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

Belfast Telegraph, Northern Ireland, on Britain and Sarkozy

President Nicolas Sarkozy could scarcely have made a better impression on his hosts during his first state visit to Britain.

Although he is viewed with some suspicion back home, he said all the right things during his historic address to both Houses of Parliament. Britain laid on the pomp as only it can do and he responded by laying on the charm as only the French can do. ...

But it was President Sarkozy's views on current relationships which were the most startling. He appeared to signal a desire for a new axis of power in Europe, with Britain and France standing together much more closely to influence events not only on the continent but also globally. Just how his comments will have been received by France's longstanding ally in Europe, Germany, is open to question.

France and Britain, he said, should work together to tackle issues such as energy, immigration, security and defence, and he pledged more troops to aid NATO forces in Afghanistan. ...

President Sarkozy's new wife, former supermodel Carla Bruni, also put on a perfect performance, as understated as her husband's was flamboyant. ...

Los Angeles Times,– on the Summer Games and China

Despite its best efforts, Beijing may be losing the battle to script the Summer Games. The real revelation in recent footage of protests over the Beijing Olympics was not the image of a Reporters Without Borders demonstrator being dragged away by Greek security guards dressed like stewards on the Hindenburg.

It was that during his protest, at the Athens torch-lighting ceremony, the sole camera feed cut first to a long shot making it difficult to see what was happening, then cut away entirely — to stock footage. After a decent interval, coverage returned to the main event: a boom-camera shot of a stately ceremony featuring women in faux-classical gowns.

This is the kind of emergency editing that viewers of Syrian or Burmese TV are accustomed to seeing when the news takes a direction unfavourable to local dictators. It says something about the so-called spirit of the Olympics that the first inclination of the people covering the event was to try to suppress unwanted information. ...

At times like these, it's customary to repeat bromides about how the grandeur of amateur competition should transcend parochial interests. And it's true that legitimate concerns about human rights, democracy and the behaviour of authoritarian thugs can lead to knee-jerk politicisation of the event — such as recent strident calls for Bush to shun the Games.

But this is shaping up to be the most exciting political Olympics since the end of the Cold War. The speed with which Beijing has lost control of the Olympic script is not cause for cynicism but for celebration. Strife, ferment and the painful progress toward liberal modernity by a freedom-challenged great power may not be what the International Olympic Committee prefers to show us, but it's a lot more interesting than another round of sports utopianism and pretty production values.