Ankara - There were no concrete results from a trilateral summit in Ankara Wednesday between the presidents of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey - but the summit was an example of Turkey attempting to play a new role in regional affairs.

Washington/Brussels - Albania and Croatia formally joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Wednesday, raising its member states to 28.

The announcement came shortly after the ambassadors of the two Central European countries handed over the "instruments of accession" during a ceremony at the US State Department in Washington.

The bureaucratic act completed a year-long process involving the ratification of their accession by existing NATO allies.

London  - US President Barack Obama and Chinese Prime Minister Hu Jintao moved Wednesday to lay aside a recent round of tensions between Washington and Beijing by committing themselves to working together to combat the global recession.

"The two sides agreed to work together to build a positive, cooperative, and comprehensive US-China relationship for the 21st century and to maintain and strengthen exchanges at all levels," Obama and Hu said in a joint statement following talks in London.

Rome - Pope Benedict XVI called Tuesday for the Group of 20 big economies meeting in London this week to address global poverty.

In a message to G20 host British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Benedict called on participants to unite in helping the world's poor.

He said his recent visit to Africa earlier this month had emphasized how much "the weak suffer due to a crisis about which they can do nothing."

Washington  - The US Chamber of Commerce threw its weight behind a bill introduced Tuesday in the US Senate that would eliminate the ban on most US travel to the Caribbean island.

The bill, which has strong support in both parties, would appear to open the flood gates for US travellers and tourists, and is seen as a first step towards reexamining the overall restrictions on US trade with the communist island.