Here are excerpts from editorials in newspapers around the world that may be of interest to our readers:

The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Obama's candidacy:

Regardless of whether you support or oppose Democrat Barack Obama's candidacy for the presidency, we can all take a measure of pride in the fact that Iowa voters played a pivotal role in his historic march to the Democratic nomination.

Obama is the first African-American to win a major party's presidential nomination.

It's another milestone for a nation marching steadily, though at times too slowly, toward greater racial equality. And Obama's melting pot lineage, with his Kenyan father and Kansan mother, makes his inspiring story even more uniquely American.

Obama's road to victory started in Iowa, where he won the first-in-the-nation precinct caucus in January. That victory surprised many, especially observers outside of Iowa, who believed that a black candidate could not win in an overwhelmingly white state. But thanks to the Obama campaign's meticulous organisational plan, his energetic pursuit of Iowa voters for nearly a year and the scores of young people who jumped into politics for the first time on his behalf, Obama triumphed. The rest, as they say, is history. ...

The News-Journal, Daytona Beach, Florida, on adopting across racial lines:

For many adoptive families across the United States, love is truly colourblind. Each year, thousands of adults are willing to cross racial lines to give homes to children who need them. ...

Yet the federal government's policy, as expressed in the 1994 Multi-Ethnic Placement Law, pretends race doesn't matter in most adoptions. Adoption agencies aren't allowed to consider whether families are equipped to handle the challenges of cross-racial adoption or required to talk to them about problems that commonly arise. ...

The intent behind the law is obvious. Black children are disproportionately likely to be in permanent foster care. They make up 32 percent of foster children, but only 15 percent of children in the United States. These children need and deserve permanent, loving homes. The 1996 law was an attempt to break down barriers and encourage more families to consider adopting minorities.

But the law isn't working out as planned. Black children are still less likely to be adopted than children in other racial groups. And children adopted by parents of a different race can struggle with identity issues and psychological distress.

States should also do more to encourage minority families to consider adopting children, by eliminating the barriers that keep them from coming forward. ...

Race should not be a barrier to a child in need of a home. But neither should it be an unanticipated stumbling block for adoptive families seeking to build new lives together. Federal law, policy and funding should reflect that.