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

The Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, –on anti-whaling activists

Should Japan pick up the gauntlet thrown down by anti-whaling activists? It might feel good, but to do so would mean falling for a provocation.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which operates from Australia, is really an annoying bunch of people.

The Japan Coast Guard has arrested a member of the anti-whaling group, which has been trying to disrupt Japan's whaling activities for research purposes.

Peter Bethune, a New Zealander, was arrested on suspicion of "vessel invasion" after he boarded without permission a Japanese ship conducting a whale hunt in the Antarctic Ocean.

Japan has every right to take legal action against such a violation. But it would be detrimental to the nation's interests if the action is used to turn this activist into a hero and drum up anti-whaling sentiment aimed at Japan in many countries.

The whaling debate should focus on how to use and protect marine resources based on scientific theories and evidence. It could get sidetracked if issues concerning cultures and values emerge as major flash points. ...

Instead of reacting emotionally to Sea Shepherd's antics, Japan should make a cool-headed effort to find a solution to this dispute. ...

What is most important for Japan's handling of this issue is to make tenacious efforts for an international agreement at the International Whaling Commission. ...

The Australian, Sydney, –on Australia-Japan relations

The Prime Minister, like Barack Obama, knows that leaders need to stick close to home when the heat is on. Just as the US president is reassessing the time he can afford to be away from home in the midst of dramas overs his health reforms, so Kevin Rudd has ruled out a trip to Washington in April to attend a nuclear non-proliferation meeting. The Prime Minister has upset the Japanese in so doing, but it would be poor politics for him to play the statesman offshore as he faces important debates on tax, health and spending in the lead up to the budget.

Even so, Rudd cannot afford to offend the Japanese and must immediately address diplomatic tensions. ...

Japan is a hugely important ally in the region, yet the Rudd government continues to strike the wrong note in what should be a bedrock partnership. The recent visit by the new Japanese Foreign Minister, Katsuya Okada, to Australia, while successful, did not quell the resentment building within the Japanese government over whaling. During that visit, officials on both sides sought to minimise the gulf between the two countries over the issue. Yet Australia's threat to take Japan to the International Court of Justice over its whaling has irritated Tokyo. It has also been provoked by comments from Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who in January criticised Japanese whaling officials for hiring Australian spotter planes to track activists and blamed both parties for a collision that wrecked the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's speedboat.

Australia has long been opposed to commercial whaling but Labor upped the ante at the 2007 election in a move that promised strong action against Japan and helped shore up Labor's green credentials among younger voters in particular. Now Australia is looking increasingly isolated, with the issue testing our relationship with Japan just when, as foreign editor Greg Sheridan wrote recently, we "should be straining every sinew to maximise influence and support" in Tokyo.

Japan's disappointment at Australia's absence from the nuclear talks is not the real problem here. Whaling is, and Rudd might need to consider whether this is one policy area where he should look to his global rather than his domestic constituency.

Chicago Sun-Times –on health care reform

Congress seems likely to wheel in health care reform from an interminable stay in the waiting room and bring it to a final vote in the House of Representatives. As they do, lawmakers should take several points to heart:

— If the legislation fails to draw a single Republican vote, so be it. The GOP has made clear its goal is to kill reform. But millions of working Americans can't get affordable health insurance. Millions more are shut out because of a past illness or worry about being dropped if their medical bills soar. This debate has gone on long enough.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned that the Democrats can forget about future bipartisan cooperation if they push through health care reform on their own.

As if the GOP has shown a hint of bipartisan spirit since getting spooked by the Tea Party crowd.

— Although some Democrats are wavering for fear of being punished at the polls in the fall, we suspect a vote for health care will serve them well. Americans will appreciate the benefits of reform — and a Congress brave enough to go for it. But, in any event, this is no time to play it safe. History will remember those who stood for what is right.

— The bill — a culmination of drawn-out legislative haggling — is flawed in many ways, including its restrictions on abortion funding. But the only alternative is no bill at all. Lawmakers should not let the bill's shortcomings deter them.

— Maintaining the status quo would be financially irresponsible as health care costs continue to soar. In Illinois, health insurance premiums are expected to rise this year by as much as 60 percent. The current reforms don't do enough to curb costs, but they are a start. ...

As health care reform has languished in the waiting room, we can't help but think of the millions of unlucky Americans — uninsured or underinsured — who have already waited too long.

The Buffalo (N.Y.) News –on the Iraq election

Whatever becomes of Iraq — and it remains unknown — it is impossible not to be profoundly impressed by a citizenry that defies mortal threats to do something as ordinary, to us, as vote in an election. Yet that is what Iraqis have done more than once recently, including the recent national elections.

Insurgents lobbed hand grenades at voters. They bombed a voting place. In Baghdad, a family that had just lost a relative to an explosion walked to their polling place. Regardless of anyone's feelings about this war, it is impossible not to be moved by such displays.

The results of the voting are still being tallied, more chaotically than anyone would like, but preliminary results showed voting was close. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was leading in two provinces, while a secular challenger appeared to be drawing Sunni support north of Baghdad.

Much is on the line, including the degree to which Iran may be able to influence its former enemy as American troops prepare to leave the country, seven years after invading. Yet it was plain that the usual concerns of democratic voting — security, jobs, services — were taking a back seat to sectarian issues surrounding the nation's Baathist history. That suggests that Iraq has a long way to go before it ever settles into any kind of normal existence.

But it has the first thing that a democratic nation requires: citizens who understand the value of their votes; everyday people who will risk even death to influence the direction of their country, to the point in Iraq of proudly displaying the iconic purple finger ink that marks them publicly as having voted.

In a country — ours — where we take voting for granted and have even become lackadaisical about the franchise, that ought to be an inspiration.

The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette, –on Nigeria's Muslim-Christian unrest

Another Muslim-Christian massacre happened in Nigeria — continuing a grotesque pattern that has recurred intermittently for two centuries.

Muslim herders in the hills reportedly swooped down on three Christian villages, hacking people with machetes, torching homes, killing everyone who didn't flee fast enough. Even babies were chopped to death. The toll was estimated at 500. More than 400 victims were buried in a single mass grave. The attack allegedly was in reprisal for a January massacre in which Christians killed 300 Muslims.

Year after year, decade after decade, such attacks and riots have marred Nigeria — mostly along a central fault-line between the Christian south and Muslim north. The land is racked by what sociologists call religious tribalism.

Several upheavals have erupted after fundamentalist evangelists attempted to convert Muslim villagers. Tension worsened after some northern states adopted Sharia law, which requires chopping off hands and feet, and execution by stoning. In 2001, about 1,000 died in rioting that flared after a Christian woman walked through a Muslim procession.

Nigeria's government has conducted community meetings to create tolerance and coexistence, without success.

Perhaps the only cure for this tragedy is one that works in Cyprus. During the 1960s, Muslim Turks and Christian Greeks on the Mediterranean island plunged into similar tribal bloodshed. The United Nations sent peacekeeper troops to guard a 112-mile truce line between the warring camps. Subsequent efforts to end hostility between the ethnic groups have failed, so the blue-helmeted soldiers remain on patrol, four decades later.

The Hartford (Conn.) Courant,–on Israel's homes on disputed territory

The announcement by Israel's interior ministry that 1,600 new homes will be built in East Jerusalem on territory claimed by the Palestinians — an announcement made while Vice President Joe Biden was visiting — could not have been an accident. The timing was such that it had to be a deliberate slap in the face to an old friend.

The damage was mitigated somewhat by apologies from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who expressed "regret over the unfortunate timing" and said that ground wouldn't be broken on the project for several years. Perhaps that will allow time for an Israeli government to reverse course on its provocative housing expansion policy, but that's a slim hope.

The way the message about the East Jerusalem housing was delivered was humiliating for the United States. It weakened the position of Palestinian leaders willing to negotiate with Israel. The announcement of new housing inflamed anti-Israel passions in the Arab world.

Biden was right, in response, to condemn the construction project. With each new apartment complex and settlement built by Israel on land claimed by the Palestinians, the chances for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem grow dimmer.

George Mitchell, President Barack Obama's special envoy on Mideast peace, had been scheduled to go to Jerusalem to see if he could get talks going again. But the State Department wouldn't promise, saying, "This is a fluid situation."

Fluid and icy. Not a good climate for peace.