Pope's sudden resignation sends shockwaves through Church

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict stunned the Roman Catholic Church on Monday when he announced he would stand down, the first pope to do so in 700 years, saying he no longer had the mental and physical strength to carry on.

Church officials tried to relay a climate of calm confidence in the running of a 2,000-year-old institution, but the decision could lead to uncertainty in a Church already besieged by scandal for covering up sexual abuse of children by priests.

The soft-spoken German, who always maintained that he never wanted to be pope, was an uncompromising conservative on social and theological issues, fighting what he regarded as the increasing secularization of society.

It remains to be seen whether his successor will continue such battles or do more to bend with the times.

Despite his firm opposition to tolerance of homosexual acts, his eight year reign saw gay marriage accepted in many countries. He has staunchly resisted allowing women to be ordained as priests and opposed embryonic stem cell research, although he retreated slightly from the position that condoms could never be used to fight AIDS.

He repeatedly apologized for the Church's failure to root out child abuse by priests, but critics said he did too little and the efforts failed to stop a rapid decline in Church attendance in the West, especially in his native Europe.

In addition to child sexual abuse crises, his papacy saw the Church rocked by and Muslim anger after he compared Islam to violence. Jews were upset over rehabilitation of a Holocaust denier. During a scandal over the Church's business dealings, his butler was accused of leaking his private papers.

In an announcement read to cardinals in Latin, the universal language of the Church, the 85-year-old said: "Well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of St Peter ...

"As from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours (1900 GMT) the See of Rome, the See of St. Peter will be vacant and a conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is."

POPE DOESN'T FEAR SCHISM

Benedict is expected to go into isolation for at least a while after his resignation. Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Benedict did not intend to influence the decision of the cardinals in a secret conclave to elect a successor.

A new leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics could be elected as soon as Palm Sunday, on March 24, and be ready to take over by Easter a week later, Lombardi said.

Several popes in the past, including Benedict's predecessor John Paul, have refrained from stepping down over their health, because of the division that could be caused by having an "ex-pope" and a reigning pope alive at the same time.

Lombardi said the pope did not fear a possible "schism", with Catholics owing allegiances to a past and present pope in case of differences on Church teachings.

He indicated the complex machinery of the process to elect a new pope would move quickly because the Vatican would not have to wait until after the elaborate funeral services for a pope.

Father Tom Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, said the Church would deal with the unusual situation.

"The confusion will be short term after people get over the shock. Once he resigns, Church law takes over just as it would if he had died. A conclave will be called and a new pope will be elected," Reese told Reuters.

It is not clear if Benedict will have a public life after he resigns. Lombardi said Benedict would first go to the papal summer residence south of Rome and then move into a cloistered convent inside the Vatican walls.

The resignation means that cardinals from around the world will begin arriving in Rome in March and after preliminary meetings, lock themselves in a secret conclave and elect the new pope from among themselves in votes in the Sistine Chapel.

There has been growing pressure on the Church for it to choose a pope from the developing world to better reflect where most Catholics live and where the Church is growing.

The cardinals may also want a younger man. John Paul was 58 when he was elected in 1978. Benedict was 20 years older.

"We have had two intellectuals in a row, two academics, perhaps it is time for a diplomat," said Reese. "Rather than electing the smartest man in the room, they should elect the man who will listen to all the other smart people in the Church."

"GREAT COURAGE"

The last pope to resign willingly was Celestine V in 1294 after reigning for only five months, his resignation was known as "the great refusal" and was condemned by the poet Dante in the "Divine Comedy". Gregory XII reluctantly abdicated in 1415 to end a dispute with a rival claimant to the papacy.

Lombardi said Benedict's stepping aside showed "great courage". He ruled out any specific illness or depression and said the decision was made in the last few months "without outside pressure".

But the decision was not without controversy.

"This is disconcerting, he is leaving his flock," said Alessandra Mussolini, a parliamentarian who is granddaughter of Italy's wartime dictator. "The pope is not any man. He is the vicar of Christ. He should stay on to the end, go ahead and bear his cross to the end. This is a huge sign of world destabilization that will weaken the Church."

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, secretary to the late Pope John Paul, said the former pope had stayed on despite failing health for the last decade of his life as he believed "you cannot come down from the cross."

While the pope had slowed down recently - he started using a cane and a wheeled platform to take him up the long aisle in St Peter's Square - he had given no hint recently that he was considering such a dramatic decision.

Elected in 2005 to succeed the enormously popular John Paul, Benedict never appeared to feel comfortable in the job.

"MIND AND BODY"

In his announcement, the pope told the cardinals that in order to govern "... both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me."

Before he was elected pope, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was known as "God's rottweiler" for his stern stand on theological issues. After a few months, he showed a milder side but he never drew the kind of adulation that had marked the 27-year papacy of his predecessor John Paul.

U.S. President Barack Obama extended prayers to Benedict and best wishes to those who would choose his successor.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the pope's decision must be respected if he feels he is too weak to carry out his duties. British Prime Minister David Cameron said: "He will be missed as a spiritual leader to millions."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the worldwide Anglican communion, said he had learned of the pope's decision with a heavy heart but complete understanding.

CHEERS AND SCANDAL

Elected to the papacy on April 19, 2005, Benedict ruled over a slower-paced, more cerebral and less impulsive Vatican.

But while conservatives cheered him for trying to reaffirm traditional Catholic identity, his critics accused him of turning back the clock on reforms by nearly half a century and hurting dialogue with Muslims, Jews and other Christians.

After appearing uncomfortable in the limelight at the start, he began feeling at home with his new job and showed that he intended to be pope in his way.

Despite great reverence for his charismatic, globe-trotting predecessor -- whom he put on the fast track to sainthood and whom he beatified in 2011 -- aides said he was determined not to change his quiet manner to imitate John Paul's style.

A quiet, professorial type who relaxed by playing the piano, he showed the gentle side of a man who was the Vatican's chief doctrinal enforcer for nearly a quarter of a century.

The first German pope for some 1,000 years and the second non-Italian in a row, he traveled regularly, making about four foreign trips a year, but never managed to draw the oceanic crowds of his predecessor.

The child abuse scandals hounded most of his papacy. He ordered an official inquiry into abuse in Ireland, which led to the resignation of several bishops.

Scandal from a source much closer to home hit in 2012 when the pontiff's butler, responsible for dressing him and bringing him meals, was found to be the source of leaked documents alleging corruption in the Vatican's business dealings.

Benedict confronted his own country's past when he visited the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. Calling himself "a son of Germany", he prayed and asked why God was silent when 1.5 million victims, most of them Jews, were killed there.

Ratzinger served in the Hitler Youth during World War Two when membership was compulsory. He was never a member of the Nazi party and his family opposed Adolf Hitler's regime.

(Additional reporting by James Mackenzie, Barry Moody, Cristiano Corvino, Alexandra Hudson in Berlin, and Dagamara Leszkowixa in Poland; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Iran expecting new nuclear offer in Kazakhstan: negotiator

TEHRAN: Iran is expecting a new offer from world powers in talks later this month in Kazakhstan over its controversial nuclear programme, a member of its negotiating team said on Monday.

Iran and the P5+1 group of the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany are to resume negotiations in Almaty, Kazakhstan on February 26 after an eight-month hiatus, following up three failed meetings last year.

"The P5+1 knows they should have a new proposal for Iran," Mostafa Dolatyar, a member of Iran's nuclear negotiating delegation, told the ISNA news agency. "We will be the listeners in Almaty."

Their last high-ranking meeting, in Moscow in June, yielded no breakthrough as Iran rejected calls from the P5+1 to suspend part of its programme and asked for a substantial sanctions relief in return.

"We put forward our issues in Moscow and they are supposed to answer to them," Dolatyar said. "We will then respond accordingly based on what they will offer to us."

The remarks came after US Secretary of State John Kerry encouraged Iran on Friday to seriously address its disputed nuclear work at the talks, saying in return "the international community is ready to respond".

British Foreign Secretary William Hague has said the six world powers would put forward an "updated and credible" offer at the talks.

The Islamic republic is under various rounds of international sanctions over its disputed nuclear programme which the West fears is aimed at developing weapons. Iran insists its atomic work is peaceful.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that Tehran would "not retreat an iota" from what Tehran calls its nuclear rights.

Decisions on Tehran's nuclear programme rests with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose representative Saeed Jalili leads the negotiating team in the talks with world powers.

An earlier proposal by Washington to directly discuss the Iranian programme at Almaty with the Iranian team was shot down by Khamenei last week.

Iran is also being pressured by the UN's atomic watchdog agency to grant broader access to its facilities, scientists and documents to resolve outstanding concerns over its past atomic activities.

- AFP/jc

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Home Depot iPhone switch short-circuits BlackBerry stock

BlackBerry's Q10 smartphone.

(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET)

Shares of BlackBerry dropped 4.6 percent Monday after Home Depot confirmed a report by AppleInsider that the company was handing out iPhones to about 10,000 employees who now use the BlackBerry. A spokesman for the home improvement retailer did not offer more detail about when the replacement process began, other than to acknowledge that Home Depot was "replacing the current base of BlackBerry technology with iPhone, but these are not the mobile devices used in our stores."

The decision hardly constitutes make-or-break news for BlackBerry, but it comes only a week after the company introduced a couple of new devices that management hopes will help revive the flagging franchise. The full touchscreen Z10 smartphone has already gone on sale in some regions globally -- BlackBerry said that it registered strong early sales in Canada and the United Kingdom -- while sales in the U.S. will only start in March. (The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which last year had said it would dump BlackBerry in favor of the iPhone, has since announced plans to run a pilot program for the new
BB10 devices.)

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Graham threatens to hold up Hagel, Brennan votes

(CBS News) Until President Obama details his actions on the night of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, Sen. Lindsey Graham will block votes on his nominees to head the Department of Defense and the CIA, the South Carolina Republican vowed today on "Face the Nation."

Graham said he'll heed advice floated by fellow Armed Services Committee member Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., not to filibuster Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., as defense secretary and John Brennan as CIA director. But, citing a recently unearthed letter that then-Sen. Joe Biden sent in 2005 pressing for further information before a vote on former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, Graham said he's going to urge the message among his colleagues, "No confirmation without information," and will place a hold on the confirmation votes - an action any Senate member reserves the right to take - until the White House explains its garbled talking points following the Libya attack.

Five days after what would come to be deemed an attack by extremists with "linkages" to al Qaeda, Amb. Susan Rice appeared on "Face the Nation" and said the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was "spontaneous," prompted by an inflammatory anti-Muslim video that had led to protests in Egypt and elsewhere. Graham, who led the protest that resulted in Rice removing her name from the secretary of state shortlist, issued the charge of "stonewalling" by the administration.

"I'm not going to stop until we get to the bottom of it," Graham said. "We know nothing about what the president did on the night of September 11, during a time of national crisis, and the American people need to know what their commander-in-chief did, if anything, during the eight-hour attack.

"...I don't know what the president did that evening," he continued. "I don't know if he ever called anyone. I know he never talked to the secretary of defense. I know that he never talked to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. ...I know the secretary of state never talked to the secretary of defense. This was incredibly mismanaged. And what we know now, it seems to be a very disengaged president."

Appearing in the same segment, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., called Graham's threat to stall the nominations "unprecedented and unwarranted," and said he hopes the Senate gets a chance to vote on Hagel and Brennan. House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., later in the show said he agreed with Graham that there was a "catastrophic failure in the decisions, from a security perspective, from the State Department" that ran up to the attack. "I do think answers are appropriate," he said.

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$1M Reward for Capture of Fugitive Ex-Cop Dorner

A $1 million reward was offered today for information leading to the arrest of Christopher Dorner, as authorities in Big Bear, Calif., scaled back their search for the disgruntled ex-cop, who is suspected in three revenge killings.

"Hopefully the reward will motivate people that may be involved with assisting him or might be reluctant to talk to us to call us and to put an end to this," Los Angeles police Sgt. Rudy Lopez told The Associated Press.

Irvine Police Department/AP Photo

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Although there have been no reported sightings of Dorner in the Big Bear area, authorities have zeroed in on the area after finding his burned out truck.

On day four of the manhunt, a scaled-back force of 25 officers and one helicopter spread out in the mountainous area, located 80 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

Officers have been going door-to-door at some 600 cabins, looking for signs of the fugitive ex-cop.

No new evidence has been found, authorites said.

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Gunbattle rocks Gao after rebels surprise French, Malians

GAO, Mali (Reuters) - Islamist insurgents launched a surprise raid in the heart of the Malian town of Gao on Sunday, battling French and local troops in a blow to efforts to secure Mali's recaptured north.

Local residents hid in their homes or crouched behind walls as the crackle of gunfire from running street battles resounded through the sandy streets and mud-brick houses of the ancient Niger River town, retaken from Islamist rebels last month by a French-led offensive.

French helicopters clattered overhead and fired on al Qaeda-allied rebels armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades who had infiltrated the central market area and holed up in a police station, Malian and French officers said.

The fighting inside Gao was certain to raise fears that pockets of determined Islamists who have escaped the lightning four-week-old French intervention in Mali will strike back with guerrilla attacks and suicide bombings.

After driving the bulk of the insurgents from major northern towns such as Timbuktu and Gao, French forces are trying to search out their bases in the remote and rugged Adrar des Ifoghas mountains, far up in the northeast.

But with Mali's weak army unable to secure recaptured zones, and the deployment of a larger African security force slowed by delays and kit shortages, vast areas to the rear of the French forward lines now look vulnerable to guerrilla activity.

"They infiltrated the town via the river. We think there were about 10 of them. They were identified by the population and they went into the police station," said General Bernard Barrera, commander of French ground operations in Mali.

He told reporters in Gao that French helicopters had intervened to help Malian troops pinned down by the rebels, who threw grenades from rooftops.

Malian gendarme Colonel Saliou Maiga told Reuters the insurgents intended to carry out suicide attacks in the town.

SUICIDE BOMBERS

No casualty toll was immediately available. But a Reuters reporter in Gao saw one body crumpled over a motorcycle. Malian soldiers said some of the raiders may have come on motorbikes.

The gunfire in Gao erupted hours after French and Malian forces reinforced a checkpoint on the northern outskirts that had been attacked for the second time in two days by a suicide bomber.

Abdoul Abdoulaye Sidibe, a Malian parliamentarian from Gao, said the rebel infiltrators were from the MUJWA group that had held the town until French forces liberated it late last month.

MUJWA is a splinter faction of al Qaeda's North African wing AQIM which, in loose alliance with the home-grown Malian Islamist group Ansar Dine, held Mali's main northern urban areas for 10 months until the French offensive drove them out.

Late on Saturday, an army checkpoint in Gao's northern outskirts came under attack by a group of Islamist rebels who fired from a road and bridge that lead north through the desert scrub by the Niger River to Bourem, 80 km (50 miles) away.

"Our soldiers came under heavy gunfire from jihadists from the bridge ... At the same time, another one flanked round and jumped over the wall. He was able to set off his suicide belt," Malian Captain Sidiki Diarra told reporters.

The bomber died and one Malian soldier was lightly wounded, he added. In Friday's motorbike suicide bomber attack, a Malian soldier was also injured.

Diarra described Saturday's bomber as a bearded Arab.

Since Gao and the UNESCO World Heritage city of Timbuktu were retaken last month, several Malian soldiers have been killed in landmine explosions on a main road leading north.

French and Malian officers say pockets of rebels are still in the bush and desert between major towns and pose a threat of hit-and-run guerrilla raids and bombings.

"We are in a dangerous zone... we can't be everywhere," a French officer told reporters, asking not to be named.

One local resident reported seeing a group of 10 armed Islamist fighters at Batel, just 10 km (6 miles) from Gao.

OPERATIONS IN NORTHEAST

The French, who have around 4,000 troops in Mali, are now focusing their offensive operations several hundred kilometers (miles) north of Gao in a hunt for the Islamist insurgents.

On Friday, French special forces paratroopers seized the airstrip and town of Tessalit, near the Algerian border.

From here, the French, aided by around 1,000 Chadian troops in the northeast Kidal region, are expected to conduct combat patrols into the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains.

The remaining Islamists are believed to have hideouts and supply depots in a rugged, sun-blasted range of rocky gullies and caves, and are also thought to be holding at least seven French hostages previously seized in the Sahel.

The U.S. and European governments back the French-led operation as a defense against Islamist jihadists threatening wider attacks, but rule out sending their own combat troops.

To accompany the military offensive, France and its allies are urging Mali authorities to open a national reconciliation dialogue that addresses the pro-autonomy grievances of northern communities like the Tuaregs, and to hold democratic elections.

Interim President Dioncounda Traore, appointed after a military coup last year that plunged the West African state into chaos and led to the Islamist occupation of the north, has said he intends to hold elections by July 31.

But he faces splits within the divided Malian army, where rival units are still at loggerheads.

(Additional reporting by Tiemoko Diallo and Adama Diarra in Bamako; Writing by Joe Bavier and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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Ben Affleck's 'Argo' wins best film at Britain's BAFTAs

LONDON: Iran hostage crisis drama "Argo" won the best film prize at Britain's BAFTA awards on Sunday, in a further boost for US actor-director Ben Affleck's movie at the Oscars later this month.

Affleck also won the best director award at the biggest night of the British film industry, while Daniel Day-Lewis was named best actor for "Lincoln" and France's Emmanuelle Riva won best actress for "Amour".

Anne Hathaway won best supporting actress for her performance in British musical "Les Miserables" while Christoph Waltz won best supporting actor for his role in Quentin Tarantino's blood-soaked Western "Django Unchained".

Celebrities defied sleet, rain and wind to parade down the red carpet for the ceremony at the Royal Opera House in London, with the BAFTAs widely seen as a key bellwether for the Academy Awards.

The best director award for Affleck highlights the fact that he has been snubbed in the same category at the Oscars, which will be handed out at a ceremony in Los Angeles on February 24.

- AFP/jc

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Tech wizards behind movie magic honored by Oscars

Lawrence Kesteloot (left), Drew Olbrich, and Daniel Wexler during the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards on Saturday.

(Credit:
Richard Harbaugh/AMPAS)

Most movie fans won't be thinking of the Oscars for two more weeks, but the Academy has already honored some of the innovators who have made significant behind-the-scenes contributions over the years to movie making, including the computer graphics behind "Shrek."

Unlike the Academy Awards ceremony that will be held February 24, which honors only movie achievements of 2012, last night's Scientific and Technical Awards recognized those who demonstrated a "proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures" but is not limited to the previous year's achievements.

The ceremony, which was hosted by "Star Trek" co-stars Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana, honored 25 people were nine awards. Portions of last night's event will be seen during the televised ceremony later this month.

Lawrence Kesteloot, Drew Olbrich, and Daniel Wexler at DreamWorks were honored with an Academy certificate for the creation of the Light system for computer graphics lighting. The system, which was used in such animated films as "Shrek" and "Madagascar," was touted for its interactive responsiveness and its user-configurable spreadsheet interface.

Simon Clutterbuck, James Jacobs, and Dr. Richard Dorling were honored with an Academy plaque for their "Tissue: A Physically-Based Character Simulation Framework," which helped bring to life computer-generated characters such as Gollum in "The Hobbit."

Some of the highest audience appreciation went to Richard Mall, the inventor of the Matthews Max Menace Arm, a compact and portable structure that allows for rapid and precise positioning of lighting fixtures and cameras.

"I am a little humbled to be up here with all this technology, because basically I built something in my garage," Mall said, according to a Reuters account of the ceremony.

A complete list of the winners and their contributions can be found on Oscars.org.

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Pastor: Slain teen the face of violence epidemic

CHICAGO A prominent Chicago pastor remembered a slain 15-year-old girl Saturday as the face of an "epidemic of violence causing funeral processions around the country."

Father Michael Pfleger spoke at Hadiya Pendleton's funeral, telling a packed South Side church that "we must become the interrupters of funeral processions."

Pendleton was a band majorette and honor student who was shot and killed on Jan. 29, just a few days after performing for events surrounding President Obama's inauguration. Police say Pendleton was an innocent victim in a gang-related shooting.

Hundreds of mourners and dignitaries including first lady Michelle Obama stood and applauded Pendleton's family for their strength after her death brought national attention to the city's staggering gun violence.

Mrs. Obama met privately with the family and accompanied the girl's mother to the open casket at the front of a packed South Side church just before the start of the service.

Mrs. Obama, who grew up on Chicago's South Side, put her arm around Cleopatra Pendleton and patted her back. The woman threw her head back and wailed as the lid of her daughter's flower-strewn casket was closed.

Moments later, the hundreds in attendance rose to their feet to begin the service with a round of applause "to the strength of this family." Then, the choir began to sing so loud the floor shook.

Some of Illinois' most recognizable politicians and clergy were also in attendance, including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Father Michael Pfleger. But Pendleton's family says her funeral service was not about politics — it was about remembering a girl who loved to dance, who once appeared in an anti-gang video.

"Everything is about Hadiya," said Shatira Wilks, one of Pendleton's cousins and a family spokeswoman.

None of the dignitaries was slated to speak during the service, which was officiated by the teen's pastor, the Rev. Courtney Maxwell, and the Rev. Eric Thomas, the pastor of the Greater Harvest Baptist Church, where the service was held. The teen's brother was also expected to speak, and the musical group that Pendleton was a member of will perform.

Pendleton was shot and killed while she talked with friends after school at a park not far from the Obamas' home in the Kenwood neighborhood. Police have said the shooting appears to be a case of mistaken identity involving gang members who believed the park was their territory. No charges have been filed.

Pendleton's death brought new attention to Chicago's homicide rate and the national debate over gun violence. Pendleton's slaying came in a January that was the city's deadliest in a decade. In 2012, Chicago recorded 506 homicides.

Earlier Saturday morning, a line of hundreds stretched from the church as mourners filed past Pendleton's casket. A woman who walked in with the girl's family sobbed loudly while organ and piano music played.

A glossy, eight-page funeral program included photos of Pendleton and details about her life, including her favorite foods — cheeseburgers, fig cookies, Chinese and ice cream — and the numerous school organizations she was involved in, and said she wanted to major in pharmacology and journalism in college.

The program also included a copy of a handwritten note from Mr. Obama addressed to the girl's family.

"Michelle and I just wanted you to know how heartbroken we are to have heard about Hadiya's passing," it reads. "We know that no words from us can soothe the pain, but rest assured that we are praying for you, and that we will continue to work as hard as we can to end this senseless violence. God bless, Barack Obama."

Other dignitaries at the service were Gov. Pat Quinn, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett — all of whom are from Chicago.

Quinn mentioned Pendleton's death in his State of the State address earlier this week as he called for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

"There are no words in the English language — or any language — to relieve the pain of parents who lose a child," said Quinn, who said he spoke with Pendleton's family two days before his speech.

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After Blizzard, Northeast Begins to Dig Out

The Northeast began the arduous process of cleaning up after a fierce storm swept through the region leaving behind up to three feet of snow in some areas.

By early this morning, 650,000 homes and businesses were without power and at least five deaths were being blamed on the storm: three in Canada, one in New York and one in Connecticut, The Associated Press reported.

The storm dumped snow from New Jersey to Maine, affecting more than 25 million people, with more than two feet falling in areas of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. The Postal Service closed post offices and suspended mail delivery today in New England.

As the storm waned, officials in the hardest hit areas cautioned residents to remain indoors and off the roads to ease the clean-up.

Massachusetts was hard hit by the storm, with more than two feet of snow in Boston and even more in coastal areas. State police and national guard troops helped rescue more than 50 stranded motorists and even helped deliver a baby girl, according to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

Patrick enacted the first statewide driving ban since the 1978 blizzard, which left 27 inches of snow and killed dozens. The ban was to be lifted at 4 p.m. today, the governor said.

However, Patrick cautioned residents to act with extreme caution even after the ban is over.

"Stay inside and be patient," Patrick said.

In Massachusetts a boy reportedly died of carbon monoxide poisoning as he helped his father shovel snow on Saturday, according to ABCNews.com affiliate WCVB-TV in Boston.

For residents along the coast, the waning snowfall didn't mean the end of the storm. Storm surges along the Massachusetts coastline forced some residents out of their homes Saturday morning.

"We've got 20-foot waves crashing and flooding some homes," Bob Connors on Plum Island told WCVB. "We have power and heat and all that. We just have a very angry ocean. In my 33 years, I've never seen the seas this high."

Darren McCollester/Getty Images

Blizzard Shuts Down Parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts Watch Video

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FULL COVERAGE: Blizzard of 2013

In Connecticut, Gov. Dannel Malloy declared a state of emergency and closed all roads in the state. The state police responded to more than 1,600 calls over the last 24 hours and the governor called up an additional 270 National Guard members.

"If you're not an emergency personnel that's required to be somewhere, stay home," Malloy said.

Overnight, snow fell at a rate of up to five to six inches per hour in parts of Connecticut. In Milford, more than 38 inches of snow had fallen by this morning.

In Fairfield, Conn. firefighters and police officers on the day shift were unable to make it to work, so the overnight shift remained on duty.

PHOTOS: Blizzard Hits Northeast

The wind and snow started affecting the region during the Friday night commute.

In Cumberland, Maine, the conditions led to a 19-car pile-up and in New York, hundreds of commuters were stranded on the snowy Long Island Expressway. Police and firefighters were still working to free motorists early this morning.

"The biggest problem that we're having is that people are not staying on the main portion or the middle section of the roadway and veering to the shoulders, which are not plowed," said Lt. Daniel Meyer from the Suffolk County Police Highway Patrol.

In New York, authorities are digging out hundreds of cars that got stuck overnight on the Long Island Expressway.

Bob Griffith of Syosset, N.Y., said he tried leave early to escape the storm, but instead ended up stuck in the snow by the side of the road.

"I tried to play it smart in that I started early in the day, when it was raining," said Griffith. "But the weather beat us to the punch."

Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone said the snow had wreaked havoc on the roadways.

"I saw state plows stuck on the side of the road. I've never seen anything like this before," Bellone said.

However, some New York residents, who survived the wrath of Hurricane Sandy, were rattled by having to face another large and potentially dangerous storm system with hurricane force winds and flooding.

"How many storms of the century can you have in six months?" said Larry Racioppo, a resident of the hard hit Rockaway neighborhood in Queens, New York.

READ: Weather NYC: Blizzard Threatens Rockaways, Ravaged by Sandy

Snowfall Totals

In New York, a little more than 11 inches fell in the city.

By this morning, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said nearly all of the primary roads had been plowed and the department of sanitation anticipated that all roads would be plowed by the end of the day.

"It looks like we dodged a bullet, but keep in mind winter is not over," said Bloomberg.

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