The world at a glance . . . Europe

London

Fiasco at Heathrow: Thousands of passengers lost their luggage and hundreds of flights had to be canceled this week, following the long-awaited opening of Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5. The $8.6 billion British Airways terminal, the largest free-standing structure in Europe, was supposed to eliminate long lines and delays, thanks to its spacious interior and computerized baggage checking. But its first week was a catastrophe. Staffers had nowhere to park, so hundreds showed up late to work, creating backups in ticketing and baggage checking. Nearly 30,000 bags were misplaced, and many flights took off with no checked luggage on board. Officials insist they are working out the kinks, but the worst may be yet to come. So far, only British Airways’ short flights have been routed through T5. Its jumbo jets will start using the terminal in a few weeks.

London

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Coroner rules out murder: In a setback for conspiracy theorists, the coroner presiding over the inquest into the Princess of Wales’ death said this week that the jury cannot rule that Diana was murdered. Lord Justice Scott Baker said that six months of testimony had produced no evidence to support allegations that either the royal family or the British government had played any role in the car crash that killed Diana and her lover, Dodi Fayed, in Paris in 1997. Baker said the jury could find that the crash was accidental or that it was caused by the negligence of the driver or of the pursuing paparazzi. But, he said, “it is not open to you to find that Diana and Dodi were unlawfully killed in a staged accident.” Fayed’s father, Harrods department store owner Mohamed Fayed, has long claimed that the royal family had Diana killed to prevent her from marrying his son, a Muslim.

Paris

Soccer insults: French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called on Paris soccer fans to be “punished in an appropriate manner” after they viciously insulted fans of a visiting team. At a soccer game last weekend, Paris Saint-Germain fans held up a massive banner calling the fans of Racing Club de Lens, a team from the north, “jobless, inbred pedophiles.” Sarkozy happened to be in the stands, and he ordered the banner removed, saying such “hate mongering” must not be tolerated. The region north of Paris is stereotyped as being poor and backward, and northerners are often the butt of French jokes. Paris Saint-Germain fans, meanwhile, are viewed as the most violent and racist soccer fans in the country.

Bucharest, Romania

Bush champions Ukraine: President Bush this week said he would push hard for NATO to start membership talks with Ukraine and Georgia. “NATO membership must remain open to all of Europe’s democracies that seek it,” Bush said as a NATO summit opened in Romania this week. Other NATO countries, most vocally Germany and France, have been reluctant to anger Russia by accepting the two former Soviet republics into the alliance. Europe depends on Russia for much of its natural gas and oil. The summit will also decide whether to grant membership to Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia.

Rome

Catholics outnumbered by Muslims: Islam has passed Roman Catholicism to become the world’s most popular religious denomination, the Vatican said this week. Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiles the Vatican’s yearbook, said that 17.4 percent of the world’s population is now Catholic, while 19.2 percent is Muslim. “For the first time in history,” Formenti said, “we are no longer at the top.” He blamed a disparity in birth rates. “While Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer,” he said. Still, if you count all Christians together, including Protestants and Orthodox Christians as well as Catholics, Christianity is still the largest religion, claiming 33 percent of the global population.

Luxembourg

Breakthrough for gays: European Union countries that recognize same-sex unions must grant partners the same pension rights that heterosexual married couples enjoy, the E.U. Court of Justice ruled this week. The ruling came in a case brought by a German man who was denied his partner’s retirement benefits after the partner died. But not all of the E.U.’s 27 countries recognize same-sex civil partnerships. Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ireland don’t allow them at all, while France and Italy recognize civil unions but grant them limited rights.