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White House: No Afghanistan troop decision made

WASHINGTON:  White House National Security Adviser Retired Gen. Jim Jones issued a rare public statement Monday vehemently denying media reports that suggest U.S. President Barack Obama has privately decided to send close to 40,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

"Reports that President Obama has made a decision about Afghanistan are absolutely false," Jones, who has a low public profile, said in a statement. "He has not received final options for his consideration, he has not reviewed those options with his national security team, and he has not made any decisions about resources. Any reports to the contrary are completely untrue and come from uninformed sources."

The statement was issued shortly after CBS News' veteran Pentagon correspondent David Martin reported that Obama has "tentatively decided" to send four more combat brigades to Afghanistan and thousands more support troops starting early next year. That would bring the total number of new troops to close to the 40,000 more troops originally requested by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

Two other senior administration officials told CNN that the CBS report and other similar speculation is false.

The two senior administration officials suggested the information is being leaked by Pentagon sources who are trying to box in Obama by setting public expectations that he will send close to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan, as requested by McChrystal.

"People at the Pentagon are trying to force a certain outcome," one of the senior administration officials told CNN.

Both senior administration officials insisted Obama has not made any decision on troop levels in Afghanistan, noting that the president has another meeting with his national security team Wednesday to receive a final set of recommendations from the Pentagon brass. The senior officials said the president could not possibly make a decision on troop levels before receiving the Pentagon's final recommendations.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday it was "doubtful" that Obama will announce a troop decision before he leaves for a trip to Asia on Thursday. Gibbs added it was also unlikely that Obama would make such an announcement during his trip to Asia, which is largely focused on economic matters and separate diplomatic issues like North Korea's nuclear program.

Obama is scheduled to return from Asia on November 20, after stops in Japan, Singapore, China, and South Korea. Officials have suggested Obama could announce a troop decision shortly before or after Thanksgiving.

Gibbs has said repeatedly the decision will be revealed in "coming weeks."

2 pregnant women die from H1N1

RALEIGH:  Two pregnant North Carolina women died of pandemic H1N1 flu during the week of Oct. 25, state health officials confirmed Monday.

A spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services declined to identify where the two women lived.

In addition to the two pregnant women, three other people died in North Carolina from "influenza-like illness" during the week of Oct. 25.

Up through Sept. 26, North Carolina reported only deaths and hospitalizations attributed to the H1N1 virus. On Sept. 27, the state expanded its reporting to cover hospitalizations and deaths attributed to any influenza-like illnesses, whether seasonal flu or pandemic H1N1 flu.

A total of 12 deaths and 267 hospitalizations this year, through Sept. 26, were attributed to laboratory-confirmed H1N1 virus. Since Sept. 27, the state says 32 North Carolinians have died from influenza-related viruses, including H1N1.

The reporting change was ordered by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide a fuller picture of the impact of flu, since the number of laboratory-confirmed pandemic H1N1 flu cases is much lower than the true number of cases.

Both pregnant women and children are considered high-risk groups for infection by the H1N1 virus and have priority for the vaccine.

News of the deaths came as Wake County ran out of the vaccine and shut down H1N1 flu clinics Monday afternoon. County health officials say they expect to reopen the clinics when they receive additional doses.

Many physician practices and pharmacies still have the vaccine available.

Berlin Marks 20th Anniversary of Wall's Fall

BERLIN:  World leaders, dignitaries and thousands of visitors are in Berlin to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is a time to remember the past and celebrate the November day in 1989 that changed the future.

Despite the rain, crowds gathered at the Bornholm Bridge, the first checkpoint in the Berlin Wall to open the night of November 9, 1989.

The Wall stood for nearly three decades, dividing the city and Germany into East and West. But in the end, protests and peaceful revolutions, such as in Poland, and changes in Moscow brought it down. That led to the reunification of Germany and the end of the Cold War.

In a gesture full of symbolism, Chancellor Angela Merkel crossed from one side to other, accompanied by VIP guests, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, former Polish labor leader and president Lech Walesa, and civil rights activists of 20 years ago.

Mrs. Merkel said meeting here was especially significant.

She said there is joy in the possibilities that opened up at this very bridge, noting it was the result of a long struggle against oppression. She thanked Lech Walesa and his Solidarity Labor movement in Poland and Mikhail Gorbachev, the reformist leader in Moscow. Both paved the way for what would happen in Germany in 1989.

World leaders and dignitaries have gathered to join in the 20th anniversary celebrations, which include open air concerts, fireworks, and the symbolic collapse of a wall of brightly painted oversize dominoes. The dominoes have been set up to run for one and a half kilometers in an area where the Wall once stood, and late Monday they will be toppled - much like the Wall was two decades ago.

Organizers of the anniversary events say they want the festivities to connect with ordinary people - to show that it was people power, with the help of reform-minded political leaders, that brought down the Wall and changed the course of history.

Berlin Wall festivities not just a party: Clinton

BERLIN: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged Europeans and Americans on Sunday to see the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall as a call to action against new global threats.

On the eve of celebrations marking 20 years since the collapse of the wall that divided East and West Berlin, Clinton said the hard work that went into ending the Cold War must be channeled to meet fresh challenges, including the fights against extremism and climate change.

As the Obama administration looks to often reluctant European allies to bolster their NATO forces in Afghanistan, Clinton said Monday's commemoration of Nov. 9, 1989, the night "when history pierced the concrete and concertina wire," must look forward and not back.

"Our history did not end the night the wall came down, it began anew," she told a group of U.S. and European dignitaries while accepting a Freedom Award on behalf of the American people from The Atlantic Council, a group that promotes trans-Atlantic ties.

The moment the festivities begin "should be a call to action, not just a commemoration of past actions," Clinton said. "That call should spur us to continue our cooperation and look for new ways that we can meet the challenges that freedom faces now."

"We owe it to ourselves and to those who yearn for the same freedoms that are enjoyed and even taken for granted in Berlin today," she said.

Clinton praised U.S.-European collaboration on ending the world financial crisis as well as steps to cooperate on global warming. She also hailed NATO security operations, from Afghanistan to fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia.

But she said the spirit of the Berlin Wall's destruction — the symbolic end to the Cold War — had to be reinforced.

"We need to form an even stronger partnership to bring down the walls of the 21st century and to confront those who hide behind them: suicide bombers, those who murder and maim girls whose only wish is to go to school, leaders who chose their own fortune over the fortune of their people."

Clinton will lead the U.S. delegation to Monday's ceremonies in Berlin.

Other speakers at The Atlantic Council event on Sunday were more blunt.

Former U.S. national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, who served under Presidents Ford and George H.W. Bush, lamented that trans-Atlantic cooperation and understanding had fallen off in the two decades since the Berlin Wall fell.

"We no longer have an intimacy of dialogue like we had in 1989," he said. "It's important that we restore that closeness in order that we can all in unity face the challenges confronting us."

Other U.S. foreign policy veterans at the event included former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski.