The following are excerpts from editorials in newspapers around the world which may be of interest to readers of The Royal Gazette:

Khaleej Times, Dubai, UAE,– on violence against Christians in India

The continuing violence against Christians across India and the shocking apathy of both the federal and state governments toward the killings of innocent citizens by extremist Hindu organisations reflect poorly on the country's secular credentials.

Not surprisingly, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was pulled up by European leaders at the India-European Union summit in Marseilles on Monday.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy, who heads the European Council, and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso sought an explanation from Singh about the "massacre" of Christians in Orissa and Karnataka. The visiting premier, who has in the past condemned the attacks, admitted that the violence against the minorities was a "national shame."

But the escalating violence, which has now spread to other states including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Chhatisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, and the growing intolerance on the part of militant Hindu outfits, calls for much stronger action on the part of the United Progressive Alliance government.

Expressing remorse at international gatherings and issuing sympathetic statements will not restore the confidence of the minority community in the ability of the government to protect its citizens. ...

India has in recent years witnessed several shameful incidents where state governments have abandoned their responsibility of protecting citizens by allowing organised attacks on minorities resulting in thousands of deaths. ... It is time now for the federal government to take effective steps to prevent such tragedies.

The Age, Melbourne, Australia,–on the US presidential election

Those who fear that democracy is losing its vigour in the modern West should have been reassured by the first debate between the US presidential candidates. Not because of anything that emerged from the debate itself, for it revealed almost nothing that was not already known about the two candidates and their views.

But because, if polls are any guide, American voters are beginning to show a real shift in their allegiance. And that shift seems to be based not on what the candidates had to say to each other, or on what spin doctors had to say about it, but on the voters' own assessment of what is happening in their country. ...

The Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, has long performed well in estimates of the national popular vote: he reportedly leads his Republican rival, John McCain, by an average of five percent across all polls. But Senator Obama has struggled to win enough support in the states he is likely to need to win to secure an electoral-college majority.

This week, however, for the first time in several months, the polls show that if the election were held now the electoral college votes in one of those crucial states, Virginia, would go to the Democratic candidate.

The balance has also swung in another state that had hitherto inclined to the Republicans, North Carolina. Senator McCain has a slight edge in Ohio, a "swing" state that the eventual victor is expected to have to win, but the evidence is that the college count is shifting in favour of the Democrats.

Does this reflect a stellar performance by Senator Obama in his opening debate with Senator McCain? It seems unlikely, for even the staunchest of Obama supporters would not have scored the encounter that way. Few observers of the debate saw it as an emphatic win for Senator McCain, either.

If there was a general impression created by the clash, such as it was, it was perhaps that, while the two candidates were trading predictable accusations, the events most likely to influence the election outcome were happening outside the university auditorium where the debate took place. ...