  Based on the most recent data in charmless B decays including the very
recently reported large direct CP violations, it is shown that the weak phase
gamma can well be extracted without two-fold ambiguity even only from two decay
modes pi^+pi^- and pi^+K^-, and its value is remarkably consistent with the
global standard model fit at a compatible accuracy. A fit to all the pi pi, pi
K data favor both large electroweak penguin and color-suppressed tree amplitude
with large strong phases. It is demonstrated that the inclusion of small
SU(3)symmetry breaking effects of strong phases and the inelastic rescattering
effects can well improve the consistency of the data, while both effects may
not be sufficient to arrive at a small electroweak penguin amplitude in the
standard model. It is of interest to notice that large or small electroweak
penguin amplitude becomes a testable prediction as they lead to significantly
different predictions for the direct CP violations for pi^0 pi^0, pi^0 K^0
modes. Clearly, precise measurements on charmless B decays will provide a
window for probing new physics.
