Putin hosts Xi in Moscow as alliance grows

MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin warmly welcomed Chinese leader Xi Jinping to the Kremlin on Monday, sending a powerful message to Western leaders that their efforts to isolate Moscow over the fighting in Ukraine have fallen short. Xi's trip -- his first abroad since his re-election earlier this month -- showed off Beijing's new diplomatic swagger and gave a political lift to Putin just days after an international arrest warrant was issued for the Kremlin leader on war crimes charges related to Ukraine. The two major powers have described...