The world at a glance . . . Europe

Nuuk, Greenland

Home rule: In a step toward independence from Denmark, Greenland has acquired new powers of self-rule. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, wearing a traditional Inuit costume, extended official rights of self-government to the chairman of Greenland’s Parliament in a ceremony this week. The island now controls its police and court system, and its official language is now the Inuit dialect Kalaallisut. “It’s a new relationship based on equality,” Greenland Prime Minister Kuupik Kleist said of the balance of power between Greenland and Denmark. Greenland, he said, is no longer a henpecked husband. “From today, the man in the house has as much say as the wife.”

Athens

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Appeal for Elgin Marbles: Greek President Karolos Papoulias has called on Britain to return the sculptures plundered from the Parthenon in Athens nearly 200 years ago. The sculptures have been in the British Museum since Lord Elgin took them in 1817, when Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire. For years, Britain has justified its refusal to return the statues by saying that Greece didn’t have a suitable place to display them. But this week, Greece opened a new Acropolis Museum built specifically to house the Elgin Marbles. “It’s time to heal the wounds of the monument with the return of the marbles which belong to it,” Papoulias said at the museum’s inauguration. The British Museum says it will consider a loan of the marbles, but only if the Acropolis Museum acknowledges British ownership.