the town's square started cheering and waving flags, chanting, "Benedetto, Benedetto" in rhythm.

"I am simply a pilgrim who is starting the last part of his journey," Benedict told them in his final public speech. 

The crowd shouted back "Long live the pope!"

At Castel Gandolfo at 8 p.m. sharp, Benedict will become the first pontiff in 600 years to resign. The Swiss Guards standing at attention will go into the palazzo and shut the doors behind them and go off duty, their service protecting the head of the Catholic Church over -- for now.

Vatican spokesman  Rev. Federico Lombardi said the guards would change into civilian clothes and return to the Vatican barracks Thursday night. They will continue to guard the entrances of Vatican City and the pope's palace, "even if he's not there," said Cpl. Urs Breitenmoser, a Swiss Guard spokesman.

And on Monday, the cardinals are expected to begin meeting to set the date for the conclave.

At the Vatican earlier Thursday, Benedict held his final audience with his cardinals and pledged his "unconditional reverence and obedience" to his successor, a poignant and powerful message to close out his eight-year pontificate.

In an unexpected address inside the Vatican's frescoed Clementine Hall, the pope appeared to be trying to defuse concerns about his future role and the possible conflicts arising from the peculiar situation of having both a reigning pope and a retired one.

Benedict also gave a final set of instructions to the "princes" of the church who will elect his successor, urging them to be united as they huddle to choose the 266th leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.

"May the College of Cardinals work like an orchestra, where diversity -- an expression of the universal church -- always works toward a higher and harmonious agreement," he said.

It was seen as a clear reference to the deep internal divisions that have come to the fore in recent months following the leaks of sensitive Vatican documents that exposed power struggles and allegations of corruption inside the Vatican.

The audience inside the Apostolic Palace was as unique as Benedict's decision to quit, with the 85-year-old pope, wearing his crimson velvet cape and using a cane, bidding farewell to his closest advisers and the cardinals themselves bowing to kiss his fisherman's ring for the last time.

Some seemed to choke up at that moment, and a few lingered on to chat with the pope for as long as they could. But the scene seemed otherwise almost normal, with cardinals chatting on the sidelines waiting their turn to say goodbye.

Benedict said he would pray for the cardinals in coming days as they discuss the issues facing the church, the qualities needed in a new pope, and prepare to enter into the secret conclave to elect him.

"Among you is also the future pope, whom I today promise my unconditional reverence and obedience," Benedict told the cardinals.

Benedict's decision to live at the Vatican in retirement, be called "emeritus pope" and "Your Holiness" and wear the white cassock associated with the papacy has deepened concerns about the shadow he might cast over the next papacy.

But Benedict has tried to address those worries over the past two weeks, saying that once retired he would be "hidden from the world" and living a life of prayer.

In his final speech in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday, he said he wasn't returning to private life exactly, but rather to a new form of service to the church through prayer.

And on Thursday he went even further with his own public pledge of obedience to the new pontiff.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope's pledge was in keeping with this effort to "explain how he intends to live this unprecedented situation of an emeritus pope."

"He has no intention of interfering in the position or the decisions or the activity of his successor," Lombardi said. "But as every member of the church, he says fully that he recognizes the authority of the supreme pastor of the church who will be elected to succeed him."

The issue of papal obedience is important for Benedict. In his last legal document, he made new provisions for cardinals to make a formal, public pledge of obedience to the new pope at his installation Mass, in addition to the private one they traditionally make inside the Sistine Chapel immediately after he is elected.

Benedict's decision to resign has been met for the most part with praise and understanding. Cardinals, Vatican officials and ordinary Catholics have rallied around him in acknowledgment of his frail state and the church's need for a strong leader.

But Sydney Cardinal George Pell has caused a stir by openly saying the resignation has been "slightly destabilizing" for the church.

In an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp., Pell noted that Benedict himself had acknowledged the shift in tradition; Benedict said Wednesday that he appreciated his decision was not only serious but "a novelty" for the church.

Pell also said the church was in sore need of a strong manager -- comments echoed by several cardinals who have noted the 30-year reign of two popes who paid scant attention to the internal governance of the church.

The Vatican tried to downplay Pell's comments, saying it wouldn't respond to individual cardinals and urging the media not to take advantage of churchmen who, he said, aren't necessarily media savvy.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related Images

  • Feb. 28, 2013: The helicopter taking Pope Benedict XVI to Castel Gandolfo leaves the Vatican in Rome. Shortly before 5 p.m. on Thursday, Pope Benedict left the Apostolic palace inside the Vatican for the last time as pontiff, headed to the helipad at the top of the hill in the Vatican gardens and flew to the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo south of Rome.

  • Feb. 28, 2013: Pope Benedict XVI speaking to a crowd from a balcony at Castel Gandolfo, where he will reside.

  • Feb. 24, 2013: Pope Benedict XVI delivers his blessing during his last Angelus noon prayer, from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican.

Bradley Manning enters guilty pleas in WikiLeaks case - CBS News

Posted: 28 Feb 2013 09:11 AM PST

Updated at 12:14 p.m. ET

FORT MEADE, Md. An Army private charged in the biggest leak of classified material in U.S. history offered guilty pleas Thursday to 10 of 22 charges against him and a military judge said she would allow the soldier to read a statement explaining his actions.

"I believe that if the general public ... had access to the information ... this could spark a domestic debate as to the role of the military and foreign policy in general," Manning said in court, according to the Reuters news service.

Pfc. Bradley Manning would plead guilty to sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, in violation of military regulations but not in violation of federal espionage laws.

The judge, Col. Denise Lind, must decide whether to accept the guilty pleas, which could carry a sentence of 20 years in prison. Prosecutors could still pursue a court-martial on the remaining charges, including aiding the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence.

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WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning

The 25-year-old Manning is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports, State Department diplomatic cables, other classified records and two battlefield video clips to WikiLeaks in 2009 and 2010 while working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad.

The Obama administration has said releasing the information threatened valuable military and diplomatic sources and strained America's relations with other governments. Experts say that by seeking to punish Manning, the administration is sending a strong message that such leaks will not be tolerated.

Manning supporters — who held events Saturday to mark his 1,000 days in confinement — consider him a whistleblowing hero whose actions exposed war crimes and helped trigger the Middle Eastern pro-democracy uprisings known as the Arab Spring in late 2010.

On Tuesday, it was revealed that Manning has submitted a written statement about the leak and the motive behind it that he wanted to read in court during Thursday's hearing. Prosecutors objected to the statement, but the judge said Thursday she would allow him to read it.

Manning has won few significant victories in his lengthy pretrial proceedings, which included testimony from the soldier about how he was deprived of his clothing and told to stand at attention naked while on suicide watch at the maximum-security Marine Corps brig at Quantico, Va. He has since been transferred to medium-security confinement at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

The judge ruled that Manning was illegally punished for part of the time he spent at Quantico and that 112 days should be cut from any prison sentence he receives if convicted.
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