THE Summit of the Americas held in the second week of April in Panama City has been an eventful one. Besides the handshake and meeting between the American and Cuban presidents, what was on show was the unity shown by the Caribbean and Latin American countries on key issues. The trend has been continued form the last Summit held in 2012 in the Colombian port city of Cartagena. That summit was notable for the solidarity extended to Cuba. Barring the United States, all the other countries in the continent were united in their opposition to the American economic blockade on Cuba.

THE Second World War, or, the war against fascism, was one of the truly epochal events of the 20th century. The war was like no other in history because of its global scale and the immense destruction of human lives and productive capacities. It also exemplified the collision of various historical forces set in the background of the worst crisis faced by capitalism and imperialism. The barbarous force which emerged in the inter-war period, between the First and the Second World Wars, was the phenomenon of fascism and its German variant Nazism.

The following is the text of the open letter to the People of the United States written by Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela.WE are the people of Simon Bolívar, our people believe in peace and respect for all nations.Freedom and IndependenceMore than two centuries ago, our fathers founded a Republic on the basis that all persons are free and equal under the law.Our nation made the greatest sacrifices to guarantee South American people their right to choose their rulers and to enforce their own laws today.

THE brutal beheadings of two Japanese citizens and the torching of the Jordanian pilot who were in the captivity of the Islamic State (IS) were the latest instances of the group’s total disregard for basic humanitarian norms. The IS propagandists claim that they are only replicating on a smaller scale what the US and its allies did on a bigger scale with their bombings on civilian areas in Iraq and the torture that was practiced in Abu Ghraib and other CIA run centers.

THE success of President Barack Obama’s decision to rebalance the power equation in East Asia with the “pivot to the East” policy depends a lot on cooperation from major powers in the region, notably India. India under both the NDA and UPA has been portraying itself as the “natural partner” of the USA. The leaderships of the two countries revel in describing themselves as the two largest democracies in the world that also share core values. Since the signing of the defense partnership agreement between the two countries ten years ago, strategic and military relations have indeed deepened.