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

Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram,

on saving seeds:

... Worldwide catastrophes are possible, and humans are trying in many ways to prepare for survival. Recent news about that comes from Norway.

On an archipelago in the frigid Norwegian Sea, there is a frozen sandstone mountain, and carved into it is a vast, concrete facility known as "the doomsday vault." The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is designed to become the world's single largest seed bank, storing up to 4.5 million seed samples from food crops in every region on Earth. ...

The Global Crop Diversity Trust notes that in addition to threats from nuclear war, pandemics and plant disease, "an increasingly unpredictable and changing climate, and a world population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, will place unprecedented demands on agriculture."

That's a credible expectation that helps to drive a tremendous amount of botanical conservation and research internationally. ...

The question is: Would the world's deeper, darker problems persist? Would post-catastrophe rogue governments allow access to the Svalbard seeds? ... And if they could, how would they find the vault?

A hint: Look for a dazzling light.

According to Science Daily, ... Sanne will use "multiple pieces of highly polished sheet metal ... placed so they will sparkle in the Arctic midnight sun."

What a sight that will be. What an ending for a sci-fi thriller that we hope will never be written.

The Morning Journal, Lorain, Ohio,

on handgun ownership:

If any issue in the 2008 presidential and congressional races could overshadow the Iraq war, health insurance or the nation's economic future, it is the one just triggered by the United States Supreme Court: handgun ownership.

The justices have agreed to consider an appeals court ruling that struck down the local Washington, D.C., government's total ban on handguns. Cities with tight handgun restrictions will be keeping a close eye on how the Supreme Court rules because that ruling will likely hit close to home. ...

We have little use for handguns, which the daily parade of headlines across the nation shows doing far more harm than good, especially in cities like Lorain and Cleveland and Washington, D.C. We hope the high court upholds the D.C. gun ban and reads the Second Amendment as plainly referring to the establishment of state militias.

We also hope the Second Amendment matter won't create such commotion in the 2008 political campaigns that other important issues fall by the wayside.