Friday marks National Thaw Day, and if you have a turkey in your freezer that you're preparing to cook for Thanksgiving, it might be time for you to begin thawing the bird.

Here is a general rule of thumb on when to move your turkey from the freezer to the refrigerator, according to the USDA:

• 4 to 12 pounds — 1 to 3 days
• 12 to 16 pounds — 3 to 4 days
• 16 to 20 pounds — 4 to 5 days
• 20 to 24 pounds —5 to 6 days

But let's say you missed the deadline. Does that mean you'll have to wait until Thanksgiving to cook the turkey? There is a way to thaw the turkey using water, but it does require some labor.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, after placing the turkey in a water-tight bag, you can submerge the wrapped turkey in cold tap water. Then, change the water every 30 minutes until thawed.

Here is how long it takes to thaw a turkey using water.:

• 4 to 12 pounds — 2 to 6 hours
• 12 to 16 pounds — 6 to 8 hours
• 16 to 20 pounds — 8 to 10 hours
• 20 to 24 pounds — 10 to 12 hours

Once a turkey is thawed, the USDA says that a turkey must be cooked within one to two days before becoming contaminated. As a reminder, turkeys must be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday, toppling buildings and triggering a frantic search for survivors in the rubble in cities and towns across the area. At least 234 were killed and hundreds injured, and the toll was expected to rise.

On both sides of the border, residents jolted out of sleep by the pre-dawn quake rushed outside on a cold, rainy and snowy winter night, as buildings were flattened and strong aftershocks continued.

Rescue workers and residents frantically searched for survivors under the rubble of their homes in multiple cities, working through tangles of metal and chunks of concrete.

In the Turkish city of Adana, one resident said three buildings near his home collapsed. "I don't have the strength anymore," one survivor could be heard calling out from beneath the rubble, as rescue workers tried to reach him, said the resident, journalism student Muhammet Fatih Yavus. Further east in Diyarbakir, cranes and rescue teams rushed people on stretchers out of a mountain of pancaked concrete floors that was once an apartment building.

On the Syrian side of the border, the quake smashed opposition-held regions that are packed with some 4 million people displaced from other parts of Syria by the country's long civil war. Many of them live in decrepit conditions with little health care, with Russian-backed Syrian forces surrounding the area and sometimes carrying out airstrikes. Rescue workers said hospitals in the area were packed.

"We fear that the deaths are in the hundreds," Muheeb Qaddour, a doctor, said by phone from the town of Atmeh, referring to the entire rebel-held area. Raed Salah, the head of the White Helmets, the emergency organization in opposition areas, said whole neighborhoods were collapsed in some areas.

The quake, felt as far away as Cairo, was centered about 90 kilometers (60 miles) from the Syrian border, just north of the city of Gaziantep, a major Turkish provincial capital of more than 2 million people. The region has been shaped by more than a decade of war in Syria. Millions of Syrian refugees live in Turkey. The swath of Syria affected by the quake is divided between government-held and opposition-held areas.

At least 20 aftershocks followed, some hours later during daylight, the strongest measuring 6.6, Turkish authorities said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter that "search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched" to the areas hit by the quake.

"We hope that we will get through this disaster together as soon as possible and with the least damage," he wrote.

Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management agency said at least 76 people in seven Turkish provinces. The agency said 440 people were injured. The death toll in government-held areas of Syria climbed to 111 with at least 516 injured, according to Syrian state media. Earlier, 47 people were reported killed in rebel-held areas.

Buildings were reported collapsed in a swath from Syria's cities of Aleppo and Hama to Turkey's Diyarbakir, more than 200 miles to the northeast.

In Turkey, people trying to leave the quake-stricken regions caused traffic jams, hampering efforts of emergency teams trying to reach the affected areas. Authorities urged residents not to take to the roads. Mosques around the region were being opened up as a shelter for people unable to return to damaged homes amid temperatures that hovered around freezing.

In Diyarbakir, rescue teams called for silence as they tried to listen for survivors under the wreckage of an 11-story building. Rescue workers pulled out one man, carrying him on a stretcher through a dense crowd of hundreds of people anxiously watching the rescue efforts. A gray-haired woman wailed before being escorted away by a man, while a rescue worker wearing a white helmet tried to calm a crying girl, who was also being cuddled by two friends.

In northwest Syria, the opposition's Syrian Civil Defense described the situation in the rebel-held region as "disastrous" adding that entire buildings have collapsed and people are trapped under the rubble. The civil defense urged people to evacuate buildings to gather in open areas. Emergency rooms were full of injured, said Amjad Rass, president of the Syrian American Medical Society.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 33 kilometers (20 miles) from Gaziantep. It was centered 11 miles deep.

In Damascus, buildings shook and many people went down to the streets in fear.

The quake jolted residents in Lebanon from beds, shaking buildings for about 40 seconds. Many residents of Beirut left their homes and took to the streets or drove in their cars away from buildings.

The earthquake came as the Middle East is experiencing a snowstorm that is expected to continue until Thursday.

Turkey sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes.

Some 18,000 were killed in powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey in 1999.

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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

Related video above: How long can people survive in earthquake rubble?

The death toll from the catastrophic earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria rose to more than 15,000 as more bodies were pulled from the rubble of collapsed homes in the stricken zone, Turkey's disaster management agency said Thursday.

The agency said 12,391 people had been confirmed killed in Turkey after Monday's early morning earthquake and series of aftershocks, which brought down thousands of buildings in southeastern Turkey.

On the other side of the border in Syria, another 2,902 people have been reported to have been killed.

Rescue workers continued to pull living people from the damaged buildings but hope was starting to fade amid freezing temperatures more than three full days since the quake hit.

Video below: Aerials of collapsed buildings in northern Syria after earthquakes

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the especially hard-hit Hatay province on Wednesday, where residents have criticized the government's efforts, saying rescuers were slow to arrive.

Erdogan, who faces a tough battle for reelection in May, reacted to mounting frustration by acknowledging problems with the emergency response to Monday's 7.8-magnitude quake, but said the winter weather had been a factor. The earthquake also destroyed the runway at Hatay's airport, further disrupting the response.

"It is not possible to be prepared for such a disaster," Erdogan said. "We will not leave any of our citizens uncared for." He also hit back at critics, saying "dishonorable people" were spreading "lies and slander" about the government's actions.

Teams from more than two dozen countries have joined tens of thousands of local emergency personnel in the effort. But the scale of destruction from the quake and its powerful aftershocks was so immense and spread over such a wide area that many people were still awaiting help.

Experts said the survival window for those trapped under the rubble or otherwise unable to obtain basic necessities was closing rapidly. At the same time, they said it was too soon to abandon hope.

"The first 72 hours are considered to be critical," said Steven Godby, a natural hazards expert at Nottingham Trent University in England. "The survival ratio on average within 24 hours is 74%, after 72 hours it is 22% and by the fifth day it is 6%."

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Alsayed reported from Bab al-Hawa, Syria. Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Bilginsoy reported from Istanbul. Associated Press journalists David Rising in Bangkok and Robert Badendieck in Istanbul contributed.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday announced $100 million in disaster relief aid for Turkey and Syria as the countries grapple with the aftermath of a powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has killed at least 46,000 people.

The top U.S. diplomat, who took a helicopter tour Sunday of some of the hardest-hit areas alongside Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, later told reporters at Incirlik Air Base that it was "really hard to put into words" the devastation he saw during the tour but said, "We are here to stand with the people of Turkey and Syria."

The new round of funding includes $50 million under the Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Funds for emergency response efforts and an additional $50 million in humanitarian assistance through the State Department and USAID, according to the State Department.

The latest funding brings the total American assistance to $185 million. Private U.S. nongovernmental organizations have already contributed another $66 million to response efforts thus far, according to a fact sheet provided by the State Department.

"Immediately after the earthquake hit, the United States and other countries jumped in," Blinken said.

Efforts to retrieve survivors have been hampered by a cold winter spell across quake-stricken regions, while authorities grapple with the logistical challenges of transporting aid into northwestern Syria amid an acute humanitarian crisis compounded by years of political strife.

Blinken acknowledged that relief efforts in Syria were "very, very challenging" but vowed, "We'll do everything we can, including making sure, for example, there's absolutely no doubt that whatever sanctions against Syria do not affect the provision of humanitarian assistance."

"They never have, but we're going to make sure that we clear up any doubts about that so that anyone who's able to can make sure they're helping out in getting the aid to the folks who need it in Syria," he said.

Blinken also met Sunday with representatives of the Syria Civil Defense volunteer organization, known as the White Helmets, in southern Turkey and committed U.S. support to the group and other organizations "providing life-saving aid in response to this tragedy," he said in a tweet.

The White Helmets have been doing the heavy lifting in the search, rescue and recovery operations in the rebel-controlled areas in north and northwestern Syria.

The group tweeted Sunday that members briefed Blinken on the response to the earthquake and the current situation in northwestern Syria, along with "the humanitarian situation, ways to support affected civilians, and mechanisms for achieving early recovery."

Turkey's disaster management authority said Sunday it had ended most search and rescue operations nearly two weeks after the earthquake struck as experts say the chances of survival for people trapped in the rubble this far into the disaster are unlikely.

Some efforts remain in the provinces of Kahramanmaraş and Hatay. On Saturday, a couple and their 12-year-old child were rescued in Hatay, 296 hours after the earthquake, state news agency Anadolu reported.

Blinken told reporters at Incirlik Air Base that it was "going to take a massive effort to rebuild, but we're committed to supporting Turkey in that effort."

"The most important thing right now is to get assistance to people who need it to get them through the winter and get them back on their feet," he added.

There's nothing worse than a dry, tasteless turkey. That's why some people swear by flipping their turkey upside down. It's actually quite a simple idea: For a juicier bird, roast your turkey breast-side down for the first 30 to 45 minutes of cooking and then flip it back over.

While this hack does seem like it makes for a flavor-packed roast, the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen says that it's too good to be true. In fact, it's not even the best way to make a turkey. Here's why:

1. Flipping a piping hot turkey is tricky (to say the least).

"It's pretty unwieldy to turn the bird in the middle of roasting it," says Good Housekeeping's culinary director Susan Westmoreland. "And we found that our easy tenting method works just as well for keeping the meat moist."

For the first hour of roasting or up to two hours for larger birds, prop an aluminum foil tent over the turkey. After you remove the tent, the skin will still have enough time to get brown and crisp. It's a much easier move than precariously flipping your 20-pounder in the roasting rack — the folks at the Good Housekeeping Institute says they learned the hard way.

2. Brining is the real winning idea.

It's the most foolproof-method for making sure your turkey won't dry out as you roast it. When it comes to brining, you have two options: Rub the bird all over with kosher salt a couple of days ahead or add it to a salt-concentrated liquid brine.

3. It could take away from your turkey's unveiling.

The members of the Good Housekeeping Institute found the roasting rack can leave unsightly marks on the turkey's breast if you cook it upside down. Or worse, you might tear the skin when you flip it. If you live for that once-a-year, glamour-shot carving moment, stick to roasting right-side up.

ISTANBUL —

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that he had ordered 10 foreign ambassadors who called for the release of a jailed philanthropist to be declared persona non grata.

The envoys, including the U.S., French and German representatives in Ankara, issued a statement earlier this week calling for a resolution to the case of Osman Kavala, a businessman and philanthropist held in prison since 2017 despite not having been convicted of a crime.

Describing the statement as an "impudence," Erdogan said he had ordered the ambassadors be declared undesirable.

"I gave the instruction to our foreign minister and said 'You will immediately handle the persona non grata declaration of these 10 ambassadors,'" Erdogan said during a rally in the western city of Eskisehir.

He added: "They will recognize, understand and know Turkey. The day they don't know or understand Turkey, they will leave."

The diplomats, who also include the ambassadors of the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and New Zealand, were summoned to the foreign ministry on Tuesday.

A declaration of persona non grata against a diplomat usually means that individual is banned from remaining in their host country.

Kavala, 64, was acquitted last year of charges linked to nationwide anti-government protests in 2013, but the ruling was overturned and joined to charges relating to a 2016 coup attempt.

International observers and human rights groups have repeatedly called for the release of Kavala and Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas, who has been jailed since 2016. They say their imprisonment is based on political considerations. Ankara denies the claims and insists on the independence of Turkish courts.

The European Court of Human Rights called for Kavala's release in 2019, saying his incarceration acted to silence him and wasn't supported by evidence of an offense. The Council of Europe says it will start infringement proceedings against Turkey at the end of November if Kavala is not released.

The current U.S. ambassador, David Satterfield, was appointed in 2019. The nomination of his replacement, Jeff Flake, was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.

Video above: Mystery metal monoliths pop up around the world

A metal monolith that mysteriously appeared and disappeared on a field in southeast Turkey turned out to be a publicity gimmick before a government event Tuesday during which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a space program for the country.

The about 10-foot-high metal slab bearing an ancient Turkic script, was found Friday by a farmer in Sanliurfa province. It was discovered near the UNESCO World Heritage site of Gobekli Tepe, which is home to megalithic structures dating to the 10th millennium B.C., thousands of years before Stonehenge.

However, the shiny structure that bore the inscription "Look at the sky, you will see the moon" in the ancient Turkic Gokturk alphabet, was reported gone Tuesday morning, adding to the mystery.

An image of the monolith was later projected on a screen as Erdogan presented Turkey's space program during a televised event.

"I now present to you Turkey's 10-year vision, strategy and aims and I say: 'look at the sky, you will see the moon,'" Erdogan said.

Earlier, the state-run Anadolu Agency quoted the field's owner as saying he was baffled by both its appearance and disappearance.

"We don't know if it was placed on my field for marketing purposes or as an advertisement," Anadolu quoted Fuat Demirdil as saying. "We saw that the metal block was no longer at its place. Residents cannot solve the mystery of the metal block either."

The agency also quoted local resident Hasan Yildiz as saying the block was still at the field Monday evening, but had disappeared by the morning.

Other mysterious monoliths have similarly appeared and some have disappeared in numerous countries in recent months.

Gobekli Tepe was the setting of the Turkish Netflix mystery series, "The Gift."

Cicadas and wild turkeys — not your average ecological match-up per se, but you might be surprised to learn that cicadas could help the struggling turkey population in Kentucky.Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Turkey Biologist Zak Danks said Kentucky's last major cicada brood in 2008 led to a record-setting year for turkey reproduction. (Note — this was a different cicada brood than the one re-emerging now.) That year, Danks said wild turkey reproduction saw a 95% jump, which led to a record harvest of 36,000 turkeys two years later. The previous record was 30,000 turkeys. "Cicadas are a great source of protein for turkeys and their predators," Danks explained. "When the turkeys eat the cicadas, they don’t have to move and search for food, so they're not exposed to the predators either — plus the predators eat the cicadas, too, so it's really a triple-win for turkeys."Danks said in recent years, hunters have noticed a decline in the turkey population, and says bad weather and a wide variety of predators are both to blame."We think turkeys really struggle to reproduce. They're important culturally, ecologically, and to hunters," which Danks said is vital to the survival of Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. "We hope that they have a chance to pursue them because hunters pay for conservation in this state. The department gets zero general fund tax dollars. We're funded through fish and hunting licenses and federal matching grants."Danks expects Kentucky to see pockets of cicadas pop up this year, but says the next big boom in the Commonwealth will be 2025. "When Brood XIV (14) emerges, that's when we expect the eastern two-thirds of Kentucky will see a boom in turkey colts and hopefully we can see that reflected in 2027," he said.