Thousands of Armenians staged a procession to a hilltop memorial above the capital on Tuesday to mark the 97th anniversary of the genocide of their kin by Ottoman Turks during World War I.

From early morning, crowds of people joined the annual procession, carrying candles and flowers to lay at the eternal flame at the center of the monument commemorating the mass killings.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon abandoned plans Saturday for an international conference on reuniting Cyprus because leaders of the island's rival communities had not made enough progress on their disputes.

Ban spoke to Demetris Christofias, leader of the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government, and Turkish-Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu, to inform them of his decision, a U.N. spokesman said.

The leader of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region vowed Friday he would not allow Kurdish separatists to stage attacks in Turkey from northern Iraq, local media reported.

"We will use all methods including pressure" to deter the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from launching cross-border attacks, Massud Barzani said, according to the CNN-Turk television.

Turkey on Friday urged the leader of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region for tougher action against a drawn-out insurgency waged by Kurdish militants, a Turkish diplomat told Agence France Presse.

The formation of an oil authority is absent from the agenda of a cabinet session on Friday but progress is being made to speed up exploration of potential offshore gas and oil reserves.

The authority is tasked with overseeing the petroleum sector for the purpose of exploring the reserves.

World powers should push for tough United Nations sanctions against Syria in order to force Bashar al-Assad's regime to comply with a U.N. peace plan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday.

"We need to start moving very vigorously in the Security Council for a Chapter Seven sanctions resolution," Clinton told international envoys at talks in Paris.

Some 1,500 refugees have headed back to neighboring Syria since a fragile U.N.-backed truce went into effect a week ago, according to official figures published on Thursday.

Currently, a total of 23,558 Syrians are taking refuge in Turkey, said the prime minister's disaster and emergency management center, which gives a regular update on the figures.

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Thursday the number of registered Syrians who have fled the unrest in their country to neighboring Jordan reached around 12,500 this month.

"In Jordan, some 12,500 Syrians had registered with UNHCR as of mid-April 2012. This figure is expected to increase as UNHCR and partners expand their outreach efforts and level of assistance to Syrians," the agency said in a statement on its website.

Turkish officials on Thursday began searching a German-owned vessel suspected of carrying weapons to Syria, a diplomatic source told Agence France Presse.

Turkey has intercepted a Bermuda-flagged vessel suspected of carrying weapons and ammunition to Syria in the Mediterranean, a diplomatic source told Agence France Presse on Wednesday.

"We received information that the vessel has a cargo of arms and ammunition headed for Syria," the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that Turkish authorities would search the vessel later in the day.