Washington  - Barack Obama's campaign promise to recognize that the slaughter of more than 1 million Armenians in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire was genocide has left him in a difficult spot as president.

Since he took office, the influential Armenian-American community has been clamoring for Obama to follow through on the declaration and expressed disappointment that he did not do so during his trip in early April to Turkey.

Ankara - Turkish diplomats have undertaken initiatives to free two Turkish sailors who have been taken hostage by pirates just off the Nigerian coast, Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said on Wednesday.

The captain and second engineer of the Marshall Islands-flagged ship Aleyna Mercan were taken hostage after the ship was attacked by pirates of the Nigerian port of Onne on April 20, the Anadolu news agency reported. The two men were later taken off the ship.

Ankara - Ten people, including four military officers were taken into custody Wednesday after investigators found a buried cache of weapons thought to be connected to a plot to overthrow Turkey's moderate Islamist government, Turkish media reported.

Grenades, anti-tank rockets, hand guns and ammunition were amongst the armaments found during the search in a forested area of Poyrazkoy, NTV said. No official statement had been released as of Wednesday evening.

Ankara - Human rights group Amnesty International in a report published Wednesday called on Turkey to completely overhaul its asylum procedures to bring them in line with international norms,

Asylum seekers were often denied their rights and many were forcibly returned to their country where they were at risk of serious human rights abuses, the non-governmental organization said.

Ankara  - Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Canada in protest at a number of Canadian government ministers attending an event marking Canada's recognition of the massacres of Armenians during World War I as genocide, CNN Turk reported on Wednesday.

Prague  - Turkish Foreign Minist