The start of the trial of 19 defendants in the November 2009 massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao province in the southern Philippines is a step for justice, but the government needs to arrest all those implicated and provide better protection for witnesses.

Maoist militants and Indian authorities should protect both schools and children's access to education during the upcoming Bihar state elections. The use of schools by government police and paramilitary forces as bases during the election campaign can disrupt students' access to education and may increase the likelihood of Maoist attacks on schools.

Many Indian hospitals routinely subject rape survivors to forensic examinations that include the unscientific and degrading “finger” test. Human Rights Watch urges the Indian government to ban the practice, used to determine whether the rape survivor is “habituated” to sexual intercourse, as it reforms its laws on sexual violence.

The Chinese government should use this week’s visit by Burmese leader Than Shwe to press Burma to conduct open elections and provide accountability for serious crimes.

During the Vietnam conflict, the US military developed some creative ways to increase the numbers of Viet Cong insurgents it claimed to have killed. "If they're dead, they're Viet Cong," meant that any Vietnamese killed by American soldiers would automatically count as enemy fighters.

One day last month, I spoke with a medical student in Srinagar, the summer capital of the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir. "We have seen enough of India," the twenty-something-year-old told me. "We don't want to put up with the oppression anymore. We want freedom." He proudly claimed to be one of Kashmir's so-called stone pelters -- protesters who aim large rocks at the Indian security forces that have been trying to put down a resurgent wave of demonstrations in Kashmir. "We are peaceful protesters," he said. "We only throw stones if they stop us." And if they catch a policeman alone, he said, they beat him up.

China's Economic Observer reporter Qiu Ziming beat the odds in July by not going to jail. Mr. Qui had been the target of a Zhejiang police arrest warrant issued at the behest of a powerful local paper company, which Mr. Qiu had exposed for insider trading. Police withdrew the arrest warrant and issued a rare public apology on July 29 after Mr. Qiu's employers strongly defended his reporting. Mr. Qiu is one of the lucky ones.