France's finance minister said on Friday Paris had not restricted the use of HSBC (HSBA.L) client data it passed on to UK authorities to help pursue tax evaders, contradicting comments by a senior British official.
Kiev, Moscow, Munich, Washington, Ottawa, Minsk and Brussels -- all in a week's work for Angela Merkel, whose tireless efforts to broker peace in Ukraine and keep Greece in the euro zone won praise even from the chancellor's fiercest critics in Germany.
Chicago officials on Friday started collecting the lawn chairs, card tables and other items placed on city streets by residents who sought to reserve their parking spaces - a controversial winter custom known as "dibs."