(AP) ISTANBUL - Turkey's state-run agency says the body of a New York City woman killed while on a solo vacation in Turkey is being returned home. The Anadolu Agency says a casket carrying the remains of Sarai Sierra was loaded onto a New York-bound plane on Thursday. The agency said Turkish Airlines is transporting the body for free. 
AP - The body of a New York City mother of two who was killed in Turkey while on a solo vacation is being returned to the U.S. Sarai Sierra's remains are expected to arrive Thursday, the New York Daily News reported. Turkish Airlines is providing the transportation for free. A funeral home on Staten Island has offered free services, but the owner said it's unclear whether the family is accepting the offer. Sierra's husband, Steven, went to Istanbul after she went missing, and he's expected to return to New York on Wednesday to finalize arrangements. 
Johannesburg — South Africa's tourism is set to benefit from the first mosque built in South Africa to cater for the Turkish Islamic community, President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday. Speaking at the official opening of the mosque - a first on the continent of Africa and the largest religious complex in the southern hemisphere - Zuma said the facility will help create greater understanding and tolerance between diverse religions.
The US Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) has guaranteed $66.3 million to facilitate the export of American power plant to Bis Enerji Elektrik Uretim AS (Bis) of Turkey. Ex-Im Bank's financing will support more than 160 American jobs in Houston, Texas; Wellsville, N.Y.; Orlando, Fla.; and Lewiston, Maine. "Ex-Im Bank's loan guarantee affords the U.S. companies involved an opportunity to export their American-made products to a Turkish market hungry for electricity," said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg. "Equally important is the loan guarantee's impact on American jobs, which will benefit from the increased business."
By Jack A. Goldstone (Foreing Policy) - Forget the BRICs. The real economies that will shake up the world over the next few decades need a new acronym. Nov. 30 marked the 10th anniversary of Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill's anointing of the BRIC economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, and China -- as the future leaders of the global economy. Yet 10 years on, the notion of the BRICs already seems out of date. In China and Russia, demographic patterns have shifted. Their working-age populations are declining, as are exports, while still-rigid political systems stifle free thought and hamper technical advance. 
By Matthew Brunwasser - For the Geo Quiz we are looking for a province in southern Turkey about the size of Delaware. The province used to be part of Syria once, but was ceded to Turkey in 1939. It is an ethically diverse province and even includes a village with a 100 percent ethnic Armenian population. The capital of the province is the city of Antakya. Hatay is the answer to the Geo Quiz. Hatay is home to the only village in Turkey that is populated solely by ethnic Armenians considering that most ethnic Armenians, in what was then the Ottoman empire, fled or were killed or ethnically cleansed in 1915. 
Representatives of a prominent US trade delegation consisting of senior representatives of the US renewable energy sector as well as various US government officials and financial companies enjoyed a final gala dinner on Thursday evening sponsored by the Turkish-American Business Association (TABA). Energy consumption in Turkey is expected to grow 5-7 percent per year through 2023 and is forecasted to require over $100 billion in power generation transmission and distribution investment. Renewables will make up an increasingly large part of the pie, with a 30 percent target for the same year
