The following are editorial opinions from newspapers from around the world which may be of interest to Royal Gazette readers.Star Tribune of Minneapolis, on the NFL’s image... you get the impression that nowadays sports, especially football and the money that goes with it, is less a way out of trouble than an enabler of criminal conduct. At least 50 National Football League players have been arrested since the start of 2006.

Commissioner Roger Goodell was right last week to announce a crackdown. His rule changes, undertaken with the cooperation of the players union, allow the NFL to discipline rogue players even before their cases reach court. ...

His suspension of Adam (Pacman) Jones for the 2007 season will cost the Tennessee defender $1.3 million in salary. Jones has been arrested five times and questioned in five other cases since turning pro in 2004. ... Goodell also suspended Chris Henry, who has been arrested four times in three states for gun, drug, alcohol and driving offences since going pro in 2005. ...

It’s good that the NFL’s tougher new stance also carries more behavioural training for players, although finding a better class of friends is a tough sell for suddenly rich kids who want to show off back on the old block where, unfortunately, the notion of gangster/athlete holds considerable appeal.

More than really caring about its miscreants, New England owner Robert Kraft best expressed the league’s overriding motive: It’s worried about a bad image and the commercial consequences. ...The Star-Ledger of Newark, on World Bank Chief Paul WolfowitzWhen Paul Wolfowitz moved from the Defense Department to become president of the World Bank in June 2005, some development experts cheered. They believed Wolfowitz would demand greater accountability and good governance from countries that received World Bank funds so that money would go for development rather than padding the pockets of corrupt leaders.

Still, staffers at the bank weren’t happy. For them, Wolfowitz was a key architect of neoconservatism and an Iraq hawk. ... The fact that he brought with him several acolytes to help push through his views, rather than building consensus, added to the mistrust. No wonder, then, that staffers were primed for a fight when word came out that Wolfowitz had helped his girlfriend, Shaha Riza — who had been a bank employee — move to a job at the State Department that added $60,000 to her income. ... By the end of the week, Wolfowitz’s tenure at the World Bank looked to be in peril.

Should it be? Probably. The World Bank should be a model of the values it promotes. If the bank’s president is an advocate for clean governance, he should be able to meet those standards himself. Wolfowitz fell far short of his own exacting ideals.>The Tampa Tribune, on Gov. Charlie Crist’s idea for a national catastrophe fundEven as Gov. Charlie Crist lobbied in Washington last week for a national catastrophe fund, the Bush administration summarily dismissed the idea. While it’s not surprising such a proposal would meet resistance from some members of Congress, the administration’s uncompromising opposition is disappointing. The creation of an emergency fund deserves a hearing in Congress, and the president need not get in the way. ...

Proponents of a national emergency fund say it would help existing state insurance programs, private insurers and re-insurers when claims reach catastrophic proportions. As the Florida Legislature determined during January’s special session on spiking homeowners insurance premiums, if insurers know their losses would be capped, they would be under less pressure to raise rates.

That’s why Crist and Florida Sens. Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez are pushing the creation of a congressional panel to consider an emergency fund. The governor calls it a matter of national defence, and he’s right. The government has a duty to protect its citizens, and no state is immune from cataclysmic natural or homemade disasters. ...

Whether Congress ultimately favours a federal emergency fund, it would be worth lawmakers’ efforts to establish a commission to study the national disaster insurance marketplace.