Here are excerpts from editorials in newspapers around the world:

Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo, on the death of Boris Yeltsin:

He led the Soviet Union to its breakup, and as a result, upset the apple cart of international politics. The role he played in the last ten years of the 20th century has ensured him a place in the annals of world history.

Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first president, has died. He was 76.

The Cold War, which formed the framework of international politics for several decades, was declared over in 1989 by then US President George Bush and his Soviet counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev.

But the real end of East-West confrontation came when the Soviet Union collapsed with the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, led by Yeltsin.

Without Yeltsin’s determination, reconstruction of the post-Cold War world order would have taken a different turn.

The Observer, London, on gun violence in America:

Julia Pryde is not a household name. She was a 23-year-old graduate biology student who wanted to encourage recycling at the cafeteria at Virginia Tech University. Her face is not as universally known as that of Cho Seung-hui, the man who shot her and 31 others on campus last week. Cho secured his status as an icon of infamy by taking time, amid the massacre, to send a video manifesto to a TV network. Cho wanted not only to terrorise his fellow students, but to stare the world in the face, or rather, to force the world to look him in the eye.

Cho was a psychopath, determined to kill. It may be the case that his determination was expedited by easy access to guns. But that is a feature of American society and American politics with its own strange logic, immune to comment by outsiders.

The image of Cho striking murderous poses crosses all cultures. It is the face of modern, media-literate terror. That is not a fair emblem of modern American society. A truer symbol is found in the packed classrooms and lecture theatres of Virginia Tech, filled, just days after the massacre, with students who were determined to get on with their education — a triumph of youthful optimism over deadly nihilism>

The Record, Hackensack, New Jersey, on the crash involving Gov. John Corzine:

Gov. Corzine has inadvertently become the poster boy for seat belt safety. He may also help to end the fast-lane travel habits of New Jersey governors, now that crisscrossing the state at high speed has been shown to be so dangerous.

It’s been common knowledge that governors sometimes speed when they’re late for an appointment. Now it’s common knowledge that the practice can land you in the intensive care unit. That’s why several other states prohibit high-speed motorcades for public officials. So does the US Secret Service. New Jersey should join them.

If obeying the speed limit requires the governor to pare down his schedule, so be it. ...

Governors are notoriously late, and some have gone even faster than Corzine’s 91 mph. Pennsylvania’s Gov. Ed Rendell’s official car was clocked at over 100 mph several times before he promised to slow down.

But Corzine’s near-fatal accident is the ultimate cautionary tale. It should serve as a reminder the next time a public official is tempted to step on the gas and turn on the emergency lights. Slowing down should be state policy.