We spoke earlier in the week about our dilemma about when and how to cover the Aung San Suu Kyi "trial" in Myanmar. As you probably remember, the "court" in Myanmar sentenced her to 18 months of additional house arrest for violating the terms of her existing house arrest. Remember this all came about because in May, a Missouri man named John Yettew took it upon himself to swim to her compound. He was apparently in bad shape so she let him recover there. Originally, the sentence was actually three years of hard labor for her and seven years for him. But an official appeared in court to offer her the "option" of adding more time to her existing sentence. Most international observers just assume that this was a sham trial, and the outcome was never in doubt. The purpose was just to keep her out of elections next year.

We contacted her international lawyer, Jared Genser, to talk about this, and he had a somewhat surprising message: that the focus cannot be just on Aunt San Suu Kyi. Anyway, you can read what he has to say in an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune.

And we spent a good bit of time on Secretary Clinton's trip to Africa. Last week we featured U.S. analysts and U.S. and African business people to give us an advance look at her trip. But we really wanted to know how the trip was being received there. The headlines here, well, the focus seems to be on the Secretary's fit of pique at a student's asking her for her husband (and former President) Bill Clinton's perspective on some issue or another. Okay, fine, whatever — grist for the ongoing Clinton drama machine.

But what about the thousands of Congolese women (and girls and boys and some men) who are being raped in the course of the ongoing civil conflict there? And what about the ongoing efforts by activists and civil society to overcome past disputes and transform some of these countries into fully functioning democracies? Let's hear about that too. And we do ... from three African journalists.