Make sure that in your Preferences that you have the top default Language set to [en-US]. That seems to work for me from Japan.

Tools > Preferences > Search

you can add search engines to the drop down and also set your default search engine

Thanks, but even after doing that I still get the local google and not google.com in the search box.....grrrr

you can add google.com via speed dial ( I had the same problem with Opera 10 ..in France .want .com not .fr..found adding it to speed dial and always going via there works ..if somewhat inconvenient ) ..HTH

You should be able to configure on google.fr/... if you want local searches or google.com.

Opera say ..here [help.opera.com] how to change the SE's or add to those in the dropdown box ..On linux Opera 10 their suggestion doesnt work ( havent tried it on windows with 10 ) ..so via speed dial is easier and works with just one extra click :)

That's really odd because Opera is my only browser that works correctly with Google and Bing for me in Japan. FF, IE and Chrome are always giving me the Japanese version of the SE. I have to use the browser, go the the preferred version of the SE, and then the search box will work correctly.

Are you logged in to Google when performing these searches? Have you set your preferences there?

In Opera have you tried deleting the problematic SEs and then manually re-adding them by right-clicking in the search box of your preferred language version of the SE?