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NEW YORK—PEN American Center is thrilled by the news that Turkish translator, writer, and peaceful activist Ayşe Berktay has been released from prison pending trial today, but remains deeply troubled that her ongoing prosecution is indicative of a continued assault on writers, journalists, and scholars whose views the Turkish government disfavors. Ayşe Berktay’s next hearing will take place on January 30, 2014. 
SALT LAKE CITY — It took a mighty good cause for Enes Kanter to give up a SpongeBob SquarePants toy he recently bought. But, yes, he did it for the kids. On Monday morning, the Jazz center, jokingly called “Kanter Klaus” by the team’s community relations department, put on a seasonal red-and-white cap and donated more than 200 stuffed animals, Jazz basketballs and toys to the Toys for Tots program. “I’m the Turkey Santa today,” Kanter said with a big smile. The Turkish citizen doesn’t personally celebrate Christmas as a Muslim, but he appreciates the Christian holiday and wanted to spread joy to children.
Clifton, NJ - Comodo, a leading Certificate Authority and Internet security organization, today announced that their Cloud-based AntiSpam Gateway (ASG) service filtered its 50 millionth email on Sunday, December 1, 2013. To-date, ASG has filtered 50,911,110 emails of which 37,954,073 were found to be spam and over 140,000 viruses were blocked by ASG. Live statistics are available of the Antispam website found here http://www.comodo.com/business-security/email-security/antispam-gateway.php. 
NEW YORK — Chobani says it will air its first Super Bowl ad this February, an effort to make the Greek-yogurt company more of a household name. The debut on advertising’s biggest stage comes as Greek yogurt continues to surge in popularity. Known for its thick texture and tart taste, Greek yogurt accounts for more than a third of the U.S. yogurt market, up from just 1 percent in 2007, according to a Bernstein Research report. The figure is expected to top 50 percent in coming years. Chobani is the market leader but says only about a third of Americans are familiar with its brand. 
By Jonathan Friedman-Forbes - Turkey sent a ripple through the Western defense industry when it recently chose a Chinese company to co-produce a missile defense system—passing on US and European bids in the process. It certainly didn’t help that the Chinese company, China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp (CPMIEC), is on a US blacklist for selling arms to the likes of Iran, North Korea, and Syria. In the weeks that followed, news reports detailed Turkish support for radical fighters in Syria and revelations that Turkey’s spymaster dimed out Israeli intelligence sources in Iran. The spate of events caused some to question whether Turkey is still a Western ally. 
Joe Parkinson, Wall Street Journal - PINARBASI, Turkey— Ahmet Tuzer's motto could be: I rock, therefore imam. By day, the 42-year old Muslim cleric chants the Azan—the Islamic call to prayer—from a small mosque in the coastal village of Pinarbasi, where he preaches to about 150 people. By night, he preaches the gospel of Led Zeppelin, singing about a different stairway to heaven with his four-piece rock band, FiRock, led by Mr. Tuzer and heavily tattooed metal guitarist Dogan Sakin. 
Clifton, NJ - Comodo, a leading Certificate Authority and Internet security organization, today announced that their Comodo Internet Security Premium (CIS) software earned a 100% protection score in the most recent evaluation period of AV-Test.org. Comodo made significant improvements to its false positive rate by decreasing the number of false detections of legitimate software as malware from nine to only two. Although six security products achieved a 100% protection rating, Comodo's Internet Security suite is the only software that is completely free to the end-user. 
Turkey has ranked as 53rd out of 177 countries and territories and scored 50, only slightly above the global average, according to a survey released on Tuesday by an international graft watchdog. Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index ranks more than four-fifths of countries in the Middle East below 50 on a scale where zero is a country perceived to be highly corrupt and 100 perceived to be very clean. Countries in the region scored an average 37, below the global average of 43.
The Directors of Marlborough Gallery are pleased to announce an exhibition of recent paintings by the artist Ahmet Güneştekin, who is from Turkey. The exhibition, featuring oil paintings with Güneştekin’s signature rich colors and detailed, interwoven brushstrokes, will open Tuesday November 26, 2013 and continue through January 4, 2014. Güneştekin creates powerful formal compositions as a means to convey a spiritual message. Aesthetically, his paintings are almost sculptural with their careful modulations of color and intricate, detailed layers of lines that cause the painted forms to appear to emerge from the canvas. 
The Houston Rockets entered the NBA 2013-14 season as one of the title favorites with the acquisition of superstar center Dwight Howard, but have started a pedestrian 6-4 record with chemistry issues hounding the team particularly the desire of center Omer Asik to get out of the team. It seems that the Rockets are giving in to the desire of Asik to be traded, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports who says that Houston has engaged in trade talks with multiple teams with the aim of getting an impact player in return. 
The Metro Atlanta Chamber announced Sharecare as the "2013 Emerging Company of the Year" at the 4th Annual Health IT Leadership Summit. Sharecare, founded by Dr. Mehmet Oz and Jeff Arnold, is an online health and wellness social engagement platform based out of Atlanta. More than 30 million people have used the interactive program. NORWICH – A spokesperson for Chobani addressed community rumors about layoffs at their corporate headquarters in Norwich and the New Berlin plant. Chobani’s spokesperson said less than ten people have been laid off at corporate headquarters. The Chobani spokesperson also said that the rumors about layoffs at the New Berlin factory and about plant closings are “completely false.” He said, “Actually, it is just the opposite. There will be new hires in the coming months.” ANKARA — After a stunning decision to select a Chinese contender to build Turkey’s first long-range air and missile-defense system, Ankara has moved to keep the competition open to European and US bidders that came second and third, respectively. The Turkish government has asked the European and US bidders to extend the validity of their bids, a sign that the game is not yet over for these two. The fourth bidder, a Russian manufacturer, had been eliminated from the contest.
ISTANBUL–Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly accused the Western press of reporting “lies” that misrepresent Turkey. Now his government has decided to tell its own side of the story – reaching foreign audiences directly by setting up an English-language television channel. According to the spokesman of state broadcasting company, TRT, the English-language channel is the most expensive project in the state broadcasting company’s 50-year history, costing initially $250 million to set up, with offices opening in 30 countries including the U.S., and in European, Latin American and African countries. 
