  We discuss several issues related to direct CP violation in rare $B$ meson
decays. We review the use of CP asymmetries in extracting information of strong
and weak phases, how the experimental data fit into the overall picture, and
the current status of the $K \pi$ puzzle. We also examine the flavor symmetry
assumption using closely related decay modes and extract the weak phase
$\gamma$ from certain $B \to K^* \pi$ and $\rho K$ decays.
