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Solve the following problem using Python, implementing the functions described below, one line at a time
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Description:
 def removeComments(element):
 """ Removes comments from the element and its children. """

    global _num_bytes_saved_in_comments
    num = 0

    if isinstance(element, xml.dom.minidom.Comment):
        _num_bytes_saved_in_comments += len(element.data)
        element.parentNode.removeChild(element)
        num += 1
    else:
        for subelement in element.childNodes[:]:
            num += removeComments(subelement)

    return num