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

The Vindicator, Youngstown, Ohio, –on Congo human-rights problems

A year after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the central African nation of Congo and pledged $17 million to fight the epidemic of sexual violence, innocent women, girls and even boys are still being raped at will — and in shockingly large numbers.

But what is most disturbing about the situation is that the United Nations has had a peacekeeping force in the country for ten years...

A UN report was released this week documenting the atrocities committed between 1993 and 2003. More than 5 million people died.

The report singles out the military of neighbouring Rwanda for war crimes and genocide. ... Against that background, the epidemic of sexual violence, which was illustrated by the mass rapes that took place over a four-day period this summer, demands an aggressive response from the United Nations. ...

But as the New York Times revealed this week, the gang-raping of at least 200 women in the village of Luvungi took place while dozens of peacekeepers were based just up the road. ...

The international community cannot remain silent any longer. The Unites States ... has a responsibility to lead the way in protecting the civilian population in Congo.

Human decency demands no less.

San Francisco Chronicle –on stem cell therapy clinical trials

The world's first clinical trial for stem cell therapy began October 11. The trial is still in its very early stages — only ten people who have suffered recent spinal cord injuries will be enrolled — but it's still a landmark event.

The world will be watching the results of those trials at as many as seven centres around the country.

In at least one sense, the trial is already a victory. The political controversy around stem cells resulted in funding delays for scientific research, and many scientists were afraid that other countries would beat the U.S. to the trial stage.

Instead, a local company — Geron Corp. of Menlo Park — is running the trial, with American patients and within American borders. It's an encouraging sign, and it means there's a good chance that the industry will continue to grow here. It's also a rebuke to those who would happily block science — including the federal judge who ruled in September that federal funding for stem cell research was illegal.

The trial is also a positive breakthrough in that it shows that the promise of stem cells is indeed within our reach. We don't know yet whether the trial will be successful, but at least we know that all of the money that's been invested so far into basic research will soon have positive manifestations. ...