The following are editorial opinions from newspapers from around the world which may be of interest to Royal Gazette readers.

Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm, Sweden, on China's handling of terrorist threats

Muslim extremists in China didn't use to be a well covered topic. In the prelude to the Olympic Games it has been reported that a number of terror acts and taped threats warn of terrorism. ... Policemen were killed in a bloody attack against a police station in Xinjiang, the northwestern province where about eight million Uigurs live — most of them Sunni Muslims.

It's the most serious incident in many years and is described by authorities as a terror attack. China accuses Muslim separatists in the province for more than 200 terror acts between 1990 and 2001. "Muslim terrorists" are also thought to be behind the latest attacks. ...

The most serious domestic threat is thought to come from East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). The group demands independence from China and has been labelled terrorist by the UN and the US In the beginning of last year, China executed one of ETIM's founders for having "attempted to split the mother country." On July 9 this year, two Uigurs were executed because of their membership in ETIM...

Two Japanese journalists were assaulted by Chinese police ... when they tried to cover the aftermath of the terror attack against the police station in Xinjiang. The lack of further information surrounding China's domestic terrorism seems to depend on the communist power's scanty reports and oppression of the free word — not the lack of incidents to report.

The Observer, London,–on fuel prices and poverty

Since oil and gas are costly to produce and much in demand, it makes sense that they are expensive to use. Given the additional cost to Britain of dependency on unreliable energy-exporting regimes and the cost to the world of climate change it is also, arguably, no bad thing if high prices encourage people to be frugal with fuel.

But that is no consolation to those who struggle to pay for even modest energy consumption. It is the poorest in society who suffer most when heating bills soar.

So when last week, customers of British Gas learned simultaneously that their fuel bills would go up by around a third and that the company's owner, Centrica, made profits of $992m, they did not accept the news as evidence of global markets not working properly. They were angry. ...

A much more activist approach is required by government. That does not mean hitting the energy companies with a crude tax that would, in all likelihood, by purloined by the Treasury to cover its other liabilities. A neater solution has been identified by the Liberal Democrats. They advocate compelling energy producers to divert money they have made through the European Union emissions trading scheme. Since they got those lucrative permits free from the government, they have enjoyed a de facto subsidy — more than 9 billion over five years, according to energy regulator Ofgem. ...

The utility companies have responsibilities to the public just as pressing as the commercial dues they owe to shareholders.