Sarıyer

With Turkey gradually reopening and returning to normal after days of strict restrictions, hundreds of thousands of couples are hurrying to get married this year out of fear that the government might reclose facilities, increasing the number of weddings planned to be held across the country from 500,000 to 750,000.

In a bid to help children undergoing medical treatments continue their education, a total of 13 volunteer teachers have been imparting in-person education at various hospitals in Istanbul every day amid the ongoing pandemic, an era where people are even scared to go out.

Dubbed as the "Plant Library of Turkey," the Forestry Faculty of Istanbul University, located in Istanbul's Sarıyer district, hosts some 37,000 plant species found in the country's rich flora.

"There are plant samples here in the 'plant library' that have been collected since the 1950s," Ünal Akkemik, an academic from the university, told Demirören News Agency on April 20.

Turkish-American cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Mehmet Öz, famous for his "The Dr. Oz Show" broadcast in the United States, has filed a criminal complaint against his sister, Nazlım Suna Öz, in Istanbul, accusing her of forging a will of their father, Mustafa Öz, who died in February 2019.

The seabed of the Bosphorus is full of sinkers that have fallen off from fishing rods, causing massive risk to human lives and the ecosystem, a marine biologist has warned.

"Those sinkers are made of lead that can dissolve in time in salty waters," Gülşen Altuğ from Istanbul University told Demirören News Agency on March 16.

Fishermen using cast nets in the depths of the Bosphorus Strait and close to its shores on big fishing boats are threatening marine wildlife, experts have warned.

The Agriculture and Forestry Ministry permits industrial fishing at 24 meters of depth offshore and in seas, but fishermen have been throwing nets from their large fishing boats close to the banks of the Bosphorus Strait.

An Istanbul court has indicted a Turkish social media influencer, Meriç İzgi, for smuggling wild animals into Turkey.

Three macaque monkeys have been seized from the YouTuber to date after İzgi got accused of separating them from their mothers and driving them to death.

An Iranian model has been detained by Turkish police in Istanbul after she was detected to be keeping a lion cub and a python snake at home.

Body of another fisher was found on Jan. 14 days after three crew members of a Turkish fishing boat went missing in a collision in Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait.

"Body of I.D., one of the missing fishers, has been recovered [from the sea]," the Office of Istanbul Governor said in a statement.

His body was recovered from some 77-meter (252 feet) depth.

A high school student was rushed to hospital after an accident at a go-cart track in Istanbul's Sarıyer district on April 8.