A former HSBC employee who leaked documents alleging the bank helped wealthy customers dodge tax said he had tried to alert British authorities about evasion in 2008.
US President Barack Obama called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss escalating violence in eastern Ukraine, urging him to embrace a negotiated solution.
Greece's radical new government was fine-turning details of a controversial reform deal it hopes to seal with sceptical EU creditors at critical talks.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande were due in Moscow after getting Kiev's tentative backing for a crunch peace plan.