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• VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Thousands of people flooded the Vatican's main audience hall Wednesday for Pope Benedict XVI's first public appearance since his bombshell resignation announcement, taking advantage of his second-to-last public audience before retiring at the end of the month.
• It's a busy day for Benedict, who will also preside over Ash Wednesday services later in the day to mark the official start of the Catholic Church's solemn Lenten season. The service is usually held in a church on Rome's Aventine hill, but was moved at the last minute to St. Peter's Basilica. The Vatican said the shift was made to accommodate the crowds, though it will also spare the 85-year-old pope the usual procession to the church.

• Hours before Benedict was due to appear, long lanes snaked out into St. Peter's Square of people waiting to pass through metal detectors to get into the audience hall.
• "We were just coming for vacation, and now we are getting all of this!" marveled Terry Rodger, a tourist from New Orleans, Louisiana as he headed to the audience. "I am very excited. I'm surprised."
• Benedict announced on Monday that he would retire on Feb. 28, saying he just didn't have the strength of body or mind to carry on. The Vatican insisted no serious medical ailment was behind the decision, though it admitted for the first time on Tuesday that Benedict has had a pacemaker for years, and recently had it replaced.
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• SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea's neighbors bolstered their military preparations and mobilized scientists Wednesday to determine whether Pyongyang's third nuclear test, conducted in defiance of U.N. warnings, was as successful as the North claimed.
• The detonation was also the focus of global diplomatic maneuvers, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reaching out to counterparts in Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo. President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address to assure U.S. allies in the region and leveled a warning of "firm action."

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