Bosphorus

Ziraat Bank, the largest state bank in Turkey, is not under any political pressure, contrary to reports, General Manager Hüseyin Aydın has told daily Hürriyet.

Aydın said Ziraat did not provide credit upon the government's request, denying such claims in the media.

“I don’t run in the Istanbul marathon. It really isn't an athlete-friendly event. Just trying to reach the starting point is a hassle, while trying to get to your house after the finish is another hassle,” a friend told me.

The Istanbul Marathon, unique for spanning the Asian and European continents, will be run for the 36th time in Istanbul on Nov. 16.

The discovery of a child’s body in Istanbul’s Bosporus Strait on Nov. 11 has brought the death toll from a tragic boat accident earlier this month to 27.

The Turkish Coast Guard said the body of a five-year-old girl had been recovered. Some reports indicated that the initial discovery may have been made by fishermen.

With a history spanning thousands of years, Istanbul still has some of its "haunted" buildings, despite the ongoing construction boom that has transformed many neighborhoods. Here are five of the most notorious:
Bakırpaşa Mansion

A comparison of 20 satellite photos hosted by Google Earth reveals how Istanbul has changed with more concrete and less green spaces in the past decade.

Police have detained two suspects in an investigation launched into the sinking of a migrant boat off the northern coast of Istanbul as a search continues for 13 people who were on the vessel, including the Turkish captain.

The detentions conducted late on Nov. 4 were the first since the previous day’s accident, which killed at least 24.

A boat carrying Afghan refugees that sank off the northern coast of Istanbul on Nov. 3, killing at least 24 people, appears to have traversed the entire Bosphorus without being spotted, daily Hürriyet has learned. Search efforts are continuing for the 13 migrants still missing.

Turkey is to revive plans to privatize two bridges across the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, along with a number of motorways, and aims to start the process by the first quarter of 2015, banking and government sources said on Nov. 3.

An amateur rower has arrived in Istanbul after completing an epic three month journey along the Black Sea coast, which he undertook to draw attention to the danger of nuclear plants in a region hit by a manic spree of ecology-damaging energy investments.