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

The Times-Picayune, New Orleans,–on the 'don't ask, don't tell' ruling

US District Judge Virginia Phillips of California didn't mince words in ordering a permanent end to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" ban on openly gay men and women serving.

In her order October 12, Phillips said the 1993 law "infringes on the fundamental rights" of military men and women, violates their freedom of speech and negates their right "to petition the government for redress of grievances" in order to keep their jobs.

She's right. "Don't ask, don't tell" put gay members of the military in an impossible position, allowing them to serve only if they lied about who they are or if no one else found out and made a complaint. More than 13,500 service members have been discharged under the policy.

The Obama administration has said it plans to appeal Phillips' order. The administration should decline an appeal and let this flawed policy die. At the same time, the president should speed up efforts to pass a repeal of the law in Congress, so the issue is put to rest once and for all. ...

The fundamental flaw of "don't ask, don't tell" is that it forces gay men and women in the military to give up their rights in order to defend ours.

That's wrong — and it should end now.

Loveland Colorado Daily Reporter-Herald–on Mexican drug gangs

Yet another American has died at the hands of Mexican drug gangs. David Hartley and his wife, Tiffany Young-Hartley, who both grew up in Colorado, were riding Jet Skis September 30 on Falcon Reservoir, which straddles the US-Mexico border. According to Young-Hartley, David Hartley was gunned down by apparent pirates connected to a Mexican drug cartel.

His body has not been found.

Some Mexican authorities were at first sceptical of Young-Hartley's story. But any doubt likely was put to rest recently after the severed head of Rolando Armando Flores Villegas was delivered in a suitcase to a Mexican Army base. He was the state police commander investigating the case. ...

Mexican drug violence is so horrific, and the authorities sometimes appear so compromised, that the situation can seem hopeless. ...

It is unacceptable for large swaths of a country that shares a 2,000-mile border with the US to be ruled by narco-psychos. It is unacceptable for border waters to be controlled by drug pirates.

The violence will continue to claim American lives unless the drug gangs are countered with a force commensurate to their threat.