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

The Charleston Post and Courier, S.C,–on US freedoms

... As our legislators contemplate policies to address the big challenges facing the nation and await guidance from the president-elect, it is worth remembering the words of FDR (Former president Franklin Delano Roosevelt).

... Like President-elect Obama, President Roosevelt invoked an American tradition of change. "Since the beginning of our American history," he said, "we have been engaged in change — in a perpetual peaceful revolution — a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions — without the concentration camp or the quicklime in the ditch. The world order we seek is the co-operation of free countries, working together in a friendly civilized society."

This new order, the president said, would be "founded on four essential human freedoms." He cited freedom of speech and expression, freedom to worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. ...

When the new Congress and the new president survey the world, they cannot help but notice that in most of the world's trouble-spots, and even in some of the world's most stable countries, the four freedoms are under daily attack. That will pose many difficult choices for our next president, as it has for his predecessors. But on our firm adherence to these fundamentals there can be no retreat.

Lietuvos Rytas, Vilnius, Lithuania,–on energy issues in Europe

The cold front in Europe was accompanied by worrying news from the East. Russia and Ukraine have faced off in a conflict over natural gas, while others watch anxiously as pressure in the pipe drops.

For some European Union members, there's no time to wait and see who is right and who is wrong in the dispute. Slovakia, for instance, is about to declare state of emergency due to the dramatic shortage in gas supplies.

The outcome is vague, but one thing is clear: Europe was taken by surprise by Moscow and Kiev's row, although the Old World faced a similar situation a few years ago. The lesson was not learnt.

The European Commission is demanding that gas supplies be renewed. There are hints of an EU, Russia, Ukraine summit, but hasty announcements seemed to have made no impression on Russian and Ukrainian leaders.

Even worse, there are signs that the EU has acted ridiculously slowly in this crisis, not only unable to solve it but even to grasp its seriousness. On Monday both the commission and the Czech Republic, which is presiding over the rotating presidency, brushed the situation off as "Moscow's and Kiev's commercial quarrel," saying that the EU would not meddle.

Prague even tried to silence Lithuanian diplomats, who were probably the only ones who urged Brussels to start immediate negotiations with both sides of the conflict.