MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The Kremlin on Monday declined to comment on a Wall Street Journal report that Washington held undisclosed talks with top Russian officials about avoiding further escalation in the Ukraine war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that while Russia remains “open” to talks, it is unable to negotiate with Kyiv due to its refusal to hold talks with Russia. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan held undisclosed talks with top Russian officials in the hope of reducing the risk the war in Ukraine spills over or escalates into a nuclear conflict.

 

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NEW YORK (AP) — The rate of deaths that can be directly attributed to alcohol rose nearly 30% in the U.S. during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new government data. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already said the overall number of such deaths rose in 2020 and 2021. Two reports from the CDC this week provided further details on which groups have the highest death rates and which states are seeing the largest numbers. “Alcohol is often overlooked” as a public health problem, said Marissa Esser, who leads the CDC’s alcohol program. “But it is a leading preventable cause of death.” A report released Friday focused on more than a dozen kinds of “alcohol-induced” deaths that were wholly blamed on drinking. Examples include alcohol-caused liver or pancreas failure, alcohol poisoning, withdrawal and certain other diseases. There were more than 52,000 such deaths last year, up from 39,000 in 2019. The rate of such deaths had been increasing in the two decades before the pandemic, by 7% or less each year.

 

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SEOUL (Reuters) -- South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol apologized on Monday for the deadly Halloween crush in Seoul, pledging to hold to account any officials found to be responsible for sloppy responses and to reform police and safety management systems. The Oct. 29 crush killed 156 people, mostly in their twenties and thirties, and injured another 197 when revelers flooded the narrow alleyways of the popular nightlife district of Itaewon to celebrate the first COVID-19 curbs-free Halloween festivities in three years. Yoon offered the apology during a meeting to review safety rules, as the country continues to mourn the crush victims. An investigation is under way into authorities’ responses to the accident. Police have faced stringent public criticism and scrutiny over its responses during the tragedy, having dispatched just 137 officers to the area despite estimating in advance as many as 100,000 people would gather.

 

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JOHANNESBURG (AFP) -- South Africa’s president has denied wrongdoing in testimony to a parliamentary panel examining whether he should face impeachment over an alleged cover-up of a heist at his farmhouse, his office said on Monday. In written answers provided to the independent panel on Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa “categorically denies that he violated this oath in any way, and denies that he is guilty of any of the allegations made against him,” the presidency said in a statement. The scandal erupted in June after South Africa’s former national spy boss filed a complaint with the police alleging that robbers broke into the president’s farm in the northeast of the country, where they stole $4 million in cash stashed in furniture. The complaint alleged that Ramaphosa hid the robbery from the authorities and instead organized for the robbers to be kidnapped and bribed into silence.

 

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YEREVAN (AFP) -- Armenia and Azerbaijan on Monday traded accusations of provoking a shootout along their troubled border, just hours before the arch-foes were to hold US-mediated peace talks. The incident came ahead of a meeting of Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov for a fresh round of peace talks in Washington hosted by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The escalation at the border came a week after Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for talks, as Moscow seeks to maintain its role as a powerbroker between the ex-Soviet republics. In the early hours of Monday, Azerbaijani forces opened fire on Armenian positions “in the eastern sector of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border,” the defense ministry in Erevan said in a statement. Azerbaijan’s defense ministry for its part accused Armenian forces of shooting at the positions of Azerbaijani troops stationed at several locations on the frontier. 

 

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NAIROBI (Reuters) -- The Ethiopian government and Tigrayan forces have established a telephone hotline following a truce struck last week, the African Union’s chief mediator Olusegun Obasanjo said on Monday as both sides meet in Kenya for talks on implementing the ceasefire. The Ethiopian government and regional forces from Tigray agreed on Wednesday to cease hostilities, a diplomatic breakthrough two years into a war that has killed thousands and displaced millions. The truce has raised hopes humanitarian aid can start moving back into a region where hundreds of thousands face famine. Representatives of Ethiopia’s government and forces from Tigray are in the Kenyan capital Nairobi to discuss how to begin implementing the ceasefire, with the talks expected to last three or four days. Officials this week also want to agree membership of an African Union-led panel of experts for monitoring, verification and compliance of the ceasefire, the source familiar with the talks said.