Here are excerpts from editorials in newspapers around the world:

The Independent, UK, on the price of oil:

Night follows day and, when the price of oil rises, so do the profits of the oil companies. That is the context we should bear in mind when we read about Shell and BP's record profits this year. If your business is selling something that everyone seems to want, your profits will go up.

The immediate question is what, if anything, governments should be doing about these stellar profits. One answer is a "windfall" tax. Whenever the oil majors report vast earnings, they are met with demands for such a levy. This is understandable. It's not as if these companies have increased their productivity or become vastly more efficient in the past year. Yet a windfall tax would do more harm than good in the long term. Taxation should be transparent and predictable. If governments run around slapping taxes on industries that benefit from rising commodity prices, investment will eventually suffer. We should remember, too, that it is in the interests of the planet that the price of heavily-polluting fossil fuels remains high so as to encourage conservation and investment in cleaner forms of energy.

Jerusalem Post, Jerusalem, Israel, on the food crisis:

It surprises and humbles when a crisis comes, seemingly, out of nowhere, to upset the agenda we thought we had set for ourselves, our businesses or our government.

Such is the case of the global food crisis, which the UN World Food Programme has termed a "silent tsunami." Globalisation has created a degree of interdependence never previously imagined. Whether we like it or not, the world is ever more integrated politically, culturally and economically.

We are now learning more about rice then, perhaps, we ever cared to. How many of us knew that Thailand was the world's biggest rice exporter and the source of most of Israel's supply? And who would have imagined that 225 million people a year could be fed on the six percent of Asian rice lost each year to rats?

More significantly, experts say that there is no sudden shortage, but rather a steadily mounting demand. Rice consumption has risen 40 percent in three decades, according to the UN.

Nothing makes people more jumpy than telling them not to panic – and yet, objectively, there's nothing to panic about. Sure it's regrettable that food prices are rising, but the government should not be stampeded into precipitous actions that might upset market forces in a way that does more harm than good. At the same time, we do want the government to scrutinise developments and, if necessary, sensibly target financial assistance through the National Insurance Institute to those most hard-hit by higher food prices.

The New York Times, on Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., and Presidential candidate Barack Obama:

It took more time than it should have, but on Tuesday Barack Obama firmly rejected the racism and paranoia of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., and he made it clear that the preacher does not represent him, his politics or his campaign.

Senator Obama has had to struggle to explain this relationship ever since a video surfaced of Mr. Wright damning the United States from his pulpit. Last month, Mr. Obama delivered a speech in which he said he disapproved of Mr. Wright's racially charged comments but said that the pastor still played an important role in his spiritual life.

It was a distinction we were not sure would sit well with many voters. But what mattered more was the speech's powerful commentary on the state of race relations in this country. We hoped it would open the door to a serious, healthy and much-needed discussion on race.

Mr. Wright has not let that happen.

If Mr. Obama is the Democratic presidential nominee, we fear that there will be many more such commercials. And Mr. Obama will have to repudiate Mr. Wright's outbursts many more times.

This country needs a healthy and open discussion of race. Mr. Obama's repudiation of Mr. Wright is part of that. His opponents also have a responsibility to repudiate the race-baiting and make sure it stops.