KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to visit Moscow next week, a major boost for Russian President Vladimir Putin amid sharpening East-West tensions over the war in Ukraine. Western leaders have tried to isolate Putin over the conflict, now in its 13th month. Xi’s trip, announced Friday, is a diplomatic shot in the arm to the Russian leader at a time when his troops are bogged down in a battle of attrition, focused now on Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

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ST.. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota regulators said Thursday they’re monitoring the cleanup of a leak of 400,000 gallons of radioactive water from Xcel Energy’s Monticello nuclear power plant, and the company said there’s no danger to the public. “Xcel Energy took swift action to contain the leak to the plant site, which poses no health and safety risk to the local community or the environment,” the Minneapolis-based utility said in a statement. While Xcel reported the leak of water containing tritium to state and federal authorities in late November, the spill had not been made public before Thursday. State officials said they waited to get more information before going public with it.

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BERLIN, March 17 (Reuters) - Germany’s education minister will visit Taiwan next week with a view to improving cooperation between Berlin and Taipei on semiconductors, a ministry spokesperson said on Friday, adding that the issue of sovereignty will not be the focus of the trip. China views democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory and has increased military, political and economic pressure to assert those claims. The politically sensitive visit will take place at a time when Berlin is reviewing its previously close ties with China.

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DAKAR (Reuters) - Police have fired tear gas at stone-hurling protesters in Senegal’s capital ahead of a court case involving a prominent opposition politician that has triggered anger among youth. Demonstrators in Dakar burned tyres and set fire to buses and a large supermarket, the latest outbreak of violence that has shaken Senegal’s reputation as a bastion of stable democracy ahead of next year’s presidential election. Thursday’s clashes began when supporters of presidential hopeful Ousmane Sonko were blocked from accompanying his motorcade to a courthouse where he faces trial for libel. The trial was postponed until March 30 after Sonko’s lawyers said he was seeking medical treatment for inhaling a substance that impaired his breathing and eyesight.

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BOGOTÁ (Al-Jazeera) -The death toll from an explosion at a series of connected coal mines in central Colombia has risen to 21, President Gustavo Petro says, after large-scale rescue efforts to free 10 miners who were trapped underground had failed. “Despite all the efforts of the rescue teams, unfortunately 21 people lost their lives in this tragic accident in Sutatausa,” a town 74km (46 miles) north of the capital, Bogota, Petro said in a tweet on Thursday morning.

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ISTANBUL (AP) — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said Friday that his government would move forward with ratifying Finland’s NATO application, paving the way for the country to join the military bloc ahead of Sweden. The breakthrough came as Finnish President Sauli Niinisto was in Ankara to meet with Erdogan. Both Finland and Sweden applied to become NATO members 10 months ago in the wake of Russia-Ukraine war.